Good morning. LEADOFF has today’s early buzz in Atlanta sports.
Despite the Braves' last-place finish in the NL East, Atlanta was the fourth best U.S. city for baseball fans this year.
At least that’s the judgment of personal-finance website WalletHub, which had its analysts crunch the numbers on “25 key indicators of baseball fan friendliness” for 361 U.S. cities with at least one professional or college baseball team.
Atlanta's ranking, in the study headlined "2016's Best Baseball Cities," was boosted by having the second cheapest average ticket price for MLB games and the fourth most engaged MLB fans as measured by teams' Twitter followers and Facebook "likes" per capita.
Those categories helped Atlanta overcome its standing in “performance level of team.”
Seven other Georgia cities with college and/or minor-league baseball teams also were ranked: Kennesaw No. 100, Statesboro No. 147, Athens No. 199, Rome No. 226, Augusta No. 236, Macon No. 289 and Savannah No. 337.
The nation’s top three cities for baseball fans, according to the website’s metrics, were New York, St. Louis and Los Angeles, in that order. Boston ranked fifth, dragged down a bit by having the highest average MLB ticket price.
But it’s safe to say that fans in WalletHub’s 10th- and 14th-rated baseball cities — Chicago and Cleveland, respectively — have few complaints about 2016.
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It's no surprise that the Golden State Warriors are heavily favored to win the NBA championship and the Cleveland Cavaliers heavily favored to win the Eastern Conference.
But what, for the record, are the Hawks’ longshot chances?
30/1 to win the East and 100/1 to win the NBA Finals, according to vegasinsider.com.
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As construction continues on the large mixed-use development set to open next year adjacent to the Braves' new SunTrust Park, another MLB team plans to expand a similar concept around its stadium.
The St. Louis Cardinals announced Tuesday a second phase of Ballpark Village, the restaurant and entertainment district that opened next to Busch Stadium in 2014. The $220 million, 550,000-square-foot second phase, targeted for completion in 2019, will include a 29-story residential tower, a Class A office building and more retail, restaurant and entertainment space, the Cardinals said.
The Braves’ development is unique in that it is being built simultaneously with the team’s new stadium. The Battery Atlanta will include shops, restaurants, apartments, offices, a hotel and an entertainment venue.
Follow @ajcstadium on Twitter for updates on the new Braves and Falcons stadiums.
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ICYMI: The Indians and Cubs are the 17th and 18th different franchises to reach the World Series since the Braves were last there in 1999. The full list.
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