As the Braves get off to a surprisingly good season on the diamond, the construction of Suntrust Park continues some 20 miles north in Cobb County. Cranes rise hundreds of feet into the sky, Kennesaw Mountain far off behind them, layering walls onto the freshly constructed foundations. Support columns for yet-to-be built entrance ramps peer over the myriad of existing roads and interstates, the first step in adding onto the maze of highways that surrounds the future ballpark.
The question, as always, is where will these people all park? Atlanta isn’t a ‘public transit town’ to begin with, even before you take that option completely out of the equation by putting the new stadium in a county that would laugh itself to tears if MARTA expansion was brought up.
Well if no news is good news, then is some news bad news? Because we’ve, (finally) got some news, per the MDJ.
The first is that the Braves are excited that nearby businesses are already planning on how they can get in on the action. Local businesses are already plotting to bus in visitors from their own parking lots. Likewise, Marietta Mayor Steve Tumlin is giddy at the notion of running a trolley from downtown Marietta to the stadium. Plenty of parking on Marietta Square on Friday at 7:00pm right?
So that’s a start, but Braves executive vice president of operations Mike Plant, visionary that he is, isn’t stopping there. Said Plant, “We’re working closely with the CIDs because we’re going to have a lot of bikers, and we want people to ride there, certainly on the weekends and take cars off the road.”
Does the HOV lane on I-75 double as a bike lane? Will a parking pass for a tandem bicycle cost the same as one for a single-seater? Will my insurance still cover me if they find out I’m riding a bike home through traffic at 10:30 on a Saturday night?
One has to hope that this idea was pitched in jest, because it displays a detachment from the idea of what Braves fans want and need from their new stadium that is utterly mind boggling.
On a positive note, Plant did make some references to potential good news on the more conventional parking front.
So there’s your hope and change. The Braves have already been working on acquiring more land around the stadium site for parking use, and it’s rumored that Comcast has even more to sell off to their partners in crim.. er.. baseball technology services. At the end of the day, sufficient parking for automobiles is the only thing that is going to satisfy fans in one of the most car-friendly cities in the world.
Plant went on to discuss vague details about Suntrust Park itself, hitting on the fact that it would be that elusive mix of modern and traditional that all new stadiums strive to provide. “It’s not just a hot dog anymore,” Said Plant. “It’s coming into a ballpark and having a restaurant-style experience. That’s what people expect.”
Maybe I can only speak for myself and my contemporaries, the 25-35 year olds who make up a huge portion of the current fanbase and figure to be the ones buying season tickets for the next 50 years, but driving to the park, drinking a few beers in the parking lot, and eating a hot dog is exactly what we expect.
If the ‘new’ Braves experience means loading up on a bus from 3 miles away, drinking $17 cocktails in the Applebees next to the park, and then sitting down for a “restaurant style experience” in the concourse during the game, then Braves execs are going to be in for a rude awakening in 2017 and beyond.
