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Atlanta Braves' New Stadium Is a Disaster for Taxpayers and Fans

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Post by xsanguine April 17th 2017, 3:08 am

"It's an economic albatross, built because of an ethically questionable deal, and fans can't even get to the stadium without playing a human version of Frogger."

Eric Boehm wrote:The Atlanta Braves christened Major League Baseball's newest stadium on Friday night with a 5-2 victory over the San Diego Padres in front of some 41,000 fans, most of whom seemed to actually make it into the stadium despite the nightmarish traffic jams and lack of parking at Sun Trust Field.

More on that in a moment.

First, let's keep in mind that none of this would be possible without Cobb County, Georgia, taxpayers kicking in more than $400 million. More accurately, none of this would have been possible without one of Cobb County's former top government officials negotiating a secret deal with the Atlanta Braves to have taxpayers pay that amount for a new stadium, and without the rest of the Cobb County commission voting to approve the stadium deal at a supposedly public hearing where members of the public were prevented from voicing their opposition to the secretly crafted deal.

And that's really only the beginning of the story of one of the worst stadium deals in American history.

When the Braves announced plans in 2013 to relocate from downtown Atlanta to the northern suburbs of Cobb County, Georgia (closer to Marietta, Georgia, than to downtown Atlanta), some observers were surprised. After all, baseball teams had been flocking to retro-style downtown ballparks ever since the opening of Camden Yards in Baltimore in 1992. Those downtown stadiums were supposed to be revitalizing portions of inner cities in return for massive public spending on the stadiums themselves.

The Braves had one of those downtown ballparks. Turner Field began life as the main Olympic stadium for the 1996 Summer Games, and the Braves moved in the following year.

Perhaps the biggest surprise, at least at first, was that the Braves were abandoning a relatively young ballpark. A ballpark that is younger, in fact, than Miley Cyrus, as Victor Metheson, a professor of sports economics at the College of the Holy Cross, points out.

At the time, the Braves said Turner Field was in need of upgrades that would cost as much as $200 million. It was a no-brainer, then, to move into a new facility that would end up costing $650 million—with taxpayers kicking in $450 million. The real reason for the move, later uncovered by the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, was a secret deal negotiated between Cobb County Commissioner Tim Lee and the Braves, which included the promise of $400 million in public cash for a new stadium in the northern suburbs.

Team president John Schuerholz later admitted that the deal had to be in private to avoid a public backlash.

"If it had gotten out, more people would have started taking the position of, 'We don't want that to happen. We want to see how viable this was going to be,'" Schuerholz told Atlanta's NBC affiliate. "We were able to get that all done."

When the deal was made public, there was a backlash—but that wasn't enough to change anything.

Unlike in Arlington, Texas, where voters last year approved a plan to build a replacement for the Texas Rangers' current ballpark (which opened in 1994, making it also younger than Cyrus, who was born in 1992), there was no referendum on the stadium in Cobb County. In fact, opponents of the stadium plan were prevented from speaking at a public meeting before county officials voted 5-0 in favor of the deal.

After the stadium was approved, things only got worse.

To pay for the stadium, Cobb County officials cut the budget for the county's park system. Then, they raised property taxes (and taxes on hotel rooms and rental cars).

The new stadium promised to bring an economic stimulus to the surrounding area, but businesses near SunTrust Park soon found out that they would be shut out of one of the major benefits of having thousands of people descend on the area for 81 home games each season. In 2016, businesses within a mile of the stadium site were told they would be prohibited from selling their parking spaces to fans. As part of the deal signed between the team and the county, The ordinance was requested by the Braves, the Journal-Constitution reported. The team said it was about public safety, because apparently fans' vehicles will only be safe and sound if those fans pay $40 to park in a lot owned by the team.

The team eventually backed down from that position and allowed nearby businesses to offer parking to fans—but only after it became apparent that a pedestrian bridge crossing Interstate 285, connecting the stadium to several nearby parking structures, would not be finished in time for this year's grand opening. Recently, county officials admitted the $3.5 million pedestrian bridge won't be ready until next year, leaving the team with an inadequate parking situation for the entire season.

As bad as the stadium deal has been for taxpayers, there's at least a silver lining. The backroom negotiations, ethics questions, and obvious lack of economic benefit for anyone or anything in Cobb County has laid bare the false claims made by teams, owners, and leagues in favor of new publicly funded stadiums.

"The reason the Braves say they want to move is because that stadium is in such a terrible neighborhood and they say 'we want to go somewhere else where we can develop that econoniy,'" Metheson told me on this week's edition of American Radio Journal. "Well, look, the original Braves stadium has had 20 years to redevelop the neighborhood that it's in, and it has been completely unsuccessful there."

The county commissioner who engineered the whole thing ended up under investigation for ethics violations and was voted out of office in 2016. That doesn't mean that taxpayers get their money back and doesn't fix any of the lingering problems at the Braves' new home, but, hey, at least it's something.
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Post by DWags April 17th 2017, 6:12 am

the new Redwing place looks great. I'm pretty excited about it.
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Post by NigelUno April 17th 2017, 7:58 am

Dang.  A lot of fake news in that "story".

I went Opening Night.
Pretty sure there weren't any nightmare traffic jams.  It would have taken me much longer to get through downtown on a Friday night to Turner Field.  There isn't really a lack of parking.
Parking isn't $40 in any of the Braves' lots.  I think the most expensive was $18.
The pedestrian bridge over 285 is open.
The Braves left downtown because the city kept screwing with them, and gave the Falcons a bunch of tax money while doing nothing for the Braves.
The park is awesome.  It's not a disaster for the fans.  It's closer to the majority of the fan base.  There are bars/restaurants around the stadium (where there were none at Turner Field).

