I’ve attended a few games at Turner Field over the years and aside from wishing general misfortune upon the Braves, I’ve never found it to be an unpleasant venue — far from it, actually. So when I read earlier today that the Braves planned to build a new stadium in Cobb Country, thus rendering the 20-year old Turner Field obsolete, I had to rub my eyes. If a more than adequate park can be abandoned that quickly, perhaps there’s a small chance the Mets could bulldoze the aesthetic atrocity that is Citi Field within your or my lifetime?
On a more serious tip, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Jeff Schultz — noting the city’s cooperation in erecting a new downtown home for the Falcons — argues “Atlanta will get two new stadiums to replace the two that didn’t need replacing,”, but it’s the Braves leaving Atlanta city limits proper that strikes him as unnecessary (“it would have made far more sense for local governments to invest in the area around Turner Field – already built – than in a new football stadium with the hope that development would follow”)
Let me just state that it’s comforting to live in a city, a state and even a country where our elected officials feel so free to build sports facilities with public dollars for private businesses. It’s reassuring to know that our schools, police departments, fire departments, roads, bridges, parks and sewers are in such tremendous shape that we can afford to commit $650 million for two new stadium projects.
If the Sudan got a new soccer stadium, it would totally revitalize the area.
If Mayor Kasim Reed hadn’t been carrying Arthur Blank’s water for month, making it seem like a Falcons’ potential move to the suburbs was like the coming of apocalypse, he would deserve praise for his comments Monday. But he is being a completely phony because he took the opposite position with the Falcons.