Quote:
Originally Posted by Zanarkand A East
The barves left the negotiation table long before the deadline to reach a deal, and there were mad that the city would allow the conflict of interest that the barves were asking for: being able to both bid on who would develop the area around the stadium, and be a developer making a bid. Also, the barves' plan was always to limit the development to no more than 2 restaurants, 2 bars, and 1 coffee shop, so they could still gouge on concessions in the stadium. In the end, they wanted the world, and cobb was willing to give it to them.
Meanwhile, downtown is better off without them, and within 5 years, Atlanta will forget all about the barves. Had the barves played ball with the city, they may have been able to build a brand new stadium on the Georgia Dome site, and Georgia State would still have their stadium, but the barves probably wouldn't have cooperated since their out-of-state, faceless owner are only interested in real estate and complete control over the area, which they have in their strip mall in Cumberland with zero transit rail. Looks like a everyone got what they wanted.
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Couldn't have said it better myself. Atlanta is on its way to becoming a world class city, and the Braves will be stuck out in the sprawl of yester-year. People refer to distance, like that means anything in metro Atlanta. 8-10 miles from the core means a lot less in cities like New York and Chicago, where the urban foot print is much larger. 8-10 miles from the core in Atlanta puts you in post WWII style suburbia (Suntrust Park is roughly 10 miles from Midtown, even further from Downtown, the true core of Atlanta). Spoiler alert, a baseball stadium in the middle of suburban office parks is just a let down for most people. Most of the people excited about the new location are only excited about it because it's closer to their neck of the woods and that makes them happy. Suntrust park will always feel like a bigger Gwinette Arena due to its location (I've been to both).
I imagine they will eventually come back after they milk Cobb for all it can (probably under new ownership after current ownership cashes out).
One only has to look at their track record on smaller scale deals to see how this one ends. But hey, maybe Bloomberg is just in on the whole anti-Cobb thing too.
Bloomberg:
Over the last 15 years, the Braves have extracted nearly half a billion in public funds for four new homes, each bigger and more expensive than the last. The crown jewel, backed by $392 million in public funding, is a $722 million, 41,500-seat stadium for the major league club set to open next year in Cobb County, northwest of Atlanta. Before Cobb, the Braves built three minor league parks, working their way up the ladder from Single A to Triple A. In every case, they switched cities, pitting their new host against the old during negotiations. They showered attention on local officials unaccustomed to dealing with a big-league franchise and, in the end, left most of the cost on the public ledger. Says Joel Maxcy, a sports economist at Drexel University: “If there’s one thing the Braves know how to do, it’s how to get money out of taxpayers.”
Sound familiar?
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