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Post by mikecubs on Sept 17, 2014 0:48:48 GMT -6
The Atlanta Braves broke ground on a new stadium in Cobb county. The stadium will seat 41,500 compare to 49,586 at the current park. It will also have less luxury boxes 40-45 compare to 53 and 5 party suites at the current park. The park they are leaving was built for the Olympics in 1996 and converted into a baseball stadium for the 1997 season. The Braves didn't like it because it was in the slums and the city wouldn't pay for renovations for the park. Atlanta is the rare place where a suburban park might work better since most of their fans live in the north suburbs. Turner Field will be sold to one of the local colleges for 250M and converted into a 30,000 seat football stadium. With the money from the sale the city is planning to give 150M of it for a 30 year lease extension with the Atlanta Hawks(NBA) new owners. Here are pics of the Braves new stadium ballparkdigest.com/201409167715/major-league-baseball/news/new-for-2017-suntrust-park |
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Post by mikecubs on Dec 11, 2014 1:02:55 GMT -6
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Post by Bruinsfan on Dec 11, 2014 20:10:35 GMT -6
this story pisses me off, that stadium they were in was fine.
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Post by Bruinsfan on Dec 11, 2014 20:11:24 GMT -6
However, the fact that the city gets to put one of the colleges in it makes it better
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Post by mikecubs on Dec 12, 2014 11:30:14 GMT -6
The stadium they were in was built for the Olympics and the Braves were dragged to go along with it. It was their only choice at the time but the Braves were always leery of it. That's why it was only a 20 year lease they signed instead of the normal 30. Lot's of value engineering and things were already falling apart on it. Turner was so dull to top it off I really think the Rogers Centre even has more character. Other than Tampa/Oakland Turner is the only park I can think of that doesn't have a distinguishing feature.
Biggest reasons for the move though is the neighborhood and lack of development opportunities. Turner was in a violent slum. The city promised the area would become better and it never did. I saw a story where one of the near by businesses(I think it was a laundry mat) had bars on the windows. This wasn't your typical retro park located downtown around businesses etc..
You are correct though. This had better be a 1 off. I see no need to replace any of the other new parks except maybe US Cellular Field in another 15 years when the lease runs out.
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