Completing a plan that started years ago, Georgia State's purchase of Turner Field was approved by state Board of Regents on Wednesday.
The University will spend $52.8 million to turn the Braves' former home into a football stadium. A baseball stadium will be constructed on the north side of the stadium in the former footprint of Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium . The University is expected to take ownership on Jan. 1, 2017 with construction starting soon thereafter.
Athletic director Charlie Cobb, who has declined to speak about the project for more than a year because he was waiting on the sale to be approved, called the Regents’ decision “transformational” on Wednesday. Cobb’s answers have been paraphrased in some instances for brevity and clarity.
Q: What does this mean for Georgia State’s athletics department?
A: It’s tranformational for the university and athletics. Facilities are our most glaring need to be a consistent, successful DI program. To start with the conversion of a stadium, and our own football stadium, is a tremendous positive step in the right direction.
Q: Football is still struggling to gain excitement within the university and the city. How will Turner Field help?
A: It gives you your own space and place. Our football facility will be confined to our stadium.
The vast majority of programs on our level have their own stadium. Simple things: signage, logos, colors of seats, we can start building a tradition
We control parking lots, concessions, what’s on the scoreboard, what it will look like — branding things that help identify with the program.
One of those residual positives is the legacy of the Braves beyond the stadium. they have done a tremendous job marketing the team throughout the Southeast. If you are a sports fan, you are probably a Braves fan.
It helps the coaches in recruiting. There is credibility because of the reach the Braves have because from a marketing standpoint that makes it easier for us to sell.
We will focus on Atlanta and Georgia but it will make it easier for us to tell people this is where play.
Q: With the recent scrutiny the Regents have put on athletics at colleges and universities around the state, was there any fear that the project wouldn’t be approved?
A: You have to walk through a process, and follow a process, and explain it piece by piece.
There were concerns of hitting certain benchmarks and dates.
The thing that (President) Mark (Becker) has done is put a great team together.
Kerry Heyward and Jerry Rackliffe and Walter Massey and the foundation put this complex real estate transaction together. It’s a great team. It was a matter of putting the work together and effectively communicating what we are trying to do.
Q: What’s next for the project?
A: The next step for the project is we have to close.
We have to get RFQs out for design and construction.
The renderings are a two-phase project. The first part is trying to play football games by 2017. The rest is completing the project, which will be done after the season.
Only the first phase has been approved. We will have to go back to the Regents for the second phase.
It’s an ongoing process. We have to make sure the approvals are done before the next step.
Q: When will that approval be pursued?
A: Purely speculating, sometime in the fall (of 2017). The focus right now is the acquisition and the Phase I construction.
Q: What is included in Phase I?
A: Some demolition of some of the seats in left field to be able to put in a football field. We will put artificial turf in.
We have to take some of the seats out along the third-base line for sight lines.
Then put the new seats along the second-base, center-field side of the stadium.
There are some bathroom issues we have to do.
Look to start construction in February.
Q: What happens to the football practice facility that you do have at MLK Drive?
A: Part of a long-term process. It will have another use for us. We are bouncing a couple of ideas. Maybe convert it to soccer and it may have some other university uses.
Q: How many football games do you plan on playing in Turner Field in 2017?
A: We will play six home games every year. That’s the goal.
Q: No plan to play a game in Mercedes-Benz Stadium?
A: No.
Q: What are the revenue projections for Turner Field for football and how do they compare to what you receive or lose from the Georgia Dome?
A: That’s one of the things that we will spend time in first quarter of ‘17 developing. We have spent a lot of time in design and acquisition. We have been careful to not get ahead of ourselves to make sure all the details were taken care of with acquisition, design and construction.
Look for December on when we will be developing sales plans for 2017 football season.
We have to look at different models.
Naming rights is another piece. We have to put all those arrangements together.
Do we anticipate selling more tickets? Absolutely.
Do we anticipate more revenues? Absolutely.
Q: Will it still be called Turner Field, or will sponsorships be pursued?
A: We will actively pursue sponsorships and naming opportunities. We will call it Georgia State University Stadium.
We’d like to find someone to put their name on it. We didn’t want to get ahead of ourselves.
We want to put a name on the field, on the stadium, in the locker room, in the lockers. We are developing a whole campaign around athletics and the stadium is a big piece of that.
Q: How much of your time has this taken up since you became athletic director?
A: Probably, up until six months ago, not a lot. Probably a quarter of my time since then.
A lot of campus folks have put a lot of time and energy into this.
From our end, a lot of our work is going from today forward in terms of operations and marketing.
