A new first baseman won’t be the only major change at Truist Park this season.
The stadium’s largest hospitality club has been gutted, redesigned, rebuilt and expanded. Thousands of seats have been replaced. And there will be no shortage of reminders that the Braves won the World Series last year.
With the season opener approaching April 7, here’s a rundown of what’s new at Truist Park in 2022, the Braves’ sixth season at the stadium:
Renovated club: An additional 8,000 square feet have been added to the indoor Delta Sky360 Club, located below the seating bowl behind home plate. The space now measures 18,650 square feet and includes nine food serving stations and a new 53-foot-long “Gold Glove Bar.” Braves President and CEO Derek Schiller said the “complete transformation” of the space cost “several million dollars.” A wall has been removed, and part of the operational tunnel on the ground level of the stadium has been annexed into the club.
“Instead of sort of a modified buffet, there now will be a lot of tapas or small-plates offerings, spread throughout the club,” Schiller said as construction workers raced to finish the rebuild. “The old model of (stadium) clubs was, ‘I’m going to grab a plate of food and sit down and have a dinner.’ Now, with the way tastes and habits have changed, it’s more, ‘I’m going to move around and sample a bunch of different offerings.’”
Celebratory signage: A red 2021 World Series championship pennant will be unveiled on a light tower high above right field during a pregame ceremony on opening night. Signage, both fixed and digital, will commemorate what happened last year at “probably a dozen or more locations” inside and outside the ballpark, Schiller said. On game days, the 2021 World Series trophy will join the 1995 World Series trophy on display in Monument Garden behind home plate, near the Hank Aaron statue.
Champions Walk: Since the World Series, some 4,000 engraved and personalized bricks have been purchased by fans and will be installed by the opener to form “Champions Walk” near the third-base gate. More than $1 million has been raised through the project to benefit the Braves Foundation, Schiller said.
Special uniform: As other defending World Series champions have done in recent years, the Braves will wear gold-trimmed uniforms and caps during their opening homestand. The jerseys will feature a 2021 World Series champions patch and accents of gold piping.
The field: The Braves have replaced the stadium’s grass with new sod, as they typically do before the start of each season. The same type of grass, Paspalum, was used.
Seat replacement: About 4,000 seats in the club sections have been replaced after five years of use. The new padded leather seats and the Delta club renovation are “majority” funded by the team, but part of the cost will be covered by the stadium’s capital maintenance fund to which both the team and Cobb County contribute, Schiller said.
Renamed club: The terrace-level hospitality space previously named the Infiniti Club has been rebranded as the Xfinity Club. Car maker Infiniti’s sponsorship deal ended and wasn’t renewed. Comcast expanded its sponsorship deal to put the name of its Xfinity division on the club.
Expanded mobile ordering: Fans can order some concession items and merchandise from their seats, pay via an app and pick up their order at designated locations or ultimately have in-seat delivery. Schiller called this initiative “a work in progress.”
In The Battery Atlanta: Additions since the end of last season to the mixed-use development adjacent to the stadium include Irish pub Mac McGee and gourmet grocer Savi Provisions. Other additions are scheduled to open in the coming months.
Credit: Miguel Martinez for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Credit: Miguel Martinez for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
