As you may have heard, the Atlanta Braves have announced that they're leaving Atlanta and moving out to suburban Cobb County. Their stadium, virtually the only recognizable legacy of the 1996 Olympics, will be torn down and replaced with some project yet to be identified.
This move not only bucks the national trend of moving major sports venues closer to City Centers, but it also reverses a recent trend away from Atlanta's endemic sprawl and towards more in-town, pedestrian-friendly development.
The area the team is moving towards doesn't even have a name and is usually described simply in reference to the cloverleaf intersection of I-75 and I-285 (The Perimeter). Traffic is already gridlocked at that intersection during rush hour - adding a major league baseball game to the area mix won't exactly relieve the burden on the traffic. Oh, and the area has traditionally resisted any and all proposals for public transit, and isn't likely to embrace it anytime soon - the area is notoriously one of the most conservative counties in the metro area and home to the Atlanta Tea Party faction.
So good luck with the move, Atlanta Braves. Frankly, I haven't cared about your team since at least 1999 and won't miss the traffic and noise your presence has generated in the past. And best wishes with your new tenant, Cobb County. I'll check back with you in a few years to see how your "no new taxes" and "private sector enterprise" philosophies are faring in the face of the burdens you've just assumed.
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