Here's a much more accurate story:

 http://www.espn.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/78701/braves-new-world-is-an-experiment-in-baseball-and-business
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Post by Watch Out Pylon! April 17th 2017, 8:20 am

Thanks Trump.
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Post by Death Roe April 17th 2017, 8:20 am

Thank you, Nigel.
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Post by NigelUno April 17th 2017, 9:57 am

It's cool that people think it sucks though. Makes it easier for the rest of us.
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Post by Death Roe April 17th 2017, 10:30 am

Yeah, Atlanta can lose another pro sports team if people don't show up to this park out in the boonies.
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Post by NigelUno April 17th 2017, 10:53 am

Rob Manfred: Braves' SunTrust Park 'a model for other organizations'

"Situated in Cobb County just north of Atlanta, the ballpark is the centerpiece of a larger dining and entertainment district dubbed the Battery. Ballpark amenities aside, the options outside the park are just as important for drawing in fans, Manfred said.

“The ballpark itself is beautiful,” he said, “but the scope of the project I really think is the future for baseball.”

Manfred called the concept “a model for other organizations.”

When teams host games 81 a year, “you’ve got to make sure you’ve got a venue that is attractive, provides entertainment alternatives and food alternatives, and the Braves have just done an unbelievable job.”

SunTrust Park fits the mold of the new-old ballpark approach that’s grown in popularity in recent decades, as teams opt for stadiums that harken back to decades past while also maximizing the modern desires of technology-obsessed fans."

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Post by xsanguine April 17th 2017, 1:20 pm

COBB COUNTY AND THE BRAVES: WORST SPORTS STADIUM DEAL EVER?

Vice wrote:The Atlanta Braves are moving to a new ballpark next spring, and ... and really, that's it as far as the good news goes. The latest debacle to emerge from the team's abrupt decision to abandon their 20-year-old downtown stadium and head for the 'burbs occurred last weekend when it was reported that the Cobb County Commission—the five-person local governing body that approved the Braves' plan without public debate by standing in hallways to get around open-meetings laws—has determined that if county residents want to get the $40 million in new parks they voted for way back in 2008, they'll have to raise taxes, because that money has now been siphoned off for the new baseball facility.

(Yes, I'm aware that commission chair Tim Lee has since complained that parks money wasn't really diverted to the stadium. It's complicated, but suffice to say he's wrong: The park bonds were never issued, then when the property tax hike funding them was set to run out, the commission decided to renew it for the stadium instead of spending it on what voters had intended it for. This is what's known in politics as "not lying, exactly.")

Anyway, the ballparks-not-public-parks switcheroo isn't new—it was first reported by the Atlanta Journal Constitution last year, at which point one of the committee members behind the public park plan called funneling money from there to the stadium "sleight of hand" and "unseemly." (Ah, Southern manners.) But it's the latest insult from a list that's been piling up for this Braves project seemingly from the minute it was first announced in 2013:

* The pedestrian bridge across a major highway to get fans from their cars to the stadium won't be ready in time for next season, and no one knows yet how much it will cost. Plus, if the county's renderings are to be believed, it will only have room for one shuttle bus at a time, which will inevitably be delayed by fans on foot spilling over from the pedestrian path right next to the bus land, and oh, the humanity.

* Thanks in part to those ballooning bridge costs, plus the cost of widening the highways that the bridge will pass over to prevent Braves games from worsening the county's already-legendary highway gridlock, the public price tag for the stadium has soared from an initial estimate of $276 million to somewhere north of $350 million. If someone offers you a wager on it eventually breaking $400 million, take the over.

* Ticket prices will average 45 percent more at the new stadium than they did at Turner Field. Braves execs insist that this is only a 4.7 percent increase, because they use special math that is too advanced for regular folks to comprehend.

* After it was revealed that country commissioner Lee had pushed the stadium deal through by, among other things, hiring a lawyer to negotiate the Braves deal without even telling his fellow commissioners, Lee defended himself against ethics charges by insisting the ethics code only said elected officials "should" avoid the appearance of impropriety, meaning it was, you know, a suggestion. The county ethics board then dismissed the charges because Lee had said he was sorry.

In news that is not unrelated in the slightest to all of this, Lee may get voted out of office next month. At which point Cobb County taxpayers will get their money back and the Braves will remain in Atlanta—ha ha, just kidding, the stadium is already half-built, nobody's getting any money back ever.

Of course, all of this has transpired in order to move a pro baseball team from one part of the Atlanta metro area to another. And I use the term "pro baseball team" loosely here: The Braves have a historically awful offense and a historically awful defense, and while they have enough young talent on the farm to maybe be good again someday, they're almost certainly going to squander any honeymoon effect from their new stadium on fans staying home in droves to avoid the parking nightmare and the high ticket prices and the two more years remaining of Nick Markakis's incomprehensible contract. Braves owner John Malone undoubtedly was thinking of this when he reassured panicking shareholders in April that "the Braves now are a fairly major real estate business, as opposed to just a baseball club."

Instead of, John. You meant to say instead of.

It's an all-around train wreck of the highest order, and raises the inevitable question: Could the Braves stadium deal possibly qualify as the worst ever agreed to by any public body?

Let's be blunt: In the annals of stadium fiascos, Atlanta's forthcoming SunTrust Park (and by the way, nice job spending $250 million to get your corporate name attached to this mess, SunTrust Bank execs) has to go up against some exceedingly stiff competition. Like Glendale's deal for the NHL's Arizona Coyotes, a scheme that ended up costing the city $220 million in arena debt, plus $50 million in operating-cost subsidies to keep the team in town, plus another $30 million in more operating-cost subsidies over two more years—requiring Glendale to cut staffing of every city department to pay for it—and now looks certain to end with the team leaving town anyway, possibly for as much as $750 million in additional sales-tax kickbacks from the state of Arizona.

