(CNN)The NFC Championship Game in between the Green Bay Packers and Atlanta Falcons is Sunday at 3:05 p.m. ET, and the sound level from football fans at the Georgia Dome likely will be at an all-time high.
It likewise will be the last time for Falcons fans to make that sound in the arena.
After 25 years, the Falcons will bid farewell to the Georgia Dome, and the structure’s last NFL video game is a huge one. The winner advances to Super Bowl LI in Houston.
“We could not have actually been more thrilled to have formally the last video game at the Dome,” Falcons head coach Dan Quinn stated previously today. “Man, are we pumped to be a part of that.”
The Georgia Dome, which is the just center worldwide to host the Olympics, Super Bowl and Final Four , will be changed by the brand-new Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which is under building and construction next door.
The Georgia Dome’s last occasion– Monster Jam — is set up for March 5. Later on this year, the structure will be destroyed. In its location, present strategies are for a surface area car park and green area.
What will stay is an area packed filled with memories.
Major occasions and a natural catastrophe
The Georgia Dome opened in 1992, and it’s been the website of a number of minutes in sports history.
It’s been the house of the Falcons, Georgia State University football, the yearly Peach Bowl and the Southeastern Conference Football Championship. It likewise briefly was the house court for the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks in the late 1990s while close-by Philips Arena was being constructed.
The arena housed 2 Super Bowls. In 1994, the Buffalo Bills was up to the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl XXVIII , losing their 4th successive title video game. Super Bowl XXXIV in 2000 had a significant surface, where Tennessee Titans pass receiver Kevin Dyson was dealt with simply except the objective line , offering the St. Louis Rams the triumph.
One of the most renowned minutes in United States Olympic history happened at the Georgia Dome in 1996 when a hurt Kerri Strug, later on detected with torn ligaments in her ankle, courageously nailed her 2nd vault to assist the American females win gymnastics group gold for the very first time. The 1996 Dream Team won gold in guys’s basketball, while the American females’s basketball group won gold.
The Georgia Dome hosted 3 NCAA males’s Final Fours, with Maryland (2002), Florida (2007) and Louisville (2013) winning those championship games. It likewise was the host for the 2003 NCAA females’s Final Four, with Connecticut winning the title.
There likewise are individual memories for CNN’s Coy Wire , who played 3 years for the Falcons. Wire’s last video game of his NFL profession was at the Georgia Dome on January 15, 2011, when Atlanta lost to the Packers in the divisional round. Numerous of his previous colleagues still bet the Falcons, and he states they understand a win implies more than a Super Bowl berth.
“They’re likewise cognizant of the reality this is the last video game to be played in the Georgia Dome, which’s essential to them too,” Wire stated. “They understand exactly what a win there under these situations would indicate, not simply to the company, however to this city. They’re aware of that, and it’s definitely contributing to the inspiration that they currently have for this minute.”
Final Falcons chapter
The Georgia Dome wasn’t the initial house for the Falcons– the group played at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium from 1966-1991– however it has actually seen the most success.
Atlanta had 10 gaining seasons and reached the playoffs 9 times at the Georgia Dome. At Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, which was destroyed in 1997 and is now a car park, the Falcons reached the playoffs simply 4 times and had 6 gaining seasons.
The Georgia Dome’s NFL playoff history began on January 9, 1999, when the Falcons beat the San Francisco 49ers 20-18 in the divisional playoff round. Atlanta would go on to advance to its only Super Bowl, losing to the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXXIII.
Atlanta hosted the NFC Championship Game in 2013. The house group missed out on out on reaching Super Bowl XLVII , with the Falcons losing to the 49ers, 28-24.
Last week, the Falcons, seeded No. 2 in the NFC, beat the Seattle Seahawks 36-20 in the divisional round. When the top-seeded Dallas Cowboys were disturbed by the Packers a day later on, that moved the roadway to Super Bowl LI to go through Atlanta.
At the location that’s been their house for the last quarter century, the Falcons might end their period in the Georgia Dome with a historical win.
“I believe any person who remained in that environment last Saturday night, that’s the loudest I’ve ever heard the Dome,” Quinn stated. “And I stated, ‘All right, that fired me approximately understand that we’re going to bring the very same energy they are.’ For us to hear that, that pumped me up beyond belief to state that’s as loud as they heard it … If that’s as loud as it can get, there’s just one difficulty out there then.
“We hope that very same dedication is taking place (Sunday). Can we turn it up once again?”
Fans have that possibility one more time.
Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/20/sport/georgia-dome-final-game/index.html
