Pro Baseball to Abandon Atlanta Olympic Stadium

(ATR) The Atlanta Braves will abandon Turner Field, the largest remaining sports venue of the 1996 Olympic Games, after their lease runs out in 2016.

Centennial Olympic Stadium, which hosted the Opening and Closing Ceremonies and track and field, was retrofitted for the baseball club following the Games -- its capacity decreasing from 85,000 to about 50,000. Though the removal of the track scuttled future events in that sport, Atlanta had a facility that would be used regularly by the community.

The Braves said Monday that it makes more sense for them to build a new $672 million stadium complex in the suburbs north of Atlanta, closer to its fan base, than to spend hundreds of millions of dollars improving 17-year-old Turner Field.

"Sounds like a commercial decision to follow the money," Dick Pound, IOC member from Canada, tells ATR.

And leave history behind. The site of the 1999 World Series and a pair of world records set at the Olympics - Donovan Bailey in the 100 meters and Michael Johnson in the 200 meters - has an uncertain future because a tenant that benefited from the largesse of the Olympics is moving on.

"It’s a surprise to me," A.D. Frazier, chief operating officer of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games, tells Around the Rings. "At least at the time it was built, it was one of the best baseball parks, if not the best baseball park, in the country."

And it was free, thanks to the Olympics.

"The city of Atlanta didn’t have to pay anything," Frazier says. "Unlike other stadiums in the country where the cities spend hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money, the city of Atlanta and Fulton County didn’t pay anything.

"It served us well for the Games, and it served [the Braves] well for 20 years, so I look upon that as quite satisfying."

Money Pit?

The Braves, who say they have invested nearly $125 million in Turner Field for maintenance and improvements, say the facility needs $150 million in infrastructure work (replacing the seats, repairing and upgrading lighting, etc.). Projects focused on enhancing the fan experience could cost an additional $200 million or more and would not solve "lack of consistent mass transit to the facility, lack of adequate parking, lack of access to major roadways and lack of control over the development of the surrounding area."

For the new complex, which would be ready for the 2017 season, Cobb County is providing $450 million in financing, and the Braves will put up $200 million at the outset for the "long-term solution that ensured the Braves would remain in Atlanta for another generation," they said on their website.

The Braves plan to sell naming rights for the new stadium, which will have fewer seats than the current facility, possibly as few as 41,000.

Now it is up to the city of Atlanta and Fulton County to make sure they do not have a white elephant 20 years after the 1996 Olympics.

Bob Brennan, spokesman for ACOG, says he remembers when Olympic organizers "tried to convince the community and the Fulton County Commission to accept our offer of a free stadium which we would retrofit for the Braves." He recalled one of the commission members saying, "What will we do 20 years from now when the stadium needs to be painted?"

At that time, the city never imagined that it would have to appease two sports franchises.

Atlanta was already embroiled in another stadium issue, with the Atlanta Falcons demanding to move from the 21-year-old Georgia Dome to a new $1.2 billion stadium that will also open in 2017. Atlanta mayor Kasim Reed fought to keep the Falcons downtown, though it will mean demolishing the Dome, which was also an Olympic facility (basketball, artistic gymnastics, team handball final).

Reed promised $200 million in public funding through the hotel-motel tax for the Falcons stadium. When the city refused to spend hundreds of millions in taxpayer money on Turner Field, talks broke down between the Braves and the Atlanta Fulton County Recreational Authority, which controls the stadium.

"It is my understanding that our neighbor, Cobb County, made a strong offer of $450 million in public support to the Braves and we are simply unwilling to match that with taxpayer dollars," Reed said. "Given the needs facing our city and the impact of Turner Field stadium on surrounding neighborhoods, that was something I and many others were unwilling to do."

He added that he has already spoken to "multiple organizations who are interested in redeveloping the entire Turner Field corridor.

"Over the next three years, we will be working with our prospective partners to bring residential and business development that is worthy of our city and strengthens our downtown. Those conversations will continue and I am excited about how we use the land that is now Turner Field, to be a tremendous asset for our residents, our city, and our region for years to come."

Turner Field also hosts events of UniverSoul Circus, the only African-American circus of its kind in the country, and the Atlanta Fair. It is also the site of the Thanksgiving and Christmas "Feed the Hungry" dinners that have been supported by the Atlanta Braves and the Authority.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution says that the area could one day "be a place for horses to run," with efforts to make pari-mutuel betting legal.

It is unknown if the Olympic cauldron will be affected. The cauldron, famously ignited by Muhammad Ali, was moved from the stadium up the road to a new site on the outskirts of the Braves parking lots.

Suburban Setting

The Braves say their new stadium would be situated closer to their fans, who come mainly from the northern suburbs. The Braves have already secured 60 acres of land near the intersection of I-285 and I-75 in the Galleria/Cumberland Mall area and want to make it a "mixed use, 365-day destination."

Mike Plant, the Braves executive vice president who is one of the architects of the move, was a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee Board of Directors and was on the ACOG Board of Directors.

He told reporters that what "is insurmountable is we can’t control traffic, which is the number one reason why our fans don’t come to more games. That over the last decade has grown immensely. … We are under-served by about 5,000 parking spaces. All of those things contribute to some real challenges for us that we just, looking forward, didn’t believe could be overcome."

Response has been mixed. Some Atlanta residents bitterly complained that the area was already congested and worried that traffic would be worse. MARTA, the metro system, did not extend to Turner Field, but there was a shuttle. There is no similar public transportation to the Cobb County site, but the Braves say there will be "significantly increased access to the site, enhanced parking opportunities, and, generally, easier access to and from major roadways with a variety of other transportation options."

Others said they were glad to leave the neighborhood around Turner Field, where they felt uncomfortable.

Venues Disappearing

While the Olympic facilities in Sarajevo fell into disuse because of war, the ones in Atlanta have been cast aside in a quest for newer, shinier stadiums.

The Georgia Dome will not be the first 1996 Olympic venue to disappear. Atlanta Fulton County Stadium, where Olympic baseball was played, was demolished to make room for a parking lot for Turner Field. The Omni, site of indoor volleyball, was torn down and replaced on the same site by Philips Arena.

Other 1996 venues have struggled. Georgia International Horse Park, site of equestrian and mountain bike competitions, has repurposed itself. The tennis center at Stone Mountain has fallen into disrepair. The Wolf Creek shooting venue also has undergone financial problems and was shut down at one point.

Written byKaren Rosen

For general comments or questions,click here.

20 Years at #1: Your best source of news about the Olympics isAroundTheRings.com, for subscribers only.