Then there's this week's other breaking stadium-catastrophe story: Hartford's experience with a new stadium to bring the Yard Goats Double-A baseball team to town, all the way from New Britain, Connecticut, an arduous 15 minutes away by car. The public price tag on Hartford's new stadium is far smaller than Cobb County's—just a little over $60 million, though that could still rise—but when you factor in that the stadium is going to be a year late in opening, forcing the team to spend the entire 2016 season on the road, and that all the development around the stadium that was the whole economic rationale for the project may now never happen because the city had to fire the construction contractor for not being able to finish on time, well, that's got to count for something, right?

And at least those cities—and Cobb County, for that matter—will eventually get to play host to new teams as part of their massive outlays of public cash. How, then, do we compare those deals to Arlington, Texas's plan to spend $500 million on a new Texas Rangers stadium (plus a bunch of free land and property tax breaks on parking lots, plus maybe even more money if the Rangers' revenues aren't enough to pay off their share of city bonds) just to get the team to move across the street from the last stadium Arlington built for them, a distant 22 years ago? For that matter, does the Cobb County deal stand up to the nearly $1.2 billion dollars in public cash and tax breaks that the Steinbrenners are getting for the new Yankee Stadium right next to the grave of the old one—crazy enough since the New York Yankees were never going to move out of New York and give up the cable TV windfall that comes with the territory, and crazier still when you consider that more than $300 million of that comes via a creative dodge to evade federal bond taxes, meaning Boston Red Sox fans helped pay to move the Bombers to the other side of a Bronx street.

Oh, and we'll always have the Cincinnati Bengals deal that forced Hamilton County to sell a public hospital to pay off its NFL stadium bills. If that's not a worst-case scenario, what is?

With few exceptions, most stadium deals end up looking pretty horrible in the cold light of day, something that sports economists—and a slowly increasing number of journalists like myself, and an even more slowly increasing number of elected officials—have been pointing out for decades. So asking subsidy experts to rank them by awfulness is like asking them to say which of their children they find the most annoying on a long car ride.

Nonetheless, I asked. According to Holy Cross economist Victor Matheson, the Braves project scores "pretty high on the list of despicable stadium deals," both for replacing a stadium that is the same age as Miley Cyrus, and because "they want to move out of their 'old' stadium because it is in a bad neighborhood that they had 18 years to turn into a good neighborhood like they promised in the first place. And now they are promising a new location that the new location should subsidize the new stadium because a stadium will improve that neighborhood."

Concludes Matheson: "Joseph Heller would be proud."

Baseball economics book author and Atlanta area resident J.C. Bradbury doesn't like the deal either (and says he voted against Lee), but grades it on a curve of awfulness. "The Cobb Braves stadium probably wouldn't make my top-10 list of bad deals," he says—or even rank as the worst deal in the Atlanta area, given that nearby Gwinnett County spent $64 million on a new stadium for the Braves' Triple-A team, sending itself into a fiscal tailspin that led to the county considering whether to eliminate emergency medical services. And there's a small silver lining for Cobb County, he notes: "Unlike most projects, it will actually bring in money into the Cobb area that wasn't previously being spent here, as fans travel from other metro counties like Fulton, DeKalb, and Gwinnett for Braves games"—almost certainly not enough to offset the county's $350 million in costs, but at least it's something.

His conclusion: "Commissioner Lee likes to refer to this deal as a home run, I say it's more like a sacrifice bunt."

But if the Braves deal isn't quite singularly atrocious when measured against the low bar set by prior stadium deals, the Atlanta area as a whole is absolutely in the running for the spendiest, most facepalm-y sports stadium subsidies overall. After all, in addition to the Cobb fiasco, there's the deal Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed cut for the NFL's Falcons to move out of the 25-year-old Georgia Dome and into a new domed venue, which Reed insisted would cost the city $200 million—but which Falcons owner Arthur Blank recently admitted would, when decades of future operating subsidies are included, amount to almost $700 million worth of public largesse. And then there's the $150 million Reed offered to the owners of the NBA's Hawks to rehab their arena, because those poor guys are being forced to put up with an arena that's 17 whole years old.

Taken together, that's a triple threat that could push Atlanta out in front of such legendary subsidy towns as Glendale (not just the Coyotes, but publicly funded stadiums for the Arizona Cardinals and for spring-training baseball) and Indianapolis (only the NFL's Colts and NBA's Pacers, but the former was the priciest NFL stadium subsidy ever and the latter has by now cost the city twice as much as the arena itself cost to build) to claim the crown. All we need is a motto. So here's a suggestion. Atlanta: Last in war, last in the National League, but No. 1 in the hearts of stadium-grubbing owners. It has a nice ring to it.
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Post by Death Roe April 17th 2017, 1:28 pm

Nigel calling something fake news, regarding a stupid sports team. Irony is rich here.
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Post by Robert J Sakimano April 17th 2017, 1:31 pm

I don't watch baseball.

I don't live in Atlanta, either.
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Post by DWags April 17th 2017, 1:40 pm

Robert J Sakimano wrote:I don't watch baseball.

I don't live in Atlanta, either.

I"m not transgender, and I hardly ever take a dump in public bathrooms. But, well, you know, the political board demands my input.

How bout them Tigers?
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Post by Robert J Sakimano April 17th 2017, 1:41 pm

DWags wrote:
Robert J Sakimano wrote:I don't watch baseball.

I don't live in Atlanta, either.

I"m not transgender, and I hardly ever take a dump in public bathrooms. But, well, you know, the political board demands my input.

How bout them Tigers?
yeah but we all use bathrooms.. we don't all live in Atlanta.

I don't watch the Tigers, either.

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Post by Watch Out Pylon! April 17th 2017, 1:42 pm

Robert J Sakimano wrote:
DWags wrote:

I"m not transgender, and I hardly ever take a dump in public bathrooms. But, well, you know, the political board demands my input.

How bout them Tigers?
yeah but we all use bathrooms.. we don't all live in Atlanta.

I don't watch the 1st place asskicking Tigers, either.


Updated for correctness.
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Post by Robert J Sakimano April 17th 2017, 1:44 pm

Watch Out Pylon! wrote:
Robert J Sakimano wrote:yeah but we all use bathrooms.. we don't all live in Atlanta.

