Instead of just one or two roads feeling the brunt of the stadium stampede, there were “pressure release valves” in all directions. The county and the team also knew that incorporating a 360-degree array of entry and exit points from the property would diffuse the ingress and egress. The delayed starts worked so well that the team eventually made them slightly earlier in the last couple of years. This made a huge difference, as those arriving just in time for first pitch would mix very little with the normal rush hour push. This surely would be a disaster, right?Īnticipating a traffic clash, Cobb, the Braves and MLB worked together to push weeknight games from the normal 7:05 start time to 7:30. But Cobb County repeatedly had rejected MARTA over the years. MARTA had a shuttle to Turner Field and Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. And people were up in arms that the Braves were ditching the City of Atlanta address and a stadium barely old enough to drink in favor of a new, shiny model in the suburbs. The genesis of the Transform 285/400 was months away. So traffic was miserable, but that was a misery that Atlantans knew.Īt the time of Truist Park’s 2017 opening in Cobb, I-75′s Peach Pass Express Lanes were still under construction, so the region was both jammed and didn’t have the added capacity of the new lanes, which opened in the fall of 2018. ![]() Some folks would tailgate, but there were no places to just hang out nearby. ![]() Since there was very little in the way of entertainment around The Ted, people would generally arrive just before game time and then bolt as soon as the fat lady had sung. And traffic would stack like Varsity onion rings on I-75/85/southbound, ramping to both MLK and the Fulton Street exit, respectively, just before and just after the busy I-20 ramps. Most parking was just north of the stadium, the direction from which most fans traveled. Vehicles would shimmy into the various lots neatly lining it. Traffic would clog up on Capitol Avenue (which APD switched to one-way before and after games) coming down from Piedmont. The nucleus of Braves baseball on Hank Aaron Drive for decades did not efficiently interact with that traffic funnel. Many that didn’t want to get stuck in that mess could just avoid Downtown Atlanta. But that was an enemy this city knew and could prepare for. Game days, especially marquee weekend matchups, would tomahawk (pun intended) Downtown Connector traffic. ![]() Turner Field and Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium before it sat just to the southeast of the I-75/85 and I-20 interchange for almost 50 years. The notion of attracting another 40,000 people to the already-choked I-75/I-285 region sounded apocalyptic. To many commuters and even traffic wonks like this writer, the idea of the Braves shuttling its operation from a known quantity at Turner Field (now Center Parc Stadium, the home of Georgia State University football) to the Cumberland area seemed ridiculous. But then planning, acquisitions, execution and passion became the smooth stones in young David’s sling that landed in the forehead of the rest of baseball. This championship seemed but a far vapor in the doldrums of summer, as the home team had a wounded and underperforming cast. ![]() This is the topic on which to write in this white, blue and red euphoria after the Atlanta Braves’ improbable World Series title.
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