Coming Sunday
Emails obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution shed light on negotiations between Atlanta officials and Braves executives before the team announced its move to Cobb County.
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Read some of the emails from Atlanta City Hall officials at our premium website for subscribers, MyAJC.com.
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Read some of the emails from Atlanta City Hall officials at our premium website for subscribers, MyAJC.com.
(use MyAJC.com logo for headline)
Read some of the emails from Atlanta City Hall officials at our premium website for subscribers, MyAJC.com.
(use MyAJC.com logo for headline)
Read some of the emails from Atlanta City Hall officials at our premium website for subscribers, MyAJC.com.
Mayor Kasim Reed and a handful of officials may have learned the Atlanta Braves’ shocking plans to leave for Cobb County during a Nov. 7 meeting with team leaders. But they weren’t prepared for the ballclub to go public with the explosive news four days later.
The surprise announcement on Veterans Day sent the administration into a tailspin as it grappled with how to handle the inevitable public relations nightmare, emails released by the Reed administration Thursday show. Many within the administration had not yet been informed of the team’s pending departure.
“My phone and email are blowing up about a report in today’s Marietta Daily Journal claiming Braves plan to move to Cobb County,” Reed spokesman Carlos Campos wrote in an email to Chief Operating Officer Duriya Farooqui and Deputy Chief Operating Officer Hans Utz minutes after the news broke Nov. 11. “We are being asked for comment. Anyone? I’m clueless.”
The administration soon began triage of the fallout. In discussing an online story by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the team seemed divided on when the mayor should issue a statement.
“Right now stories seem better without it,” Farooqui wrote.
“We’re getting beat up online, and this story is pretty significant,” spokeswoman Anne Torres countered a few minutes later.
Amid the flurry of emails sent between staffers, an exchange between Utz — who led negotiations with the Braves — and Campos offers a glimpse into the frustration felt about the team’s departure.
When asked by Campos to weigh in on talking points for the mayor, specifically just how big a loss the Braves’ departure is for the city, Utz explained the team will remain an Atlanta entity.
But in that same note, his frustration was clear as he employed racially insensitive words to describe team names the Braves aren’t likely to consider in their future home.
“They are still the Atlanta Braves,” Utz, known for his candor around City Hall, wrote the evening of Nov. 11. “They are not going to call themselves the Cobb Crackers, or the Smyrna (expletive). They will still be the Atlanta Braves, and that is an indication of the value of the city.”
Campos responded that he would have to “edit appropriately.”
In his reply, Utz, who is white, joked: “Are you saying you will not allow me to say ‘Smyrna (expletive)’ on national TV?” and included a haiku:
“The Braves might leave us
Becoming the Cobb Crackers
I feel bad for them”
Utz, who joined City Hall in 2011, said he regrets his choice of words.
“Those emails reflect a lapse in judgment on my part, for which I sincerely apologize and truly regret,” he said in a statement Thursday. “… The emails were my ill-advised attempt at using humor to make a point about the Braves still being a part of the greater metropolitan region. They were not meant to disparage our suburban neighbors.”
Reed declined to comment on Utz’s emails. Utz was suspended three days without pay this week, Campos said.
Braves executive vice president Mike Plant, reached Thursday night, said Utz’s comments do not reflect the negotiations between the team and the city. Plant and Utz were the lead negotiators for each party.
“Hans, he’s a good guy, a smart guy. He had the city’s interests at heart,” Plant said. “I feel bad for him. Every once in a while, we all turn our filter off. So I hope this isn’t some challenging issue he has to deal with for the rest of his career. That’s not who he is. I never saw that. Hans is a professional.”
Cobb County spokesman Robert Quigley declined to comment on Utz’s remarks but said the county values its relationship with Atlanta and is focused on opening the new Braves stadium in 2017.
While the Braves haven’t spoken publicly about much of its talks with the city, emails show the team’s frustration with Reed’s attention to the $1.2 billion Atlanta Falcons stadium deal.
Braves and city officials clashed over how much control the team could have in developing land around Turner Field. The Braves wanted to outline terms of the development request for proposal but also to win the contract. That, city officials said, was a conflict of interest and against state law.
Reed has said the city could not afford to finance the nearly $200 million the Braves wanted in improvements.
Still, according to Utz, the city was vetting a 16-point proposal from the Braves when the team announced a $672 million stadium deal with Cobb County, with taxpayer dollars funding half the project. That, Utz said, is simply a better proposal than Atlanta could offer.
The Cobb County Commission approved the deal, which uses $300 million in taxpayer funds to the development, by a 4-to-1 vote last month.
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