Atlanta Braves Break Ground on New Ballpark

The construction on the site has been going on for a couple of months, though it's been limited to clearing land, grading it and relocating a gas line.

On Tuesday it became official.

The Atlanta Braves officially broke ground on their soon to be new baseball stadium that they plan on building on the northernmost edge of Atlanta in Cobb County.

And they managed to find a naming partner--Sun Trust Bank. (It will be called "Sun Trust Park")

Here's your introductory video:



The stadium, which will be paid for partially by the Braves and partially by Cobb County is expected to open in 2017 and cost somewhere around $600 million. It's expected to seat a little over 40,000 fans.

The biggest push for the team and Cobb County leaders is that the stadium is supposed to be the anchor of a mixed use community featuring restaurants, bars, shops, offices and residences.

We should note, we live about 5 minutes from the property and it's not that big of an area. While we are excited about having our beloved Braves so close, we wonder how they are going to fit all this in a relatively small area with major traffic issues. We suspect it still will completely change the landscape of the area though it remains to be seen how.

The whole thing has been interesting to follow. The county wasn't exactly forthcoming with pretty much anything about this project until they announced it and that made some people really, really angry.

And rightfully so. Though we understand why it was done that way. Cobb County residents, or at least the vocal ones who always show up on TV would never have gone for this in any way shape or form. Those who are complaining are the one's that elect leaders that give businesses all kinds of handouts, but it's different when it's a sports team.

We're now to the point of no return, the stadium will be built. And the surrounding area will change. Only time and a boatload of construction will tell how that will play out and what the southern tip of the County will look like in just over 2-years.