Braves ditching The Ted for suburbs

They'll be paying for it out of the pockets of teachers:

http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/get-schooled/2013/may/17/cobb-cuts-teachers-adds-furlough-days-imagine-fate/

The Tea Party will probably cheer: http://eastcobb.patch.com/groups/schools/p/cobb-school-board-nixes-math-books

 

Yeah but it was partially sold to the taxpayers on the basis it was going to make a fine home for the Braves when the Olympics were over.

That certainly wasn't the main selling point but it was certainly in the discussion, when people said, "hey what do we do with this $300 million stadium after the 3 weeks of the Olympics are over?"

 

It baffles me when either private or public officials claim "We're in a recession" as an excuse not to do certain things and then trip over themselves in a rush to spend money on non-essentials.

 

Starman with his usual iron-clad grip of the facts ... such as:

1) Turner Field was built by the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games

2) Almost all of the cost of Centennial Olympic Stadium cum Turner Field was borne by NBC and other Olympic sponsors

3) Cobb County ≠ Atlanta/Fulton County

So, to sum up ...

New York Times, 7/30/1996

 

While I don't disagree with the move, I would like to see Cobb County residents and employees storm the bastions with torches and pitchforks because of the money being used. When you are laying off teachers, then dropping hundreds of millions on a stadium, something is wrong.

 

What were the Braves other options if they hadn't converted Olympic Stadium? Stay at Fulton County Stadium? Build a private facility someplace? Get some other public entity to play the fool and build you something?

IIRC, the plans to convert the stadium were on the board well in advance, like around 1993 or 94, so the discussion never really came up. I thought it would have made more sense to convert that stadium for football and build a baseball-only park where the Georgia Dome is now. But since you've got them built, you need to milk them for all they're worth.

 

The new logo:

https://twitter.com/ktlanta/status/400027811286487040/photo/1

 

Here comes the Montreal Braves.

 

Good luck getting a new stadium in Montreal.

This also touches on a question almost as big as the whole public money for stadiums one. ... Have some of these cities gotten too big? I think of Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, Nashville, Tampa and I'm sure there are others that were quite negotiable 20 years ago, but now require an hour to get most places. I live in the suburbs of a southern metro area and I try not to be on the road between 4 and 7 pm weekdays if I can avoid it. I've been 'downtown' maybe four times in the last three months and always dread it.

There is no way in Hades I would be willing to commute an hour each way to work. I'd live under a bridge downtown or work at a suburban strip mall before I'd endure that hell. Yet I realize a lot of people do.

I realize that people tend to move where there are jobs, particularly corporate jobs. And those jobs tend to grow where there are more potential employees. So it's a vicious cycle and a real issue for city planners.

 

Haven't been to The Ted since 2007, so I'm a little fuzzy on the traffic situation. But I love the stadium. We went early in the day and took the tour. Got to go in the dugout and on the warning track behind home plate. Fantastic. I love how the outline of the field from Fulton County Stadium is preserved in the parking lot. I saw most of my Braves games as a boy there. Lots of memories of Murph and Horner.

But, other than one great little barbecue shack across the street, there's not much to do around the ball park.

As far as that one schematic I saw earlier in the thread, I would totally dig a Waffle House inside the park. Hells yeah.

 

Assuming the city/county doesn't just knock the thing down, scaling back the seating and creating a shared MLS/Georgia State stadium actually makes sense.

No idea if Atlanta is clamoring for an MLS team however.

 

An MLS franchise has been connected to Arthur Blank, so it would likely be a part of the new Falcons' stadium.