I don't watch the 1st place asskicking Tigers, either.


Updated for correctness.
how 'bout them Tigers!
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Post by Watch Out Pylon! April 17th 2017, 2:11 pm

Robert J Sakimano wrote:
Watch Out Pylon! wrote:

Updated for correctness.
how 'bout them Tigers!

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Post by NigelUno April 17th 2017, 2:48 pm

xsanguine wrote: Atlanta Braves' New Stadium Is a Disaster for Taxpayers and Fans 1469072363

Another link from last year with inaccurate info/fake news? Atlanta Braves' New Stadium Is a Disaster for Taxpayers and Fans 1966794946

Thank God you're looking out for the citizens of Cobb County!

P.S. I don't live in Cobb County. I don't give a shit if their taxes are higher because they decided to give the Braves some cash.

The stadium is nicer. The bars and restaurants are nicer. It's closer for most of the Braves' fan base (including me).

Turner Field and the surrounding area will be converted into a football stadium/Georgia State campus extension. Win/win for everyone.

Sorry your feelings got hurt.
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Post by xsanguine April 17th 2017, 2:52 pm

Baseball superfan’s review of SunTrust Park: Meh

Jennifer Brett wrote:Jim Alldrink saw the last game at Turner Field and the first game at SunTrust Park but he won’t be able to add their names to the custom-stitched sweatshirt he wore to the Braves home opener on Friday. He’s out of room.

The retired steel worker from Grand Rapids, Mich. has made it his business to attend every ballpark’s first and final game since the Cincinnati Reds hosted the Atlanta Braves at Riverfront Stadium on June 30, 1970. Hammerin’ Hank Aaron blasted the first home run out of that park. (That stadium met the wrecking ball in 2002).

His first-ever game was a Reds-Cubs matchup in Chicago as a kid (he can’t remember exactly what age) and boasts that he and his dad once saw four games in one day – two doubleheaders in Chicago, then up the road in Milwaukee.

So.. his take on the new home of the Braves?

“Nothing knocks my socks off, to be real honest,” he said. While the park boasts loads of interesting dining options, miles of bathroom facilities and pretty good views from even the cheapest seat, there’s nothing terribly unique about it, in his assessment. It might be too perfect.

“I like little nooks and crannies,” he said. His favorite place to watch a game is loaded with character: Boston’s Fenway Park. High on his list of newish places: PNC Park, home of the Pirates since their old digs, Three Rivers Stadium, was taken down in the name of progress.

SunTrust feels sort of like a Frankenpark to Alldrink.

“It looks like they took a lot of parts from a lot of parks and them together,” he said.

We should pause to make sure no one thinks Alldrink was disparaging Atlanta, or the Braves, or the team’s fans. He seems like a great guy to watch any game with, and happily delayed his departure to talk with a reporter after the game ended.

“I don’t to get banned from coming back,” he said. (He’ll be back on Saturday, by the way).

As a consolation, Alldrink did offer some faint praise to the Braves’ new headquarters: “I like it better than Turner Field.”

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Post by NigelUno April 17th 2017, 3:03 pm

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Post by NigelUno April 17th 2017, 3:04 pm

xsanguine wrote:Baseball superfan’s review of SunTrust Park: Meh

Jennifer Brett wrote:Jim Alldrink saw the last game at Turner Field and the first game at SunTrust Park but he won’t be able to add their names to the custom-stitched sweatshirt he wore to the Braves home opener on Friday. He’s out of room.

The retired steel worker from Grand Rapids, Mich. has made it his business to attend every ballpark’s first and final game since the Cincinnati Reds hosted the Atlanta Braves at Riverfront Stadium on June 30, 1970. Hammerin’ Hank Aaron blasted the first home run out of that park. (That stadium met the wrecking ball in 2002).

His first-ever game was a Reds-Cubs matchup in Chicago as a kid (he can’t remember exactly what age) and boasts that he and his dad once saw four games in one day – two doubleheaders in Chicago, then up the road in Milwaukee.

So.. his take on the new home of the Braves?

“Nothing knocks my socks off, to be real honest,” he said. While the park boasts loads of interesting dining options, miles of bathroom facilities and pretty good views from even the cheapest seat, there’s nothing terribly unique about it, in his assessment. It might be too perfect.

“I like little nooks and crannies,” he said. His favorite place to watch a game is loaded with character: Boston’s Fenway Park. High on his list of newish places: PNC Park, home of the Pirates since their old digs, Three Rivers Stadium, was taken down in the name of progress.

SunTrust feels sort of like a Frankenpark to Alldrink.

“It looks like they took a lot of parts from a lot of parks and them together,” he said.

We should pause to make sure no one thinks Alldrink was disparaging Atlanta, or the Braves, or the team’s fans. He seems like a great guy to watch any game with, and happily delayed his departure to talk with a reporter after the game ended.

“I don’t to get banned from coming back,” he said. (He’ll be back on Saturday, by the way).

As a consolation, Alldrink did offer some faint praise to the Braves’ new headquarters: “I like it better than Turner Field.”


Wow. No fake news about how that bridge won't be ready all year?

You're slipping.
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Post by xsanguine April 17th 2017, 3:07 pm

Not the opening week Braves hoped for or expected

David O'Brien wrote:

MIAMI – I was talking with a senior scout for a National League team a week before spring training ended when he asked me what I thought of the Braves’ chances for 2017. When I said about 75-77 wins and that .500 wouldn’t shock me if they stayed healthy and some things went their way, the scout looked at me as if I had two heads.

He was thinking more along the lines of 65 wins, tops. And he proceeded to explain why. The primary cause for his alarm with these Braves was defense. He went through position by position and said the Braves were average to well below average at all but two positions, shortstop and center field. I disagreed with him on Freddie Freeman, whom I consider an above-average defensive first baseman, and right fielder Nick Markakis, who might not have been as good as the Gold Glove-finalist distinction he received last season, but whom I thought returned to being a solid defensive player 1 ½ years removed from neck surgery.

