Atlanta

Neighborhoods around new stadium hope for big Super Bowl boost

ATLANTA — In the shadow of the new Mercedes-Benz Stadium sits the Vine City and English Avenue neighborhoods.

Channel 2’s Berndt Petersen talked with neighbors there Tuesday who had mixed feelings about the city hosting Super Bowl LIII in 2019.

Many of the homes in that area are boarded up and neglected. %

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"I don't think they deserve a stadium. But if they're giving them one, we might as well generate money from it," Teleshia Victrum told Petersen.

Victrum said she believes when a Super Bowl is played in the new stadium, some of the people living nearby there might get a second chance.

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"I'm embarrassed as a city of Atlanta citizen when I drive from the east side to the west side and see what the conditions are like in these neighborhoods," said Stacy Funderburke, who has worked to change the neighborhood.

Funderburke was involved in the efforts to fund and build the new Lindsey Street Park. He told Petersen that $15 million has already been committed to transform the neighborhoods around there, much of it from the Blank Foundation and Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank.

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John Gordon with Friends of English Avenue has worked for years to improve English Avenue. He said a Super Bowl presents Atlanta with an opportunity other major cities have fumbled.

"If you look at every major city that has a large stadium, the neighborhoods around the stadium generally do worse," Gordon said.

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But Gordon said if the “biggest game on the planet” is to be played in Atlanta, it would give the biggest financial jolt to the effort already underway.

"I mean, if we're 'in it' -- that would be even more exciting. If we can get in it. Even if we're not in it, it brings money into our city. It might help," Victrum said.