So by now, a lot of you must have heard of the relocationof the Braves from Atlanta to the neighboring Cobb County.
The Atlanta Braves plan to build a new stadium in Cobb County and move there from Turner Field at the start of the 2017 season, team officials said Monday.
Braves executives John Schuerholz, Mike Plant and Derek Schiller, in a meeting with a small group of reporters, said the new ballpark will be built at the northwest intersection of I-75 and I-285 in the Galleria/Cumberland Mall area. They said the team has “secured” approximately 60 acres of land for the project.
The Braves said the stadium is projected to cost $672 million, including parking, land and infrastructure, and will be built in partnership with Cobb County.
Schiller said the Braves will be a “significant investor” in building the stadium but refused to disclose how much the team will spend. “At this point in time, we are working with Cobb County, and when those details of our exact arrangement become final, we will let you know,” Schiller said.
The Braves officials also declined to provide specifics regarding the public funding. “It is through Cobb County, and Cobb County will be responsible for delineating the various buckets of dollars,” Schiller said.
I was hoping someone would start a diary on this because I don't have the time to put out a well researched diary. But here goes some of my thoughts.
Since it remains in the same region, you will not hear protests from team fans as much as the loyalties are not broken. BUt there is a lot of anger from people in region about taxpayer waste. Turner Field was carved out of a brand new Olympic Stadium which was built only for the Olympics and nothing else. They did a good job converting into a fine baseball stadium which still looks good.
I usually sympathize with the sentiment that we should not give government a free check to do anything, especially sports. I am huge sports nut, but I hate the way politicians OF BOTH parties have given away taxpayer funds in many cities to build new stadiums. Turner Field was built at a time when luxury box seats were already prevalent/
But as much as I find legitimacy in the notion that one needs to develop a healthy skepticism over government expenditures, the reason why I am not a republican is it has become such a racist party. Just read the articles on AJC.com about this and half the comments are flat out racist. Instead of breaking down why redevelopment near Turner field was such a failure in non race based terms, they go on and on insulting African Americans. It's lke they express outrage over government expenditure only because of who is in government. When Kasim Reed was lobbying for funds for the Falcons new stadium , there was a big protest from all classes of people and justifiably so. However, the initial reaction we get from the suburban republicans about the Braves stadium issue is not outrage over their government luring the team with LOTS of public money, but giddiness at a chance to insult fellow americans who happen to be black.
The democratic government of the city of atlanta and fulton county has to bear some responsibility for the hilarious waste of money they have tried in redeveloping some areas. Even now, Reed is making promises he can't keep by talking about how they have proposals to redevelop the Turner Field area. They couldn't when the Braves were in place. What are they going to do now? The city of Atlana has wasted money trying to redevelop Underground,. THey have done a horrible job arranging public transportation for Braves games.
A lot of the comments are not only insulting African americans in that area around Turner Field, but also paranoid claims about feeling so scared of the crime in that area. I have walked in that area for a couple of games and while some of the areas are a testament to individual and government failure, it is nowhere as dangerous as they say it is. I think when someone automatically sees a black poor man, they automatically assume he is up to no good. Racist fuckers.
Cobb County is full of tea party types. They whine like hell when it is government funding for a program like education or food stamps to the needy. It will be interesting how they plan on getting the money for the new Braves stadium. And how they can reconcile that funding with their opposition to government spending on worthier causes.
I also would like to know which person in the 90s signed off on such a 20 year agreement . The government should have at least demanded an option that the team could only break with some pentalties.
Let's see how republicans in the state will react when they hear the inevitable request for adding lanes to relieve congestion in the busy intersection of I-285 and 75 to meet the increased traffic on Braves game days . Will they be careful with state funds in sucha case? I don't think so. Because it is not food stamps or education related funding atr which point these types have no fiscal responsibility.