So far, one would have to say the scout’s evaluation has shown why he’s a professional baseball scout and I’m a writer. The Braves haven’t been a mediocre or bad defensive team, they’ve been a terrible one.

Granted, it’s one week into a season that’s six months long. Six games (and five losses) in the books with 156 games to go. And I still believe this is not a terrible defensive team.

But I don’t have much evidence to back that claim.

And when fans and the team itself are focusing on Double-A results just one week into the season in order to find a silver lining, well….

To be clear, this is not what the Braves had in mind for the opening three-city trip that leads into their big, official SunTrust Park home opener Friday. The sun will rise, trust us. But will the Braves avoid a third consecutive 90-loss season? Not by playing this way, that’s for sure.

Speaking of that opener, it’s against the Padres, who are supposed to be terrible this season but have started out 4-4. Go figure.

Remember when the Braves wanted folks to get all excited about the send-off of Turner Field last season, the farewell season in a ballpark only 20 years old? They wanted everyone to remember all the shining moments – nevermind most of those were actually at the old stadium and not Turner Field, which became the place for other teams’ postseason celebrations – and hoped that people would turn out in big numbers throughout the summer for a warm-and-fuzzy goodbye.

Then the Braves started 0-9 … and 4-14 … and were 9-28 when Fredi Gonzalez got canned. So much for warm and fuzzy. They missed on opportunity for revamped midseason ad campaign, “Come out and watch Snit try to turn around the Titanic.”

Let’s be clear: This is not to say or suggest the current vibe around these Braves in any way resembles last year’s dark-cloud-overhead feel during the early season slog, when Fredi firing rumors started early and everyone knew it was just a matter of time before the ax was wielded and off with his head. Not at all.

This team is not getting pounded each night, not seeing starting pitchers leave in the third or fourth innings, not getting out-homered by four-to-one margins, nothing like that. No, its five losses in the first six games have been more about excruciating than embarrassing (though the last couple of games in Pittsburgh definitely had both excruciating and embarrassing elements).

This team is getting, for the most part, the starting pitching that it hoped to get, which was supposed to solve a lot of problems. And it eventually could and perhaps will, if the Braves get Mauricio Cabrera back to help stabilize a bullpen that’s been woeful and a huge disappointment so far, a pen that was supposed to be a strength but has been one of the two biggest weaknesses along with defense.

But getting back to the SunTrust Park opening. The Braves wanted to be on the road to start the season so they’d have time to get things in order at their impressive new ballpark, after having a “soft” opening in an exhibition against the Yankees for season-ticket holders and a college game to expoose what areas needed to be addressed at the ballpark.

They wanted to have a week or more to smooth out the rough edges before playing an official game in front of a packed house.

But they didn’t want the team to go on the road and stumble all over itself. Not that it’s going to hurt home attendance initially at SunTrust, where sellout crowds, or close, will be expected in the early part of the season, and some nights there will be close-to-sellouts announced even if some purchased tickets go unused. Still, the Braves don’t just want tickets sold and only a ballpark and surrounding bars and retail to get people excited.

They want the team to get them excited. Ultimately, that’s what will keep people coming back all summer and into next season, the team. And the team has to start playing better, which is something that scout and your correspondent, Captain Obvious, can agree on.

Where is the team that won 50 of its last 97 games in 2016 including 20 of its final 30? The Braves need to see that soon, or risk falling so far out off the division lead that their lofty goals of being relevant until September will be quashed by the Fourth of July.

They lost five of six at New York and Pittsburgh to start this eight-game opening trip, then had a day off Monday in Miami before a brief two-game series at Marlins Park that starts tonight. Losing two of three at New York was no disgrace at all, considering the Braves ran up against perhaps the best 1-2-3 starting combo in the league when healthy — Noah Syndergaard, Jacob deGrom and Matt Harvey.

But being swept at Pittsburgh? That was as ugly as the weather for Friday’s series opener. Yes, the Pirates have been tough to beat at home in recent years. No, that doesn’t make the Braves being swept in the series any easier to swallow, particularly given the sloppy play that led to the sweep and to two blown leads in the late innings Sunday and three unearned runs Saturday and again Sunday.

What happened to all that early morning defensive work that coach Ron Washington did with his infielders at spring training? Adonis Garcia is a below-average defensive third baseman, period. But is the once golden glove of Brandon Phillips as tarnished as it’s appeared so far? And how to explain the lapses from Freeman, whom I’ve argued along with some others has been Gold Glove-caliber in the past even when folks cited defensive metrics to say otherwise.

The Braves were off Monday, and hopefully they were able to get their minds off of baseball, or bad baseball. Because here is where they stood after the season’s first week through Sunday’s games:

They were last in the major leagues in fielding percentage (.968).

Only three teams had stranded more runners than the Braves (49) through Sunday, and only three teams had grounded into more double plays (eight).

The Braves were 23rd in average with runners in scoring position (.189, 10-for-53) and only the Marlins (five) had grounded into more double plays with runners in scoring position than have the Braves (four)

Curiously, no team has been hit by more pitches than the Braves (five) through Sunday. Not that it means anything, other than adding injury (or at least pain) to insult.

Braves pitchers had the fewest strikeouts (31) in the majors through Sunday and were tied for 10th-most walks (24). Only four teams had allowed fewer homers than the Braves (five), or else all those walks could’ve been even more damaging they they already were.

With his three passed balls in one game Saturday, veteran catcher Kurt Suzuki matched or surpassed his season total for passed balls in each of the past four entire seasons. The last time he had more than three passed balls in a season was 2012, when he had six in 117 games caught (113 starts) for Oakland and Washington.

Such can be the fate of a catcher, veteran or otherwise, when asked to catch a knuckleballer.

Those balls shooting helplessly past Suzuki to the backstop Saturday as runners advanced seemed an appropriate metaphor for the first ugly week of this Braves season.

