It’s sure made for plenty of media noise since the team and Cobb County officials announced on Nov. 11 that the Braves plan to make their new home beginning in 2017 on a 60-acre site near Cumberland Mall and Cobb Galleria Centre in Smyrna.
National media in particular have been intrigued more than anything by the odd alliance of political players on the right and the left in opposition to the announced $672 million project. It’s not every day that one reads in the left-leaning Huffington Post that “The Tea Party Got It Right.” Even environmentalists, a core Democratic constituency, are threatening to get involved.
But the well-planned “pre-emptive strike” by the Braves and Cobb County may have won the day already. The Cobb Commission voted 4-1 on Nov. 26 to commit the county to roughly $300 million “up front,” a total that grows to about $600 by the time the bond debt is retired in 30 years. And the Braves admit that since about 2005 they’ve been exploring strategies to leave Turner Field in downtown Atlanta.
In response, the loose-knit coalition of stadium opponents has vowed to pursue one or several actions to keep ground from being broken for stadium construction. But their promises of more activism seem potentially weak because of their sheer number and variety. Talk circulates about lawsuits, ethics complaints, recall elections and more. Most sources think it’s already too late to stop this apparently done deal.
Cobb taxpayers probably will be the ones to decide if this political indignation gets anywhere. A tax bill of hundreds of millions of dollars doubtless won’t sit well in this conservative county, especially when the bill starts to actually come due.
However, any political campaign to unseat incumbent commissioners or state lawmakers would essentially be a movement of grassroots retribution. Voters usually go to the polls to vote themselves future benefit. A throw-the-bums-out mentality might have trouble reaching its goal when the voters see that the challenger candidates, aside from the stadium issue, hold nearly identical, conservative views as the officeholders they would seek to replace. (Few others can get elected in most of Cobb.)
Ironically, a recall election might better serve the purpose; fewer voters could possibly unseat commissioners than it would take in a general election. But a recall would pose its own risks. If the anti-stadium coalition lost a special election, their wide-ranging effort to stop the stadium might done with, and with much egg on their face. Don’t forget that the Braves have plenty of their fan base in Cobb — an announced major reason the team wants to move across county lines in the first place. Fans can vote too.
Several names already have surfaced for those who might try to leverage anti-stadium sentiment into a bid for a Cobb Commission seat; Neva Lent of Cobb Regional Republican women; former congressional candidate Michael Opitz; and Bill Byrne, the ubiquitous former Cobb County Commission Chairman.
The best shot at halting construction with a lawsuit appears early-on to be one that challenges Cobb officials’ plan to redirect in-hand property tax revenues to help pay off bond debt. But the lawyers we talked to are skeptical this would work.
None of this is to say the tea-party/left-wing coalition doesn’t have a moral case against the partly taxpayer-funded stadium. Their best argument is their contention that, contrary to the claim of some, new stadiums don’t bring nearly enough economic development to counterbalance the public’s investment. There’s even a book on the subject. Click here for more. http://books.google.com/books/about/Public_Dollars_Private_Stadiums.html?id=vfbFbkbZ3GwC
The stadium issue is a big one for the Tea Party in Georgia, which has a chance to prove its mettle where it probably should — at the local, grassroots level, and away from the bitter politics inside the Washington Beltway, with its anti-Tea Party press corps. Even so, the Tea Party must be careful not to put all its baseballs in one bucket. Bellyaching can be therapeutic, but it alone rarely brings political gain.
Watch for any coming revelations or informed speculation about the likely additional money Cobb taxpayers will have to cough up for capital improvements – such as roads in the busy area where Cobb Parkway, I-285 and I-75 converge – that’s where the stadium will is to be built.
