Braves/Atlanta messy divorce continues with alimony fight

Like any messy divorce, the Braves/Atlanta split is going down to the wire. Both sides are past the stages of screaming, blaming and battling over possessions. Now they are “agreeing to disagree” over $400,000 in disputed parking fees.

This doesn’t mean the former partners have stopped fighting. No, they’ve simply called a truce until the moving vans finish scurrying in and out of Turner Field, bringing the Skedaddling Bravos and their stuff up I-75 to their brand new subsidized home in Cobb County.

Three months ago, WXIA-TV aired a story that said the Braves

may be running out on a $400,000 tab owed to the Atlanta Fulton County Recreation Authority. The money would help local organizations do things such as fix up old people’s homes or fund veterans’ or youth groups.

Now, you’re probably thinking, $400,000 isn’t a whole lot of money for the Braves. That amount barely covers the cost of a six-inning start for Bartolo Colon, the 43-yearold, 290-pound pitcher hired for $12.5 million to eat innings for the club next year.

But the Braves couldn’t have afforded to pay this generation’s Terry Forster if they were willy-nilly with their money. The Braves are pretty darned good stewards of their money and even better with other people’s, as evidenced by nearly $400 million the Cobb taxpayers will provide for the new SunTrust field.

This year started out with the team and Rec Authority playing tug-of-war over several stadium trinkets, including the Hank Aaron statue, which the city will keep.

The Braves realized the civil rights and racial implications of prying bronze Hank from his moorings near where he hit his record 715th home run. Besides, they can afford to cast another. And they still have the real Hank on payroll as a senior VP of something oranother.

The fight over stuff ebbed and then the squabble over money commenced.

In March, Braves president of development Mike Plant fired off a long, masterfully constructed email to Rec Authority director Keisha Lance Bottoms that started off chiding her (he was “extremely disappointed”) for going over his head and straight to his boss, Braves Poobah Terry McGuirk.

Plant was angered because, frankly, nobody likes when this happens. Mayor Kasim Reed, who plopped Bottoms into the plum $135,000-a-year Rec Authority gig, frequently does this to me. (Actually, I like when Hizzoner complains to my bosses because it reminds them I still work here.)

Plant told Bottoms the authority, in fact, owed the Braves money. He said Bottoms misinterpreted the parking agreements and was wasting the “valuable resources and time” of Braves staff.

He also insinuated that Bottoms didn’t know what she was talking about: “You and your consultant both acknowledged that your short tenure put you at a disadvantage in completely understanding the complexity of all the issues you have presented to us.”

A little more than three hours later, Bottoms retorted — “Mike, I emailed your boss, not God” and “therefore will not accept being berated.”

She said his note was “insulting and condescending” and she was simply doing her due diligence in combing through records as the authority’s new boss. She did not have problems with the “complexity” of the issues, she said. “I did not have a historical perspective of the ‘gentlemen’ agreements that you claimed were reached over the years.”

Bottoms, in an interview, said her contention about what the Braves owe is based on different percentages for game day parking versus special events parking. “When I came, I started looking at things with a fresh set of eyes,” she said. “I pulled out my calculator” and pluck, pluck, pluck found discrepancies in the books, Bottoms said.

“It was glaring to me,” said Bottoms, who aside from her job as Rec Authority director is also a councilwoman and a candidate for mayor. One might assume that beating up the Braves plays well in the city forsaken by the team.

Of her email feud with Plant, she said, “We’re both passionate about the entities that we represent. There was a lot of energy related to this.” She said they decided to bury the tomahawk until the Braves leave the building, which is set for the end of the month.

I reached Plant, who did not want to dredge up the whole affair. He was in his car and sounded like he might have had a batting cage strapped to the vehicle’s roof.

“Come on, why would we stiff them for 400 grand when we’ve paid over $7 million to SMP over the years?” he asked.

SMP is the community fund for the Summerhill, Peoplestown and Mechanicsville neighborhoods surrounding the park. Decades ago, the area was obliterated by construction of the Downtown Connector and two ballparks.

The funds used to be routed straight to the neighborhoods’ community groups before some inventive accounting in the old Summerhill organization helped stop that. Since then, a new group was created for better transparency and the money that goes to the SMP is doled out to local organizations through a competitive process. “We want the Braves to do the right thing; they should not go out the door and leave a bad taste,” said lifelong Peoplestown resident Columbus Ward.

Even though the Braves have paid millions to the neighborhood organizations — about $400,000 a year — they’ve played for 20 years in a park that was largely built for them by someone else.

I talked with Kenyatta Mitchell, an SMP board member who has lived in Summerhill for 15 years. She’d like to see some more money come in but was not too concerned. She is looking to the future, to the new construction that will come with Georgia State University and a private developer taking over the area.

And the Braves? “God bless them,” she said with a laugh.