An overwhelming percentage of Metro Atlantans oppose using a hotel-motel tax to finance a new football stadium for the Falcons. 

The team's negotiating with the Georgia World Congress Center Authority for a new retractable roof stadium downtown to replace the Georgia Dome. 

67 percent of metro Atlantans in an AJC Poll don't want 300 million dollars in hotel-motel tax money spent on a stadium.  23 percent are okay with it; 10 percent are unsure. 

“I don’t think public money should be used for that,” Lenard McLin who was one of the 625 people polled, told the AJC.  “The Falcons are privately owned, so they should pay for it themselves. I live right downtown, so it’s not like I’m going to book a hotel room. If other visitors are here and they are paying for it, fine. But as a resident of Atlanta no, I don’t think we need it.”

Another person polled, Edward Lavender Jr., was shocked at the idea of $300 million in public funds going toward a stadium.  “Nothing’s cheap these days, is it?” he told the AJC.  But he said he would support the tax if it kept the Falcons from moving.

Susan Hamilton of Lawrenceville told the AJC tax wouldn’t affect her “because I don’t stay in downtown hotels,” but she questioned the timing of the issue.

“It hasn’t been that long since they got a new stadium,” she said. “They probably could get by without it a while longer. This is not the economy to be taxing anybody extra.”

The Falcons want a new stadium as early as 2017.