Hey, let’s remember, hard as it is to keep in perspective, this is only Year 3 of the rebuild. Like the other TP once said….

“WAITING by Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

Oh baby don’t it feel like heaven right now
Don’t it feel like something from a dream
Yeah I’ve never known nothing quite like this
Don’t it feel like tonight might never be again
We know better than to try and pretend
Baby no one could’ve ever told me ’bout this
I said yeah yeahThe waiting is the hardest part
Every day you see one more card
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest partWell yeah I might have chased a couple women around
All it ever got me was down
Then there were those that made me feel good
But never as good as I’m feeling right now
Baby you’re the only one that’s ever known how
To make me wanna live like I wanna live now
I said yeah yeah
The waiting is the hardest part
Every day you get one more yard
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest part

Oh don’t let it kill you baby, don’t let it get to you
Don’t let it kill you baby, don’t let it get to you
I’ll be your bleedin’ heart, I’ll be your cryin’ fool
Don’t let this go too far
Don’t let it get to you

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Atlanta Braves' New Stadium Is a Disaster for Taxpayers and Fans Empty Re: Atlanta Braves' New Stadium Is a Disaster for Taxpayers and Fans

Post by NigelUno April 17th 2017, 3:12 pm

xsanguine wrote:Not the opening week Braves hoped for or expected

David O'Brien wrote:

MIAMI – I was talking with a senior scout for a National League team a week before spring training ended when he asked me what I thought of the Braves’ chances for 2017. When I said about 75-77 wins and that .500 wouldn’t shock me if they stayed healthy and some things went their way, the scout looked at me as if I had two heads.

He was thinking more along the lines of 65 wins, tops. And he proceeded to explain why. The primary cause for his alarm with these Braves was defense. He went through position by position and said the Braves were average to well below average at all but two positions, shortstop and center field. I disagreed with him on Freddie Freeman, whom I consider an above-average defensive first baseman, and right fielder Nick Markakis, who might not have been as good as the Gold Glove-finalist distinction he received last season, but whom I thought returned to being a solid defensive player 1 ½ years removed from neck surgery.

So far, one would have to say the scout’s evaluation has shown why he’s a professional baseball scout and I’m a writer. The Braves haven’t been a mediocre or bad defensive team, they’ve been a terrible one.

Granted, it’s one week into a season that’s six months long. Six games (and five losses) in the books with 156 games to go. And I still believe this is not a terrible defensive team.

But I don’t have much evidence to back that claim.

And when fans and the team itself are focusing on Double-A results just one week into the season in order to find a silver lining, well….

To be clear, this is not what the Braves had in mind for the opening three-city trip that leads into their big, official SunTrust Park home opener Friday. The sun will rise, trust us. But will the Braves avoid a third consecutive 90-loss season? Not by playing this way, that’s for sure.

Speaking of that opener, it’s against the Padres, who are supposed to be terrible this season but have started out 4-4. Go figure.

Remember when the Braves wanted folks to get all excited about the send-off of Turner Field last season, the farewell season in a ballpark only 20 years old? They wanted everyone to remember all the shining moments – nevermind most of those were actually at the old stadium and not Turner Field, which became the place for other teams’ postseason celebrations – and hoped that people would turn out in big numbers throughout the summer for a warm-and-fuzzy goodbye.

Then the Braves started 0-9 … and 4-14 … and were 9-28 when Fredi Gonzalez got canned. So much for warm and fuzzy. They missed on opportunity for revamped midseason ad campaign, “Come out and watch Snit try to turn around the Titanic.”

Let’s be clear: This is not to say or suggest the current vibe around these Braves in any way resembles last year’s dark-cloud-overhead feel during the early season slog, when Fredi firing rumors started early and everyone knew it was just a matter of time before the ax was wielded and off with his head. Not at all.

This team is not getting pounded each night, not seeing starting pitchers leave in the third or fourth innings, not getting out-homered by four-to-one margins, nothing like that. No, its five losses in the first six games have been more about excruciating than embarrassing (though the last couple of games in Pittsburgh definitely had both excruciating and embarrassing elements).

This team is getting, for the most part, the starting pitching that it hoped to get, which was supposed to solve a lot of problems. And it eventually could and perhaps will, if the Braves get Mauricio Cabrera back to help stabilize a bullpen that’s been woeful and a huge disappointment so far, a pen that was supposed to be a strength but has been one of the two biggest weaknesses along with defense.

But getting back to the SunTrust Park opening. The Braves wanted to be on the road to start the season so they’d have time to get things in order at their impressive new ballpark, after having a “soft” opening in an exhibition against the Yankees for season-ticket holders and a college game to expoose what areas needed to be addressed at the ballpark.

They wanted to have a week or more to smooth out the rough edges before playing an official game in front of a packed house.

But they didn’t want the team to go on the road and stumble all over itself. Not that it’s going to hurt home attendance initially at SunTrust, where sellout crowds, or close, will be expected in the early part of the season, and some nights there will be close-to-sellouts announced even if some purchased tickets go unused. Still, the Braves don’t just want tickets sold and only a ballpark and surrounding bars and retail to get people excited.

They want the team to get them excited. Ultimately, that’s what will keep people coming back all summer and into next season, the team. And the team has to start playing better, which is something that scout and your correspondent, Captain Obvious, can agree on.

Where is the team that won 50 of its last 97 games in 2016 including 20 of its final 30? The Braves need to see that soon, or risk falling so far out off the division lead that their lofty goals of being relevant until September will be quashed by the Fourth of July.

They lost five of six at New York and Pittsburgh to start this eight-game opening trip, then had a day off Monday in Miami before a brief two-game series at Marlins Park that starts tonight. Losing two of three at New York was no disgrace at all, considering the Braves ran up against perhaps the best 1-2-3 starting combo in the league when healthy — Noah Syndergaard, Jacob deGrom and Matt Harvey.

