How Atlanta's Turner Field turned into Georgia State’s football stadium

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The dugouts have been removed. The natural-grass baseball field has been turned into an artificial-turf football field. A new grandstand has been constructed in what used to be right field.

Turner Field, the Braves’ home of the past 20 years, is now the Georgia State football team’s stadium.

Georgia State Stadium — the facility’s temporary moniker until a naming-rights agreement is done — will debut by hosting an open Panthers scrimmage Aug. 17, high school football games in the Corky Kell Classic on Aug. 18-19 and Georgia State’s season opener vs. Tennessee State on Aug. 31.

On Monday, the stadium was opened to the media for a preview.

Vestiges of The Ted couldn’t be missed — the original Hank Aaron statue still in its familiar location; the massive video board still in the same place as before, now the eighth largest video board in college football; the familiar blue seats still in use; baseball decor still on some walls.

But there have been major changes, too. The Chop House restaurant/bar and the 755 Club have been renamed the State House Grill and the University Club, respectively. What used to be home plate is now an end-zone corner. The first seven rows of seats have been removed in places to facilitate football sight lines. Four new light towers have been installed behind the new grandstand along the east sideline.

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