re: Confirmed: Braves Leaving Turner Field After 2016 Season

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Attendance was 13th out of 30 teams. Not exactly sinking.

I don't think it is a great place by any means, but I don't think it is a stadium issue. Fulton County Stadium was a crap hole for baseball. And the attendance was terrible when the team was terrible. It was rocking when the team was great.

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This move is about $$$ plain and simple. The Braves will make more money at Cobb than they will Turner. The longer we stay at Turner, the longer we cannot compete from a payroll standpoint. Our tv deal isn't changing anytime soon.

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Cobb is a big place. It is the location in Cobb that I have the most difficulty with.

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I could list multiple places that I think make more sense but ultimately I think Cobb is better than Turner and those are the two options presented as of now.

I'm really surprised that a part of the city that never really supported the team is making such a big stink about this. The stats show it. The plot of red, and less than 6% MARTA ridership.

Realistically, there's traffic everywhere. Ideally, it would be more centrally located than Cobb. But if the money and cheap land is there, then that's where they will go.

And the traffic is overstated. I'd say on average at game time it's taking less than 45 minutes to get from any of those non-Cobb markets to the game.

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The longer we stay at Turner, the longer we cannot compete from a payroll standpoint.

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I think this is a false premise. The Phillies dropped from 1st to 8th in attendance from 2012 t 2013 (go figure-the team was worse).

And it was only a 7000 per game dip.

So if the Braves up attendance by that much, it only adds about $22.5mm per year.
And if the team is not significantly better, they are not going to average 40K per game just because they are in a new stadium.

And this assumes they will even increase payroll.

I just don't buy any of this.

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but I think it's total bullsh*t for a bunch of millionaires/billionaires to put a ton of the cost on a community's residents.

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Exactly... and Braves ownership and Cobb County officials on the take want everyone to believe that hotel/motel taxes are painless to county residents, too... which is a load of crap. Higher taxes mean fewer visitors.

It's mind boggling that anybody would think Cobb, which has grown astronomically over the past two or three decades would need some sort of sports team improvement for economic health. How much growth is enough already?

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Doraville has to have something wrong with it that the public isn't seeing. It makes too much sense and for two new stadiums to pass, hell 3 if you include the Gwinnett Braves, there is something we just aren't being told.

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I thought Doraville came out a few years ago, and basically told the Falcons to kick rocks in regards to building on the GM site. I think the residents want something like Atlantic Station to be built there instead.

Is this thread still full of mad ITPers who never supported the team and people from other states who have no idea how Atlanta works?

ESPN MLB - Atlanta to demolish Turner Field after Braves leave for new stadium in suburbs

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It will be a nightmare for anyone coming down 285. Everyone else will be no worse than getting to Turner Field, assuming no traffic improvements.

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I drive that stretch not every day, but once every three weeks or so. It's relatively slow moving, but 25% of the congestion is the 75 merge. If they can do minor construction to provide separation between the merge and cobb center exits, it would skip forcing you to sit in the merger line.

It takes me an hour to get from Norcross to up 75 near Marietta, so I'd guess it would take me 30 to 40 minutes to get to the new site. Getting in to stadiums has never been a major issue, it's usually getting out that's a mess. So I don't think there's much time added there.

We'll see what they do, but the traffic is overstated, especially compared to the walk through Underground Atlanta and bus ride or driving through downtown. Just a lot of noise from people who went to maybe a couple of games in the first place.

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I think it's pretty agreed upon that Doraville is the perfect site, but for some reason the residents just don't want a pro team anywhere near there.

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sounds like they are smart enough to know that publicly financed pro stadiums are a massive scam that drain funds better used elsewhere.