Yesterday, the team formerly known as the Atlanta Braves, became the Cobb County White Flight. The team web site included this as critical to their reasoning for leaving downtown Atlanta: “There is a lack of consistent mass transportation, a lack of sufficient parking and a lack of direct access to interstates.”
I’ve been to some games and as I recall, I exited directly from I-20, turned left at the top of the ramp, and drove about 1/4 mile to the parking lot directly outside the stadium. Does Braves management not know that I-20 stretches over 1,500 miles from Texas into South Carolina (making it an easy interstate for fans to use when coming from the east or the west).
The Downtown Connector isn’t much further past the stadium exit on I-20, which means fans traveling on I-75 or I-85 have easy access to The Ted.
For those who take MARTA to the game, an easy access station is about half a mile from the stadium. When I ‘ve been to a game the sidewalks are crowded with people walking from nearby Underground (with lots of parking) or the train station.
Jay Bookman has a short column today on how Cobb County’s GOP Chair Joe Dendy couches his support of the team’s new location. Bookman quotes Dendy saying, “It is absolutely necessary the (transportation) solution is all about moving cars in and around Cobb and surrounding counties from our north and east where most Braves fans travel from, and not moving people into Cobb by rail from Atlanta.”
Nevermind the “moving cars” issue because clearly the current stadium’s location near three major interstates isn’t the problem.
The real dilemma for Cobb County Conservatives is exactly who might choose to go to an MLB game in the suburbs by rail. And that’s a foul ball.
