Top MARTA officials spoke publicly for the first time Friday about the Braves’ decision to open a new stadium in Cobb County in 2017.
In a panel discussion after a “State of MARTA” breakfast, MARTA board chairman Frederick L. Daniels, board member Robert L. Ashe III and CEO Keith T. Parker said the authority was still waiting to be approached by stadium planners. They hope to begin discussions soon about how the transit authority can be a partner in serving the area.
“I think it will be important for them, assuming they end up making that move, to figure out how they get their workforce there,” Ashe said. “And frankly, how they get people like me who live in Midtown, and aren’t really enthusiastic about driving north into one of the most congested intersections in the country at 6 p.m., to get to the game.”
About 6 percent of game-goers typically ride MARTA. It’s unclear how those people would get to the new ballpark. The currently undeveloped site is near I-75 and I-285 in the Cumberland Mall area. Cobb Community Transit has five bus routes serving that area in addition to MARTA’s Route 12.
But the nearest MARTA station is more than 10 miles away.
Turner Field also lacks direct rail service from MARTA. But Braves fans can catch a shuttle from Underground Atlanta by the Five Points station — a 1.4-mile bus ride — or walk less than a mile from the Georgia State University Station.
Asked why MARTA never extended its rail line to Turner Field, Parker said that decision was made long before he took the helm last year.
“We wanted to have a broader discussion about what we could do on a larger basis,” Parker said. “Those things never materialized. We were never approached with the mantra of let’s expand direct rail service to the Braves stadium.”
Braves executives said making it easier for fans to get to and from the stadium is a priority, and that they are working with the leadership of Cobb County and its department of transportation to achieve this goal.
“Any discussions regarding additional mass transit options to the site will be addressed in conjunction with the leadership in Cobb County as they continue to develop their long-term transportation plan for the area,” said Mike Plant, Atlanta Braves Executive Vice President of Business Operations.
Cobb Party Republican chairman Joe Dendy has said transportation improvements for the new stadium should prioritize moving cars in and around Cobb from surrounding counties to the north and east where most Braves fans live, “not moving people into Cobb by rail from Atlanta.”
Ashe said he doesn’t believe that opinion reflects the “modern reality” in Cobb County.
“I think that gentleman respectfully doesn’t speak for the majority of Cobb County voters,” Ashe said.
Braves ridership has long been an asset for MARTA, not only as a fare source but as a lobbying tool for seeking additional funding and as a way to reach a demographic that rarely uses transit.
The loss of Braves ridership is not likely to affect the authority’s bottom line, though.
According to Parker, providing shuttle service to Turner Field was a “break-even” proposition to begin with. If that service to the stadium is no longer needed, MARTA will reroute those buses and train car capacity to other routes where there is already a pent-up demand for service, he said.
Parker hastened to add, “We’ve enjoyed providing the Braves shuttle, we anticipate doing it for the next few years, and we’ll see what happens in the future.”
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