Wilcox: Atlanta officials confident stadium will be ready for 'Bama game
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Associated Press
AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. -- Despite construction delays that have pushed back the opening of Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Florida State officials say they've been assured the new venue will be ready for the Seminoles' highly anticipated season opener against Alabama.
The stadium's completion date has been pushed back nearly a month to late August, but FSU athletics director Stan Wilcox said officials with the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game are here at the ACC spring meetings this week and are confident it will be ready on time for the Sept. 2 showdown.
"Everything is on schedule," Wilcox said during a break in the meetings Tuesday afternoon. "It's going to be a helluva game."
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There have been media reports from Atlanta that the old Georgia Dome was being maintained as a contingency site for the game, but Wilcox said the game organizers haven't even brought that up for consideration.
"We have not had any conversations about that because as of right now, everything is still on schedule," he said.
Late last week, FSU sent emails to boosters outlining how many tickets they would be eligible to buy for the game. And Wilcox said ticket demand has been extremely high for a game that will pit two of the nation's top-ranked teams.
"We'll probably have some [preseason polls] that will have us as No. 1 and some will have probably Alabama as No. 1," Wilcox said. "It will be a good way to start the college football season."
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