But being swept at Pittsburgh? That was as ugly as the weather for Friday’s series opener. Yes, the Pirates have been tough to beat at home in recent years. No, that doesn’t make the Braves being swept in the series any easier to swallow, particularly given the sloppy play that led to the sweep and to two blown leads in the late innings Sunday and three unearned runs Saturday and again Sunday.

What happened to all that early morning defensive work that coach Ron Washington did with his infielders at spring training? Adonis Garcia is a below-average defensive third baseman, period. But is the once golden glove of Brandon Phillips as tarnished as it’s appeared so far? And how to explain the lapses from Freeman, whom I’ve argued along with some others has been Gold Glove-caliber in the past even when folks cited defensive metrics to say otherwise.

The Braves were off Monday, and hopefully they were able to get their minds off of baseball, or bad baseball. Because here is where they stood after the season’s first week through Sunday’s games:

They were last in the major leagues in fielding percentage (.968).

Only three teams had stranded more runners than the Braves (49) through Sunday, and only three teams had grounded into more double plays (eight).

The Braves were 23rd in average with runners in scoring position (.189, 10-for-53) and only the Marlins (five) had grounded into more double plays with runners in scoring position than have the Braves (four)

Curiously, no team has been hit by more pitches than the Braves (five) through Sunday. Not that it means anything, other than adding injury (or at least pain) to insult.

Braves pitchers had the fewest strikeouts (31) in the majors through Sunday and were tied for 10th-most walks (24). Only four teams had allowed fewer homers than the Braves (five), or else all those walks could’ve been even more damaging they they already were.

With his three passed balls in one game Saturday, veteran catcher Kurt Suzuki matched or surpassed his season total for passed balls in each of the past four entire seasons. The last time he had more than three passed balls in a season was 2012, when he had six in 117 games caught (113 starts) for Oakland and Washington.

Such can be the fate of a catcher, veteran or otherwise, when asked to catch a knuckleballer.

Those balls shooting helplessly past Suzuki to the backstop Saturday as runners advanced seemed an appropriate metaphor for the first ugly week of this Braves season.

Hey, let’s remember, hard as it is to keep in perspective, this is only Year 3 of the rebuild. Like the other TP once said….

“WAITING by Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers

Oh baby don’t it feel like heaven right now
Don’t it feel like something from a dream
Yeah I’ve never known nothing quite like this
Don’t it feel like tonight might never be again
We know better than to try and pretend
Baby no one could’ve ever told me ’bout this
I said yeah yeahThe waiting is the hardest part
Every day you see one more card
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest partWell yeah I might have chased a couple women around
All it ever got me was down
Then there were those that made me feel good
But never as good as I’m feeling right now
Baby you’re the only one that’s ever known how
To make me wanna live like I wanna live now
I said yeah yeah
The waiting is the hardest part
Every day you get one more yard
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest part

Oh don’t let it kill you baby, don’t let it get to you
Don’t let it kill you baby, don’t let it get to you
I’ll be your bleedin’ heart, I’ll be your cryin’ fool
Don’t let this go too far
Don’t let it get to you


Awesome! A 6 day old article! Any mention of the bridge that won't be done all year...but was ready on Opening Night?
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Post by xsanguine April 17th 2017, 3:16 pm

Torpy at Large: Braves hitting it out of the park in the $$$ column

Bill Torpy wrote:The Cobb County Braves have had a terrible pre-season, but that’s not important. The team is in the process of rebuilding and the players are merely the backdrop for the real star of 2017: The team’s brand-spanking new ballpark and adjoining live-work-play complex.
Sure, the Braves hoped they’d be competitive in their inaugural season at SunTrust Park and not be 72-90 and 19 games out of first place this year, like Las Vegas predicts.

But in recent weeks, the team is 3-0 in matters that are really important to Liberty Media, the Colorado corp that owns the Braves.

Win #1: Last week, Cobb County, which is paying more than $300 million to woo the Braves away from Atlanta, reluctantly agreed with the team’s contention that the taxpayers pay $14 million for ballpark-related infrastructure costs. (I’ll return to this.)

Win #2: The Braves will get more than $40 million in taxpayer money to build a $75 million spring training facility near Sarasota.

Win #3: Liberty Media’s CEO recently speculated that the Braves would be worth more than the Miami Marlins, who are reportedly worth $1.6 billion.

In three weeks, the Braves will open up at SunTrust, a $600 million-plus park that’s designed to feel old-timey, yet will be wired so that each of the 41,000 fans can watch video highlights on their iPhones. There will also be a bevy of shops, bars and restaurants known as The Battery. (Even odds says “The Battery” will one day be sponsored by the Energizer Bunny.)

The excitement and trepidation in Cobb is building as the county gets set to go Major League. What will happen when 41,000 people and their cars converge on one of the area’s busiest intersections (I-75 and I-285)? We’ll know by this time next month.

But the concerns about funding the project, which have churned since the deal was announced in November 2013, again were buzzing as the Braves recently called in a $14 million IOU to Cobb that county officials thought Cobb had already paid.

Late last year, the team came forward and asked, “Hey, where’s that $14 million in improvements you guys said you’d complete?”

So, the county produced a list of $69 million in infrastructure improvements around the park, assuming it had met the criteria. Granted, the county listed every lane striping, curb cut and lighting project performed near the park in the last few years. But a substantial amount of that work was indeed performed with the new park in mind.

Still, county commissioners never voted on what specific projects met the criteria for the $14 million. So things remained hazy. And, it seems, Liberty’s lawyers are better than Cobb’s.

Enter new Commission Chairman Mike Boyce, who won his seat last year because of the lack of transparency surrounding the deal. Boyce was left with a pickle. Do you go to court and fight it out and have a whole new negative story line evolve around a money fight? Or do you negotiate a deal?

Boyce concluded that the county owed the money, so he negotiated a deal. The county will spend $11.7 million, mostly to fix stormwater runoff and perform sewer improvements near the park.

