Wednesday, June 13, 2018

FIELDS OF DREAMS: Sun Trust Park, Atlanta, Georgia


As of this writing, this is the newest stadium in baseball. Replacing the still useful Turner Field in downtown Atlanta, Sun Trust Park brings the Braves to the suburbs in nearby Cobb County. Opened in 2017, the stadium is also the anchor to a new shopping and entertainment center called The Battery Atlanta.

The Braves used to be called America's Team and were the most popular team in baseball for awhile due to former owner Ted Turner's massive broadcasting reach. Braves games were show nationwide on his Turner Broadcasting System (TBS) and the team had fans nationwide. During the 1990's, the team won five National League pennants and one World Series. Here are the stats:

Opened: 2017
Surface: Seashore Paspalum, Platinum TE
Construction cost: $622 million
Capacity: 41,804
Field dimensions: Left field - 335 ft; Left center - 385 ft; center field - 400 ft; right center - 375 ft; right field - 325 ft.
Home team: Atlanta Braves (National League - MLB) 2017 - present
Events attended: 1 game


Good access all around the entire stadium. Wheechair seating is plentiful all around the seating bowl. Most accessible seats have an overhang from the deck above blocking the view of the scoreboard. Video monitors are mounted to compensate.

Ticketing is easy, just go to Braves.com to click on wheelchair accessible seating.  We had no problem getting seats for the wheelchair and two companions.  Dynamic pricing means there are no set ticket prices but our seats by the left field foul pole were around $50. 

Public transit is almost non-existent to this park, there is not enough parking (we had to park a half mile away, pay $25, and hike to the stadium), and traffic is intense with no one directing traffic that we could see.

There are a few lodging choices are available near the stadium such as Marriott, Hilton, and Omni hotels.

Food choices are the normal ballpark fare. We did enjoy the hot dogs but the popcorn was too salty. They could have had a better beer selection. Our chip-enabled credit card would not work at their snack bars, which required you to slide them through the magnetic strip reader.

The concourse is open and monitors at the food stands allow you to follow the game. This is essential because it took me the first three innings to stand in line and get our food...the staff was nowhere near prepared to handle the record setting crowd that showed up the night we were there (41,807) 

In general, we were very disappointed in the fan experience at MLB's newest stadium.

Copyright 2018 - Darryl Musick
All Rights Reserved

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