curtmcgirt

BTW Doraville was never an option. It was always going to be mixed use.

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But what would Widespread Panic have to say about it?

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I've been all over Philips Arena for work. Front and back of house. There is TONS of wasted space there. The workout facilities are smaller than some Snap Fitness locations. The areas that used to house Thrashers equipment, marketing and what not are just dead space now.  They could easily remodel the player facilities and amenities one off season, the concourse the next.

That flat area near the back taco mac entrance is a complete waste of space. 

I live in town. In the past few years I've lived in Adair Park, Old 4th Ward, Virginia Highlands and Cabbagetown. It's more expensive to live in these areas to a degree, but there are tons of amenities. I routinely hop on MARTA at the Inman Park station to go to Hawks games. It's less than 15 minutes door to door. I'd also recommend Decatur, Kirkwood, and Oakhurst.

Crime is odd here. When I lived in Adair Park, I was broken into 3 times (once the night I was moving out) and had my car stolen (retrieved a block away). In that neighborhood the crime came from the neighborhood literally across the tracks. That said, crime goes up once school is out. And the closer you are to the expressway, the higher the chances of being robbed are. 

I don't have kids so I don't know about schools in a macro sense. But parents fight to get into city of Decatur schools and certain Atlanta Public Schools. There are also more charters every year if that's your thing.

I don't know if this has been brought up or not, but Bud's contract runs out next year. He's likely due a massive extension once the new owners are in place. Can or would he say he won't resign without Ferry?

Rasheed Wallace.....just a jersey hanging in a locker.

To me the entire point of this article was to get out that Gearon and others still want to be part owners. 

Diesel, you know that the instant a plan like that came out, the poverty pimps would be crying gentrification (translation: where's our cut?). I've literally have screamed for years that more should have been done down there dating back to the Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium days. While the Omni/Philips/Dome has been buffered by the convention business generated by the GWCC (although Vine City is right next door), the same couldn't be said for Turner Field.

 

One of the reasons why the Braves are moving is because the surrounding areas were never developed and left to rot. Folks who go to the games simply drive there, watch the game, and drive out as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, the city leaders, in their infinite wisdom, all but told the Braves to just take it; as if they couldn't find anywhere else to go. That's like treating a spouse any kind of way, thinking that they'll never leave. They were wrong...

Just to point out a couple of things. The poverty pimps in this case have a point. Atlanta Fulton Co literally leveled an entire neighborhood. Agreements were made to allow for businesses to go around the stadium but the Braves would continually kill them off. These promises were made again when Turner was built and again the Braves fought off any one who would take "their" money.

In the latest round leading to the Cobb move they tried some REAL shady tactics. They wanted to be a contractor on the project AND be the one approving bids. As the stadium is owned by the city, this is illegal. you can't see the bids you're accepting then turn around and submit one.  I'm not saying the city handled it the best possible way, but the Braves have had some pretty bad history when it comes to dealing with their neighbors. I do think the city was right to say no to the Braves. But I think they should have worked together on an alternative site. Doing a trade off with the state, GSU getting the existing stadium and GWCC giving the Braves the North Yards site that the Falcons didn't use.

If anything the gentrification of Grant Park and Summerhill made it worse for the Braves as the residents now had more politically active and connected neighbors to help fight the Braves.

Im a sports and public policy geek.  I love how this all interacts.

I can't understand why you can't have Brave, Falcons, and Hawks in proximity to one another...Surrounded by Restaurants and Shops.  If they could have put it where the GWCC is now.. and surrounded the whole area with Shops I think all sports would have thrived.

I think if we have this conversation in the 90's up to 2007 its a viable concept. But landprices have gone up AND people are smarter about how they do business with sports entities. Enough locations have been burned by the promise of "economic benefits " of stadiums. Atlanta Fulton County, The Georgia Dome and even Turner Field promised all sorts of things and never delivered. There are entire academic studies that conclude it's not worth it to tax payers. If you look at the current stadium boom, they're all being built on old commercial grounds. 

If I could build a "Way Back Machine" I would have put all three on the site of Atlantic Station. GT could have split the cost and use of the facilities. Build a MARTA spur going north from Vine City.

Yeah.. there's where I was going.  I think if you had like a shopping village around the Dome and the Arena they would thrive and the zoning would kinda kill white fright.  However, for Baseball, you do need that Hotel stuff.

I don't know that the economics of a baseball specific stadium work that way. You get 81 home games which is roughly 22% of the calendar year. With playoffs and exhibitions you're up to MAYBE another 10-15 dates. As a primary attraction this isn't something you can build around. Also due to the nature of the schedule you can't really book multiple tenants to fill in the holes in the schedule. You would need proximity to other attractions to make up the other 88% of the year. Of all the specific stadium types, baseball is by far the most useless.

