Phil Corbin, a pine-straw mogul from McDonough, will be closer to home plate than Tom Glavine, the Atlanta Braves' starting pitcher, when the baseball season arrives at Turner Field tonight.

Corbin will be in the front row of a new premium and pricey seating section built behind the plate. The Braves say the seats are closer to the action than any others in Major League Baseball.

Mikki K. Harris / AJC (ENLARGE)

SunTrust Club members Denise (center) and David Johnston (right) watch Friday's exhibition game against Cleveland. 'The only better seat is playing for the Braves,' David Johnston said.

Mikki K. Harris / AJC (ENLARGE)

Maceo Brown watches Friday's Braves-Indians exhibition game from one of the 143 seats in Turner Field's SunTrust Club.

RELATED STORIES Hanson ready for Rockies  Braves upbeat after taking road series from Cubs  Series preview: Braves at Rockies         • More Braves coverage

It's an expensive view: up to $24,900 per season — 100 times as much as a season ticket high above right field ($249).

Granted, the new seats come with a few extra perks: valet parking, a private stadium entrance, an underground lounge with chef and concierge, unlimited food and beverage, in-seat waiter service, and flat-screen TV monitors on the front row.

Corbin, whose Corbin's Baled Pine Straw sold 4.5 million bales nationwide last year, bought two seats and plans to use them mostly for business entertainment. He calls them "the deal closers."

"I just have to tell you," he said, "it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get seats this close."

It's baseball in the lap of luxury.

Seems appropriate that the seats are green — the other 49,000-plus at Turner Field are blue — and that a bank bought the naming rights.

Even if you're not among the 143 people sitting there, the SunTrust Club will bring a noticeable change to the Turner Field landscape when the Braves open their home season tonight against the Pittsburgh Pirates. The seats could even affect play, with the reduction in foul territory behind the plate portending fewer outs on foul pop-ups and fewer runs on wild pitches.

The three rows of thickly padded seats — $300 per game in the front row, $275 per game in the other two rows — protrude closer to the field than even the dugouts and the owner's box. The seats, behind protective netting, are 43 feet from the plate and six feet from the on-deck circles at the closest points. The pitcher's mound, by contrast, is 60 feet 6 inches from the plate.

Connected to the seats by stairs — and never to be seen by most stadium-goers — is the swanky, 5,000-square-foot SunTrust Club lounge, where pre-game dinner is served 12 feet below ground. Some 200 dump-truck loads of dirt were excavated this winter to build the lounge, which is a rich blend of wood, marble, leather and backlit sepia-tone baseball photography.

The Braves spent between $5 million and $6 million on the project.

"All but about 12" of the seats have been sold on three- to seven-year leases, Braves executive vice president of sales and marketing Derek Schiller said, and none will be offered on a single-game basis. Sales, he said, have been "primarily" to corporations that plan to use the seats for business entertainment purposes.

"Baseball games go longer than a business lunch or breakfast, so it's a great way to build a memory and have a shared experience and an extended dialogue," said John Merkin, Atlanta-based senior vice president of brand management for Holiday Inn Brands, the Americas.

Holiday Inn bought four seats and plans to use them for outings with business partners and as rewards to top customers. On occasion, the seats will be auctioned off to members of parent InterContinental Hotels Group's Priority Club Rewards program.

"By being able to give a unique experience to our guests [who] use these tickets, it's going to take something that is entertainment and turn it into something memorable," Merkin said. "The idea of being ... closer to the catcher than the pitcher is — that's going to be very memorable."

The company gave tonight's tickets to a member of the highest level of its guest rewards program, Alan Hays. He in turn gave them to his mother, Carol Hays.

"Because he loves Mom," she said.

She's a longtime Braves fan who "can't wait for the game."

Rinnai Corp., the tankless water heater manufacturer that has its U.S. headquarters in Peachtree City, bought three of the seats. The company's strategy is to bring in VIP customers from across the country to experience the seats when the customers' hometown teams are playing the Braves.

"Suites are nice, but a lot of our customers have been there, done that," said Mike Murtaugh, Rinnai's marketing manager. "The whole idea of being so close that it's like you're in the game — few people get to experience that unless you're part of a team in the dugout."

And even then you're not quite this close.

Losers in the deal are businesses and individuals who used to have front-row seats and now find themselves behind the three new rows. Schiller said first priority in the new section was offered to season-ticket holders in the former front row, and some upgraded. But the move came with a five-fold price increase: Season tickets in the former front row cost $60 per game, or $4,980 per year.

The new seats won't be all business. Braves chairman Terry McGuirk said some buyers are affluent individuals seeking "five-star service" with their baseball. And Corbin, the pine-straw mogul, said he wouldn't dare use his opening-night tickets for business: He'll take his wife, an avid Braves fan, to the game.