Georgia Dome
Seats 71,228 for football events. Seats 80,000 total. Seats 28,155 for Georgia State football games (Lower Bowl).
Surface: Field Turf
The Georgia Dome opened September 6, 1992, and is currently the home of the Georgia State Panthers, the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta’s upcoming Major League Soccer team. The Dome hosted two Super Bowls, one in 1994 and one in 2000.
Pros: Playing in a professional stadium can be used as a great recruiting tool. Not many college football teams can boast that they play in a professional team’s stadium, and it allows for the Panthers to give fans a unique gameday experience.
Cons: The downside of playing in the Georgia Dome is that it a popular place for events to be held such as NFL games, other special college football games and concerts, thus creating scheduling conflicts. The Panther’s season opener had to be moved up a day as there are more college football games scheduled to be held the same weekend in addition to an Atlanta Falcons’ preseason game.
Georgia State Sports Arena
Seats 3,455 for basketball and volleyball.
The Sports Arena is the home for the Panther’s men and women’s basketball teams, as well as the volleyball team. It was used for the badminton competitions in the 1996 Olympics. It also hosted ESPN’s college slam dunk and 3-point championships in 2002 and 2007.
Pros: There is a major upside to having an on-campus arena. The Sports Arena is accessible to Georgia State students as it is located in the heart of campus. This gives the Panthers a true home court advantage as more students can get out to support the teams.
Cons: Limited parking is the major down-side to the Sports Arena. G Deck is only central deck for events at the Sports Arena. Fortunately, there are other parking options nearby.
Panthersville Home of Georgia State’s baseball team. Built in 1968. Located in Decatur, Georgia. Panthersville is also home to the men and women’s soccer team and softball team. GSU Baseball Complex Seats 1,092 Robert E. Heck Softball Complex
Seats 500 GSU Soccer Complex Seats 1,892
Pros: Panthersville provides Georgia State sports fans with a one stop shop feeling, as it is home to the soccer, softball and baseball teams.
Cons: Panthersville’s downside comes down to one thing: location. Panthersville is located in Decatur, Georgia, which is nine miles away from the Georgia State campus. Fans with limited means of transportation have difficulties reaching Panthersville to show their support. Georgia State has been trying to move Athletics out of Panthersville for years to a location closer to campus.
Recently, Georgia State has shown serious interest in Turner Field and created a proposal to develop the land into a mix-used development that would include a new football and baseball stadium.
*Follow @GSUSignalSports on Twitter and Like GSU Signal Sports on Facebook for the latest
