Braves ditching The Ted for suburbs

[LanceyHoward]

I think at least some of this is being driven by the Brave's school girl envy over the Falcon's getting a 20 year old stadium replaced. One possible problem. Where is the money going to come from? I don't think the Braves are going to want to pay for the whole thing. And I have problems seeing a Georgia Republican advocating casino gambling or some other sin tax given the influence of the religious right.

Cobb County Government is paying a big chunk, according to the stories.

But I don't think anything has been approved by the county elected officials. W here is the county going to come up with the money. Raise taxes? Which ones?

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Back in the 1970s, the citizens of the town of Arlington, Mass., which is between Cambridge and where I live in Lexington, kiboshed the planned Red Line subway extension from Harvard Square to Rt. 128, which is why the extension ends at nowhere in particular Alewife Station. The citizens who did so are now long since dead or moved to Florida. Their descendants and replacements think of lost capital gains from their houses and weep. When people don't want subways, there's only one reason. Subways allow easy travel by undesirable city folk to their own areas. It's no secret what kind of folk they mean.

 

[Captain_Kirk]

The whole obvious point of this relocation is to put white Braves' fans as far away from non-white Atlantans as is possible. Why do you think Cobb County rejects MARTA? Same thing. The next time somebody from MLB wrings their hands about the lack of African American players, think of the Braves and laugh at them.

Indeed, that's exactly why Cobb rejects MARTA. But putting that stadium where they intend to put it is a disaster waiting to happen. I cannot conceive of a circumstance under which anyone from Gwinnett will even want to try to get there. Might as well just go see the Gwinnett Braves.

Why would the proposed location be any worse for Gwinnett-ians than the current location?

Traffic is actually worse going I-285W from Gwinnett to Cobb than taking I-85S downtown. And you actually had a couple, different highway options to get from Gwinnett to the Ted, not to mention you could navigate through the side streets fairly easily if highway traffic was especially snarled.


With the new place, there's essentially one option only--I-285. And the 9 or so mile stretch from 400 to 75 is a snail's crawl on weekday nights today. Let's see what throwing another several thousand cars into that mix does.

 

[Point of Order]

The whole obvious point of this relocation is to put white Braves' fans as far away from non-white Atlantans as is possible. Why do you think Cobb County rejects MARTA? Same thing. The next time somebody from MLB wrings their hands about the lack of African American players, think of the Braves and laugh at them.

Indeed, that's exactly why Cobb rejects MARTA. But putting that stadium where they intend to put it is a disaster waiting to happen. I cannot conceive of a circumstance under which anyone from Gwinnett will even want to try to get there. Might as well just go see the Gwinnett Braves.

Why would the proposed location be any worse for Gwinnett-ians than the current location?

Traffic is actually worse going I-285W from Gwinnett to Cobb than taking I-85S downtown. And you actually had a couple, different highway options to get from Gwinnett to the Ted, not to mention you could navigate through the side streets fairly easily if highway traffic was especially snarled.


With the new place, there's essentially one option only--I-285. And the 9 or so mile stretch from 400 to 75 is a snail's crawl on weekday nights today. Let's see what throwing another several thousand cars into that mix does.

Yeah, I stayed in this area while I was working in Atlanta. Traffic was horrible. There was only one way you could go. It will be interesting to learn how all this went down.

 

[doctorquant]

When people don't want subways, there's only one reason.

When people engage in sweeping over-generalizations, there's only one reason ...

 

[Mark2010]

My thinking is they belong downtown where they've been for nearly 50 years. Turner Field is a great ballpark - I love the view of the skyline that wasn't there with Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. Someone on the AJC site suggested maybe the Marietta Braves now? Or could we could just call them the Georgia Braves? I know this is naive, but how many MLB teams are in the suburbs? The really great ones all seem to be in the city.

Yeah, seems like the thinking was with 81 home dates, if you build downtown it will help to revitalize the downtown night scene, with clubs, theaters, etc. That was the thinking in Denver, Houston, Seattle and probably other places, too.

In comparison, a football stadium gets maybe 10 home dates and most are on weekend afternoons.

If people are living 90 minutes away from downtown and planning to commute every single day, they've got bigger problems than where the baseball stadium is.

 

[Mark2010]

You build a big new ballpark and yes, you're going to have traffic. Unlike people in, say, New York or Boston, most of the rest of the country travels by automobile. So you need plenty of parking.

Bottom line, wherever you put the stadium is going to be a magnet for traffic, unless the team is so terrible it won't draw. But Atlanta does NOT need (1) more stadiums or (2) more people.

 

[doctorquant]

Traffic is actually worse going I-285W from Gwinnett to Cobb than taking I-85S downtown. And you actually had a couple, different highway options to get from Gwinnett to the Ted, not to mention you could navigate through the side streets fairly easily if highway traffic was especially snarled.


With the new place, there's essentially one option only--I-285. And the 9 or so mile stretch from 400 to 75 is a snail's crawl on weekday nights today. Let's see what throwing another several thousand cars into that mix does.

It's been a long, long time since I've done anything other than pass through Atlanta, so I'll take your word for it (that is, that route being worse than the route downtown).

 

[wicked]

When people don't want subways, there's only one reason.

When people engage in sweeping over-generalizations, there's only one reason ...

It's a fact that Cobb has on multiple occasions voted down MARTA service. Look it up.

Heaven forbid they allow some non-whites up that way.

 

[doctorquant]

When people don't want subways, there's only one reason.

When people engage in sweeping over-generalizations, there's only one reason ...

It's a fact that Cobb has on multiple occasions voted down MARTA service. Look it up.

And in what way does that fact speak to the assertion that racism leads people to not want subways?

 

[Mark2010]

Gee spelled it out pretty clearly and I suspect there's a valid point there. Not everyone, but a significant majority.

Therein lies the dilemma: you want a ballpark and the ritzy businesses and financial gains that come with it, but you don't want the inner-city riff-raff invading your neighborhood. The whole "white flight" trend is an interesting social and economic phenomenon.

 

[Mark2010]

Yeah, I can't think what's wrong with Turner Field to necessitate a move. It's a perfectly good ballpark. And what then becomes of that? Is Atlanta gonna knock down its Olympic stadium 20 years after the games?

Probably too late to fix it now, but it would have been better served to convert to a football stadium for the Falcons and whomever else. Would have been much better (potentially) than the Georgia Dome.