Multiple water main breaks Saturday in Atlanta resulted in chaos that seeped into all corners of societal function, yet impacted only slightly an Atlanta United FC Major League Soccer match the following day at Mercedes Benz Stadium thanks to careful planning.
As reported by Atlanta First News, the stadium managed to welcome fans Sunday despite the city being hit with a water outage just hours before the match against visiting Charlotte.
Dietmar Exler, the stadium’s chief operating officer, said a plan was already in place to deal with a lack of water.
“It’s an absolute necessity to be prepared,” Exler said. “We do four to five table tops a year where we bring all the agencies like police, fire, EMS, Georgia World Congress Center, Fulton County and we get in a room and for a couple of hours talk through a scenario.”
Officials said they had just completed a five-hour scenario with city and public health officials on how to respond to and handle a water outage inside the stadium.
Joe Coomer, vice president of stadium security, said stadium officials were in constant contact with the Atlanta mayor’s office and water department.
“We come to find out that our scenarios come true about 40 percent of the time,” Coomer said. “I’m confident in knowing that Mercedes Benz Stadium is the most prepared stadium in North America just because we’re open so much. We have so many events here.”
The stadium, which can hold nearly 80,000 for American football, hosts 3 million visitors in a typical year. It is preparing to host the College Football National Championship next year and the FIFA World Cup in 2026.
On Sunday, hand sanitizer was placed in restrooms and the stadium did not sell fountain drinks. Employees were required to boil water to wash their hands.
“It confirmed again how important communication is. If something happens let’s get the right people in the room immediately,” Exler said, as reported by Blake DeVine of Atlanta News First..
"In addition to Mercedes Benz Stadium, Atlanta News First checked with officials at neighboring State Farm Arena," DeVine wrote. "The arena also conducts emergency event scenarios throughout the year and that once they had water pressure, they were able to host the Megan Thee Stallion concert Sunday night and Monday night using bottled water and hand sanitizers."