“Now both sides trust each other,” Boyce said, talking about looking forward and making things work.

I talked with Tom Cheek, a resident who has investigated Cobb government for the past few years. He said he was looking at Cobb officials’ emails, which he got through Open Records requests. “And it becomes humorous. It looked like some of them at the county were hoping the Braves would forget” about the $14 million promise, he said.

He added, “They have still not said where this money is coming from.”

I asked Cheek if he thought it was bad PR for the Braves to push for the money as the new park was set to open. I mean, $14 million is merely a rounding error for Liberty Media.

He laughed. “I don’t think it matters to them. They’re a huge corporation. (The bad press) is like a two-game losing streak to them. It affects the Cobb taxpayers more than the Braves.”

Cheek was not kidding when he said Cobb needs the money more than Liberty.

Last year, Liberty Media pulled in $5.3 billion in revenue and $1.73 BILLION in operating income, which is more than double 2014’s operating income, according to financial statements.

Ten years ago, Liberty Media, which was founded by the famously tax-avoidant businessman John Malone, got the Braves in an arcane stock swap with AOL-Time Warner. In that deal, Liberty shed $1.8 billion of Time Warner stock and received the Braves, then worth about $460 million, and $1.4 billion in cash. It saved a reported $600 million in taxes.

In essence, Malone got a free MLB team, plus hundreds of millions in cash.

Now the Braves, thanks to Cobb’s generosity, is worth $1.2 billion, according to a Forbes magazine article last year.

And, get this: On a recent call with Wall Street analysts, Liberty’s CEO Greg Maffei was asked about a rumored deal in which the Miami Marlins were to be sold for $1.6 billion (again, with a B).

“I would posit to the proud order that the Atlanta Braves, one of the most storied and longest franchises in baseball, frankly in professional sports in the U.S., would be far more valuable than the Marlins given our fan base, given our opportunity, given the new stadium, given the potential TV revenue ahead,” the executive said.

Remember, first pitch is three weeks away.
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Post by Watch Out Pylon! April 17th 2017, 3:18 pm

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Post by xsanguine April 17th 2017, 3:50 pm

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Post by Death Roe April 17th 2017, 3:54 pm

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Post by GRR Spartan April 17th 2017, 3:54 pm

Gotta love corporate welfare regardless of the source.

But why should we fund Meals on Wheels, fully fund the VA or nutrition programs at the state or Federal level?

It's a troubling dynamic. We see elected leaders falling over themselves to underwrite a stadium so teams owned by millionaires and billionaires have a place to play yet the same folks balk at making increasing use taxes like fuel and licensing to pay for the maintainence and repair of highways that have been short changed for decades.
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Post by NigelUno April 17th 2017, 4:12 pm

Should just rename this the Braves Board.

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Post by NigelUno April 17th 2017, 4:16 pm

Braves foam tomahawks spill onto I-75 South in Cobb

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Post by xsanguine April 17th 2017, 4:34 pm

NigelUno wrote:Braves foam tomahawks spill onto I-75 South in Cobb


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Post by NigelUno April 17th 2017, 4:40 pm

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Post by xsanguine April 17th 2017, 5:11 pm

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Post by NigelUno April 17th 2017, 11:19 pm

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Post by xsanguine April 18th 2017, 12:43 am

Chipper Jones trying not to strike out with third wife

Jaclyn Hendricks wrote:Chipper Jones knows better than anyone that the rules of baseball also apply to marriage: Three strikes and you’re out.

The former Atlanta Braves standout made his third trip down the aisle this weekend, marrying Playboy model Taylor Higgins in the Bahamas.

The busty blonde hopes to make an honest man out of Jones, who not only cheated on first wife Dr. Karin L. Fulford Smithson with a Hooters waitress, but split with wife No. 2, Sharon Logonov, in November 2012 before shacking up with Higgins a month later.

A former University of Kentucky cheerleader, Higgins traded in her pom poms for Playmate garb during her college career. Under the alias “Lexi Ray,” the Southern stunner starred in a handful of NSFW videos, in addition to scoring the coveted title of Playboy’s “Co-ed of the Week.”

The future Hall of Famer doesn’t seem to mind the bombshell’s “profession,” as he popped the question after a little over a year of dating.

And based on the pre-wedding pics, we’re certain Jones approves of his new wife’s closest friends
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Post by NigelUno April 18th 2017, 6:33 am

xsanguine wrote:  Atlanta Braves' New Stadium Is a Disaster for Taxpayers and Fans 1469072363

No pics?

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Post by xsanguine April 18th 2017, 2:22 pm

Chipper Jones Is Fat

Dom Consentino wrote:Larry Wayne Jones is going to be 40 in April, and he's about to begin his 19th season with the Braves. Jones says 2012 won't be his last in baseball, but it will be the final year of his guaranteed contract, for which he's scheduled to be paid $14 million. Jones made the NL All-Star team last year, and his deal does have a club option for 2013. Will the Braves exercise it? From the looks of this photo sent to us by reader Cody, they're getting a lot of ballplayer for the money.
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Post by Death Roe April 18th 2017, 2:25 pm

NigelUno wrote:

Bragging about beating the Padres is equivalent to beating a AAA team.
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Post by xsanguine April 18th 2017, 2:28 pm

Death Roe wrote:
NigelUno wrote:

Bragging about beating the Padres is equivalent to beating a AAA team.

After being hammered over the moral dirty star fish that is SunTrust Park, you gotta claim as many wins as you can...
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Post by NigelUno April 18th 2017, 2:56 pm

xsanguine wrote: Atlanta Braves' New Stadium Is a Disaster for Taxpayers and Fans 1469072363

First ballot HOF player with a Playboy model wife.

Sucks to be him, eh? Atlanta Braves' New Stadium Is a Disaster for Taxpayers and Fans 1966794946
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Post by NigelUno April 18th 2017, 3:13 pm



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