How we got the story. Since the Atlanta Braves announced plans to move to a new stadium to be built in Cobb County, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has provided unmatched coverage of the behind-the-scenes discussions that shaped the decision. AJC reporter Katie Leslie obtained communications between the Braves and Fulton County Recreation Authority through the state's Open Records law.
It was opening day for the Atlanta Braves last April and the stakes were high. More than 50,000 tickets had been sold and the fans began pouring in before noon to kick off tailgating festivities.
Soon after, Braves executive Mike Plant received an email from Larry Bowman, senior director of stadium operations, alerting him to a problem: Fans arriving at the blue lot were being turned away by Georgia State parking officials and told to return after 5 p.m., lest they get booted, he said.
And the Atlanta Fulton County Recreation Authority — the agency that owns Turner Field — wasn’t helping.
“I can’t stress enough how disappointing, frustrating and now flat-out uncooperative the AFCRA is being with our ability to operate our game responsibilities at the stadium complex,” Plant wrote in an email the same day to Atlanta Chief Operating Office Duriya Farooqui and Deputy Chief Operating Officer Hans Utz.
That e-mail, a sample of exchanges between the Braves, the AFCRA and the city over parking problems, offers a glimpse into the friction between the team and the county agency that oversees Turner Field. The documents, obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution from the AFCRA through an open records request, show the Braves were lodging those complaints just months before the team began negotiating with Cobb County for a new stadium.
In one letter, the Braves make clear that renewing the team’s lease would depend in part on resolving a parking problem for which it held the county responsible.
Per long-standing agreements, Georgia State University and Fulton County are allowed use of certain parking lots on game days up until 5 p.m., but according to Plant, the team was typically afforded flexibility for the biggest games of the year.
“For the past 16 seasons on opening day we promote aggressively for fans to show up early so that we ease the traffic burden on the highways and city streets,” he wrote. “Now for the first time we are told we cannot use the blue and orange lots until 5 p.m. or cars who have pre-paid parking that we let into the lots will be towed or booted by GSU.”
In a May 8 letter, AFCRA chairman James Hughes expressed surprise at the team’s complaint, said the authority believed the university and county were compliant with existing parking agreements, and pledged his support of the team having priority over the lots on game day.
“Clearly, with the upcoming discussion of the operating agreement and the (tax allocation district) development we will need to be in close contact with one another,” he wrote. “It is my hope that we can work together in a way that is beneficial to both of our needs.”
His response appeared to invite the ire of the Braves. A series of letters between the team and AFCRA show the parties continued to clash over parking rights through at least June, a disagreement that at one point led the team to remind the city it was considering leaving downtown, documents show.
“As we evaluate whether to extend the Operating Agreement beyond 2016, it is critical that we clean up issues related to the grandfathered parking agreements to recognize that Atlanta Braves’ games and special events take priority at the Baseball Complex over GSU and Fulton County parking,” Plant wrote in a May 14 letter to Hughes.
Hughes later said he investigated the “opening day” issue and blamed the error on the Braves’ for failing to request in advance that Georgia State change its parking schedule.
City officials including Farooqui, Utz, Chief of Staff Candace Byrd, City Attorney Cathy Hampton and AFCRA executive director Violet Travis Ricks were copied on the letters between the parties.
For more than 20 years Fulton County and GSU have been allowed to use the parking lots when not in use by the Braves or the AFCRA. On game days, the county and university are given access to the parking lots through 5 p.m., and on days with earlier games, not allowed to park there at all.
The team later amended its agreement with AFCRA in June to provide greater parking flexibility.
A month later the Braves began talks with Cobb County officials about building a new $672 million stadium financed by $300 million in taxpayer dollars.
About the Author
