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Shocker: Atlanta Braves Leaving Turner Field

Nov 12, 2013  •  Post A Comment

The Atlanta Braves professional baseball team is leaving Turner Field.

"Not much shocks me," writes columnist Mark Bradley, who has worked at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper for more than 25 years. "This did. The Atlanta Braves, who have played downtown since moving here from Milwaukee in 1966, are leaving Atlanta for Cobb County.

"Braves officials said today they will build a new stadium near the intersection of I-75 and I-285 — the place so congested we Cobb Countians know to avoid if at all possible — that will be ready for play in 2017. (The Braves’ lease at Turner Field expires in 2016.)"

The new location is 10 miles from the current Turner Field. Turner Field will only be 21 years old when the Braves abandon it in 2017. Turner Field opened in 1996, as the major track and field stadium for the 1996 Summer Olympics. The Braves moved in the next year. Turner Field cost $209 million to build and seats 49,000. The new stadiurm will seat 7,000 fewer people (42,000) and cost $400 million-plus more to build ($672 million), according to ESPN.

turner field-atlanta.jpgTurner Field in Atlanta

3 Comments

  1. Let me guess, the taxpayer will be picking up the tab for this? When will we STOP subsidizing billionares to play?

  2. You are correct sir!

  3. Before I start lobbing grenades, I want to go on record as saying our two major sports stadiums here in Kansas City, Kauffman Stadium (home of the Royals) and Arrowhead Stadium (home of the currently undefeated Chiefs) are two of the best stadiums in their respective leagues. Both were opened in the early 70’s and are still considered two of the best designed stadiums ever. Having said that, both teams have whined their way through city councoil meetings for years, trying to get public money for this renovation or that new Jumbotron. Both stadiums recently went through a major refurb recently that the locals will be paying for well into the next decade.
    On the other side of the state line in Kansas, adjacent to the Kansas Speedway that hosts two major NASCAR races per year, the Kansas City T-Bones, an Atlantic League baseball team, play n a beautiful stadium financed by the team owners. Not far away is one of the best stadiums in the Major Soccer League, Sporting Park, home of Sporting Kansas City (formerly known as the KC Wizards). It, too, was built with private money. Both stadiums are consistently packed with enthusiastic fans who come to cheer on a couple of teams with the best win / loss records of any professional sports teams in the city. Sporting plays in the final playoff game for a spot in the Championship at their home park in a week or so. If they win that game, Sporting not only gets to play for the Cup, they get to host the Championship game in their own stadium.
    It’s sports business done the right way for the 21st century vs.the way the business has been run for 100 years. For the most part, fans seem to prefer the new business model.

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