Braves’ gem venue once a secret
Despite rush, SunTrust Park shines brightly
It almost unraveled because of a bread truck driver.
It was October 2013, and the Atlanta Braves were frantically trying to complete the arrangements for an ambitious undertaking: build a baseball stadium, and surround it with 1.5 million square feet of commercial development. They were attempting to complete the land acquisitions, engineering plans and financial arrangements before they became public knowledge.
As Mike Plant, the Braves’ president for development, explained it to USA TODAY Sports, the negotiations were treated the same way they handle player trades. “We don’t talk about them until they’re done. We don’t like to air our business in the public until we have something to say and can back it up with facts.”
The team’s lease at Turner Field was to end after the 2016 season, so time was of the essence.
Because the Braves didn’t want the news of their move to be a distraction in Atlanta’s mayoral campaign, they hoped to keep the negotiations confidential until after the election in November. But in mid- October, Plant received a disconcerting call from one of the team’s political liaisons. “He told me that a bread truck driver just walked into his brother’s restaurant in Cobb County and said, ‘Did you know the Braves are moving to Cobb?’ We’d kept things pretty tight, but if a guy like that knows, then everyone’s about to know.”
The team’s leadership team decided not to overreact, and, much to their amazement, the social media explosion they feared never materialized.
So after Election Day in 2013, they made the surprising announcement they were moving out of Turner Field when their lease expired. Their new home would be in the midst of an array of eateries, apartments and offices that the team would develop in Cobb County, an affluent area just north of Atlanta.
There was no controversy over “Atlanta” remaining in the team’s name because the 57-acre parcel of land was in a ZIP code labeled “Atlanta,” even though it’s not within the city limits. “And it’s not as if we moved to Timbuktu,” Braves vice chairman John Schuerholz says.
“We made it clear that we will still be the Atlanta Braves. We will have the ‘A’ on our hat and ‘Atlanta’ proudly across our chest.”
After a frantic three years of relocating pipelines, finding tenants and constructing 2.6 million square feet of structures, the Braves are ready for Friday’s unveiling with a home game against the San Diego Padres. The mixed-use development is called The Battery Atlanta, and the state-of-the-art stadium at its heart is SunTrust Park.
The ballpark is spacious and intimate at the same time, thanks partly to a seating capacity that is 8,437 seats smaller than Turner Field’s. “I like that we created really intimate spaces in a 1.1 million-square-foot building, and they’re really personal spaces,” notes Earl Santee, managing director of Populous Americas, the park’s architects. “I like the feel of that, because it means that we actually cared about every fan.”
WHAT TO SEE
When fans arrive for the regularseason opener, not only can they roam the streets of the emerging Battery, they also can explore the ballpark for hours and still not see all of its features.
Many will gravitate toward the familiar, such as H&F Burger, Waffle House and the Chop House, all of which were at Turner Field. The SunTrust Park
version of the Chop House, though, features three floors, with the Coors Light Below the Chop level allowing fans to view the game from field level through the right-field fence.
The rooftop at the Top of the Chop isn’t the only area with good views of the action. The Xfinity Patio sits high above the right-field foul pole, while the Home Depot Clubhouse is perched above the center-field seats.
Perhaps the best-kept secret of the ballpark is the Hank Aaron Terrace high atop the left-field corner. Not only will you enjoy a majestic view of the seating bowl and field, you’ll also find an impressive collection of mementos of Hammerin’ Hank’s career.
Speaking of Aaron, a can’tmiss feature of the park is Monument Garden on the lower level directly behind home plate. A newly commissioned statue of Aaron is surrounded by pathways through banners and photos of the team’s most glorious moments and players.
And, yes, this is where the Braves’ 1995 World Series trophy is on display.
On the same level as the clubhouses are the Delta Sky 360 Club and, within it, the even more exclusive SunTrust Club, with custom-made tables by Rustic Trades in nearby Roswell.
The SunTrust Club opens into the premium seating sections behind the backstop. Those closest to the field have their own waterproof tablets.
There were 340 premium seats at Turner Field, compared with 4,000 at SunTrust Park. In some ways, they subsidize less expensive tickets. “That’s how we drove our revenue,” Plant says. “We know that over 50% of our fan base is families with kids, so we have 20,000 tickets here for under $20.”
CHOP CHOP
One of the team’s beloved symbols is, of course, the tomahawk. Its shape is used with great success at the souvenir shops (foam tomahawks are $6) and at the concession stands.
Not only is there the gourmet Tomahawk Ice Cream Pop ($8) from the local High Road Craft Creamery, there’s also a burgerand-fries combo served in a tomahawk-shaped tray ($10) and the massive Tomahawk Pork Chop sandwich ($26). It can feed four hungry fans.
CHILD’S PLAY
Turner Field was well known for its arcade-like Scouts Alley and the 90-foot running path in the Coca-Cola Sky Field. At SunTrust Park, Hope & Will’s Sandlot, along the center-field concourse, offers a zip line and climbing tower, as well as a 90-foot basepath and a batting cage. The Sandlot Snacks stand there is peanut-free.
The park’s lighting is another highlight. There are ever-changing colors illuminating the sport’s largest canopy atop the upper deck, and the stadium lights themselves can sparkle after home runs and glow and dim in time to music.
MAKING QUICK WORK OF IT
According to Santee, “This was the fastest design/build construction project for baseball in our history.”
Says Plant, “This should be a five-year project that we did in 36 months. You don’t finish what we did without being decisive and having our fingers on all of it, because we wanted it to turn out the way we envisioned it.”
Now Braves fans can see what the bread truck driver could only imagine.