‘Better than crawling back’
Braves’ Mike Plant says The Battery Atlanta seeing continued success, despite coronavirus setbacks
the first time in Falcons’ history, three players had more than 100 yards receiving — Julio Jones, Calvin Ridley and Russell Gage. Each had nine catches. Ridley had two touchdown receptions.
Ryan wasn’t perfect. He missed a touchdown opportunity when Jones had to wait for an underthrown pass that still gained 44 yards in the third quarter. The possession ended with a fourthdown stop and no points.
The Falcons’ young secondary gave up four touchdown passes to Russell Wilson with rookie A.J. Terrell starting at cornerback.
Quinn said Wilson had no problem reading the defense.
“I just think we made it too easy in terms of disguises,” Quinn said. He said the Falcons should have shown “multiple looks in coverage for a quarterback as accurate as he is.”
we do we’re only going to get a few opportunities to complete those balls. When we get those chances, we have to take advantage of them.”
Hamilton says that fans can expect a game that is determined by who dominates the lines of scrimmage. Above all, he says his team just needs to focus on themselves.
“If we can take care of us and do those little things, I like our chances this week at Ratner Stadium, getting a win going into our bye week,” Hamilton said.
Sonoraville
Across the county, the Sonoraville Phoenix are back in action on Friday as they will welcome Chattooga (1-1) to The Furnace in their homecoming game. Sonoraville Coach Denver Pate says that the Chattooga Indians’ team speed and athletes on offense will present a big challenge to the Phoenix on Friday night.
“Whenever you play Chattooga, you know you’re going to play an athletic team,” Pate said. “They got a running back over there — Lashaun Lester. He’s got a few offers. He runs the ball extremely hard. We got to do a good job of not letting him get going. Gang tackling is what’s going to be key for us. Cash Allen, their quarterback, is a big, tall kid. He’s probably about 6-1. He does a good job throwing it around. They got a freshman in Nic Hester who’s got a lot of speed. Whether it be on kick returns or the perimeter, he can go.”
The biggest keys to victory according to Pate are to hold the Indians’ defensive line in check and eliminate the Phoenix’s mistakes from the opening game.
“We’re looking to eliminate mistakes,” Pate said. “We had nine penalties and three turnovers (against Model). Eliminating those mistakes is going to be key for us to come out victorious this Friday.”
krcamp@mdjonline.com
During the Cobb Chamber of Commerce’s Marquee Monday luncheon, Braves Development Company President & CEO Mike Plant said The Battery Atlanta is thriving despite the pandemic, and put to rest recent rumors that the Braves organization is looking for a new buyer.
“I think one of the things that defines us and defines a lot of people in business is how to persevere,” Plant said during a fireside chat-style conversation with Chamber Chair John Loud at the Coca-Cola Roxy in The Battery.
“I always say I don’t want to hear the keys jingling at the end of the year. No one caused this to happen,” Plant said. “We all got dealt the same hand and we are going to work with our tenants here to help them battle their way through this.”
Plant said that, over the weekend when the Braves were playing out of town, The Battery adjacent to Truist Park still played host to more than 20,000 cars in its parking decks, which drew applause from the crowd of close to 200 and another 1,000 viewers watching the luncheon virtually.
“Our restaurants, many of them are having a better year than last year, when we were playing games in August,” Plant said. “Ninety-six percent of our tenants are open. We have over $350 million in phase 2. ALoft Hotel is already open. One night a couple weeks ago we had 130 rooms in a 143-room hotel. So we’re better than crawling back.”
Loud ran some numbers on The Battery, which he said now includes:
840,000 square feet of office space
500,000 square feet of residential space
320,000 square feet of hotel space
250,000 square feet of retail and dining space and
103,000 square feet dedicated to entertainment.
The Braves are set to host the MLB All Star Game next year, which Plant said will bring major attention to Cobb County.
In his opening remarks, Loud called The Battery and Truist Park “The home that Tim (Lee) and Mike (Plant) built,” referring to the late Cobb Commission Chairman Tim Lee.
Plant spoke fondly of Lee, who worked with Plant to bring the Braves to Cobb, and, speaking of Cobb, Plant added: “There’s no place like it. I’ve said that to the 120 teams that have come from all over the world to look at what was built here.”
Loud added that having the Braves in Cobb has been “an absolute grand slam” for Cobb County, not only through economic impact but through its community involvement and charitable support.
When the Braves announced their move to Cobb in 2013, Plant said there were two main obstacles they were going to have to overcome in the eyes of fans: money and traffic.
“On the money side, we’ve achieved better results than anyone thought,” Plant said. “The traffic part, because we were able to work closely with Cobb DOT and GDOT, and make sure we didn’t take some of the issues we had downtown and move them up here, we were able to have more parking than anyone expected. All of the access around here, the safety aspect of it – Cobb Police, I can’t say enough about how great they are...they’re always right there. It just goes back to proving that if you work together and share a common goal and common vision, you can achieve some incredible results.”