That said, I agree with the Braves moving, just not WHERE they moved. They should have absolutely looked to build near the GWCC campus. That would put them closer to hotels and attractions. Right at the Vine City MARTA line. and near pre-existing amenities. 

I also think it should be pointed out that outside of Arthur, Atlanta's richest citizens have no interest in owning a team. Ann Cox Chambers and Bernie Marcus wouldn't even buy a team out of civic pride. 

Georgia has done a poor job making this a hub for new industries and it rears it's head here. 

The infrastructure point... I don't know.  MARTA had an OMNI station for years. Concerts in Atlanta (pick your favorite artist) never go undersold.  Even the old Fulton Co. Stadium had good parking.

I don't know if the infrastructure is that big of an issue.   The Hawks have even developed Party buses.

i will say that it would be nice if you could develop a shopping area around the stadium and arena but I don't see that happening so well.

That was more in reference to the Braves. 

I honestly don't think a mall is the way to go when developing around arenas. Parks, hotels, food options and tourist attractions seem like a better bet. But then the Dome/GWCC/Phillips are used by so many conventions it can support those businesses. Baseball fields can only really serve one purpose which makes them more of a money pit.

I think bad ownership, years of losing, infrastructure, White Flight, and bad luck are to blame for our city's sports culture.

• Bad Owners - Smith Family, early Ted Turner, TW-AOL, Atlanta Spirit, Tom Cousins
• Losing Records - Pre -Blank Falcons, Braves post Aaron til 90. Pre and post Nique Hawks (Babcock through Knight era). Entirety of Thrashes history
• Infrastructure - Not having a way to get fans to Atlanta Fulton County/ Turner Field. We need mass transit that goes to Cobb, Gwinnett and Clayton that would have been like the GWCC/Phillips stop.
• Infrastructure - Failure to develop around stadiums. Although post Olympics, Philips and Dome are eons better.
• White Flight - hits in the years when we acquire teams. No way to build a history without fans going as kids. Downtown Atlanta became too "dangerous" for families to visit. This still rears its head today.
• Bad Luck - Pete Babcock, Billy Knight, Jim Leyritz

I have no life. I pulled the attendance of the last 18 home games dating back to December when the streak was going on and the average is 18,355, which would put them 13th; ahead of the Thunder and just behind, you guessed it, the Spurs.

What percentage of capacity is that? 

 

 

Rachesky's bid is expected to include a handful of minority investors, including Steve Starker, Randy Frankel and Jesse Itzler, who is a former rapper and recent Atlanta transplant who moved from New York to ‎Georgia last fall.

This is the second group Frankel and Itzler have been tied to. So either that  group is way more nebulous OR some of the other reports are dead wrong.

Guys, we can still pool our money and buy the team. It's only an $800 million bid

http://www.forbes.com/sites/mikeozanian/2015/02/27/highest-offer-for-atlanta-hawks-is-currently-800-million/

St. Louis is purely a baseball/soccer town. You should read Deadspin's articles about Ram's games. Although I'm still amazed that KC has taken over as their de facto soccer epicenter. Their bid for a USL team fell through years ago due to lack of funds.

More on Chaifetz

http://www.brewhoop.com/2014/4/7/5592090/dr-richard-chaifretz-bucks-sale-investor-chicago

I really don't want anyone from (insert non-NBA city that would love to have a team) getting majority control. The guy from Oklahoma City wanted to keep the Sonics in Seattle too, remember???

He was also Stern's best friend. I don's see Silver repeating that.

MLS is growing in popularity and shares the same fan base as the NBA. Steve Koonin's research is almost exactly what MLS came up with during it's search to become better/more relevant/fan friendly. MLS and NBA will be replacing my spring TV anyway once the Braves move to Cobb anyhow so I'm game for it. 

If I read this right, its the Grant Hill-Itzler group

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-26/atlanta-hawks-bidders-said-to-include-rays-frankel-chaifetz

I wonder if this gives more insight into the trading of Payne. Was he not able to rewire his rebounding instincts to get back in transition? Couple this with the ESPN "Muppet" article and you see that everyone has to play their role precisely for the unit to work. If he's fighting for offensive rebounds, it throws off the whole defensive scheme.

I think he had problems picking up the defense and offense. The times he got in games he seem to have problems acclimating to our plays at game speed.

I don't think its any coincidence that the Saporta story and this new round of back and forth was leaked right before this extended All-Star Break by Gearon. He thought he'd use the lack of games to fill the void. But I don't think ANYONE saw the Andrew Young interview coming.