I guess being on the news, ajc, Creative Loafing is just a handful of people then? It’s almost as if we live in different worlds…
And yes, I do think being away from MARTA will decrease attendance, but those seats will cost more, and with naming rights, etc. they may make more out of it. Especially since Cobb is footing most of the bill. I don’t think this is a good longterm move for the Braves. Most of the White Flight stadiums have been replaced by new stadiums built in the inner cities (a la, Baltimore) for a reason.
Okay, so you’re on record as thinking attendance will be down after the Braves move. Hilarious, since the stadium will be closer to the fan base and hotels, but noted. And we need to quit acting like this thing is out in Auburn Hills, MI. It’s right next to the perimeter, for Pete’s sake. The Meadowlands and Mets stadium have done pretty well, last time I checked.
We are in different worlds if you think that news outlets running with annual Marta reports, just like they do every year, counts as a “huge public outcry”.
I started a thread a while ago about how these facilities have ended up working out, based on fellow-dopers observations. It really looks like a mixed bag.
My take-aways were that where the team has some financial skin in the game, things tend to work out well for the surrounding geography. When the team has little at-risk, they can just pull stakes and go off to the next county where they are giving them a good deal. Seems like if the Braves own the facility, they may be more incentivized to make things work well for a long time, however, the amount of public funding may make the team owners feel like it was easy to move-in, so it will be just as easy to move-out.
I am curious about the size of Turner field in relation Cobb field - if the size of the stadium is reduced, then I can see the team touting “sellouts” as a big difference (smoke and mirrors). OTOH, if they are moving to where there are more fans, why reduce the size of the stadium?
The whole hubbub on the 2012 decision to cancel the Braves shuttle was huge news on WSB, AJC, Creative Loafing. Considering MARTA was losing money on the shuttle, why would they bring it back for no reason? It was because they were getting slammed publicly on it.
Because selling 41,000 seats a game would be a rather large increase in attendance. They averaged 31k per game this year, with one of the best records in baseball.
Yep, it’ll be up for a few years (Turner Field had Top 4 attendance during the late 90s) and then will drop down.
Meadowlands gets mostly North Jersey fans and both the Meadowlands and Citi Field are connected by mass transit. (Getting out of the Meadowlands parking lot is uber-ridiculous).
Fieldofschemes.com is the companion website to Field of Schemes: How the Great Stadium Swindle Turns Public Money Into Private Profit, by Joanna Cagan and Neil deMause. Since 1998, we have been casting a critical eye on the roughly $2 billion a year in public subsidies that go toward building new pro sports facilities.
Because its a FOOTBALL stadium. How often do football teams play on weekdays during rush hour? Which is also why I didn’t think it would be a huge deal for the Falcons to move to Gwinnett. You will also note that the Falcons fill the Georgia Dome to 98% and have for the last few years - even though they too exist downtown.
Oh, I’m sorry. You didn’t add the football vs. baseball spin in your earlier post. Evidently, being closer to your fanbase only matters if you play fewer games? Therefore, fans will want to drive farther during rush hour, all the way to downtown?
Looking at Wikipedia, you are correct that it was not concrete that fell. However, that same article says that the tiles that fell weighed over 100 lb total, and they fell right into the seating area. I don’t think anyone who might have gotten hit by them would have said, “Boy, good thing it wasn’t 100 lb of concrete instead.” The cost of repairing the roof was 10% of what it cost to build the entire Safeco Field.
(In retrospect, I might have been conflating that incident with one that happened in Yankee Stadium, which did involve concrete.)
I wouldn’t hold your breath. My understanding is that the reason MARTA doesn’t extend far out into to the northern suburbs is that those counties (Cobb and Gwinnett) didn’t want it to.
What I don’t understand is all the people saying this will have a huge impact on traffic. I get that traffic sucks in ATL and that area in particular, but part of the reason for moving the team is that the fans are there. So those people are already part of that sucky traffic and don’t add to the burden. So, we’re talking maybe another 10k or so during game days? What’s that add? How many people can 285 and the connector pass per minute during rush hour loads? Given the number of people passing that area daily, I can’t see another 10k creating this huge extra burden.
True. And it’s the residents of those counties who are stuck in hours of traffic to and from work in downtown Atlanta. I guess they enjoy watching their life tick by sitting in a car.