The Omni was closed and demolished in 1997.[5][6] Its successor, Philips Arena (now State Farm Arena), was constructed on the Omni's site and opened in 1999.[7]
Construction
Structure
The arena was considered an architectural marvel that combined innovative roof, seating, and structural designs. The logo is based on the unique seating arrangement.
The exterior cladding was composed of Cor-Ten weathering steel, which is covered in rust; the idea was that the steel would continue to rust to the point where the rusted exterior would form a protective seal, making a solid steel structure that would last for decades.
The Omni was noted for its distinctive space frameroof, often joked about as looking like an egg crate or a rusty waffle iron.[5][7] Designed by the firm of tvsdesign[8] with structural engineering work by the firm of Prybylowski and Gravino, the roof was technically described as an ortho-quad truss system.
Scoreboard
The only surviving component of the Omni is its scoreboard, which now hangs in the pavilion of the State Farm Arena. American Sign & Indicator (which became Trans-Lux) built the basketball-specific scoreboard in the early 1980s to replace the original hockey-specific scoreboard that Daktronics maintained during the 1990s. The arena also had four message boards in each end zone, two of which were animation boards.
The Omni did not last nearly as long as many other arenas built during the same time period, in part because a number of its innovations did not work as intended. Most seriously, its designers failed to reckon with Atlanta's humid subtropical climate, which specifically caused problems with the Cor-Ten exterior walls; the weathering steel never actually created the seal that had been envisioned and instead corroded to the point where holes large enough for a person to climb through began showing up along the perimeter of the building. In addition, the space frame roof of the building would often leak water as the designers did not anticipate the building settling into its foundation as quickly as it did.[5][7]
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, a growing number of NBA and NHL teams began to construct arenas with better amenities for their high-end customers to increase revenue. These amenities included luxury boxes, club seating, and massive club concourses. Some of these new arenas had as many as 200 luxury boxes. By comparison, the Omni had only 16 luxury boxes and no club level. It also became a disadvantage during Atlanta's explosive population growth.
Although the Omni hosted many events, it lost more than its share due to the smaller capacity and lack of amenities compared to newer buildings in other cities. By the start of the 1990s, an effort began to build a replacement. A new arena would have likely been needed in any event due to the Omni's structural problems. This also stemmed from Ted Turner's desire to own an NHL franchise; the Flames had been sold to Canadian businessmen and relocated to Calgary, Alberta a decade earlier. The NHL determined the Omni was not suitable even as a temporary facility, and would only grant Atlanta an expansion team if Turner guaranteed a brand-new arena would be in place by the time the new team took the ice.
Despite the arena's close proximity to the CNN Center, Georgia World Congress Center, and the Omni MARTA station, the Omni was imploded on July 26, 1997. Philips Arena (now State Farm Arena) was constructed in its place, and opened on September 18, 1999. The demolition of the Omni forced the Hawks to split their home games for the 1997–98 and 1998–99 seasons between the Alexander Memorial Coliseum at Georgia Tech (their first home in Atlanta), and the Georgia Dome.[5][9][6]
† – Centennial Olympic Stadium was rebuilt in 1997 as Turner Field. Turner Field was subsequently rebuilt in 2017 as Center Parc Stadium. See also:|Atlanta landmarks
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