Braves Pitch Maglev Train to Turner Field

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by Mischief8

It's really easy to praise the perceived convenience of locating all of a city's sporting venues in one "central neighborhood" when one ignores the idea that a real neighborhood, a neighborhood that contributes to the living fabric of a city, thrives from the people who live there and not from the people who merely visit.

In this theoretical super-sports neighborhood, the success of the business is too closely tied to the success of the sports teams. If the teams do poorly (or pick up and move to another city), no one attends the games thus depressing the neighborhood.

It's just a shame that there are many around the city who feel that what is needed to spark an economy is an attraction.

First, I'm against the idea of putting two stadiums together and there are actually some solid planning reasons for this....

but beyond that I don't think you fully understand either...

People aren't looking for attractions to spark an economy.

They are looking at the fact that we have a huge amount of visitors already and are trying to find ways to capitalize on that to add more life to parts of the city when parts have more cement and brick walls.

There is alot to be said for high amounts of visitors concentrated in one place and that is just about what we have.

As far as the neighborhood being tied to the team... It wouldn't be. It would be tied to all of the visitors in the area, which come and go to a variety of different things.

It is largely why the area has been getting new restaurants and new museums popping up all over the place.

I think the idea is the more we make it a 365 day/year activity center, instead of a 180 day/year activity center the more businesses can open and there can be a symbiotic relationship between visitors and street level amenities and retail. Lets not also forgot many of these visitors are simply people coming from other parts of the city. CBDs traditionally have been places where people throughout the city congregate.

The ultimate problem is the area will be overloaded whenever there are multiple events. In many respects, it already is. It causes huge traffic tie ups and even overwhelms transit. That is why I'm afraid the 80 days/years Braves would be too much of a threat to the convention/trade industry.

[CCATL]

I have a question to pose for everybody. What do you think will happen if it IS the maglev chosen to be built- will any transit ever be extended to the zoo? If maglev is chosen, I can't see that going to Georgia Ave to Grant Park. The area is too residential, and I can see there being a lot of uproar from those who live in Georgia Ave and don't want an elevated train going within 50 ft of their front doors (think noise and property values) as well as from those who will say it destroys the historic urban character of the neighborhood (think what would be required by an elevated station- that could be very ugly next to the peacefulness of the park). I can't see anything but a streetcar working to get to the zoo, which doesn't necessarily work for Turner Field due to traffic and capacity. So, that said, will the buildout of Maglev close the door permanently on transit expansion to Grant Park? Or will a streetcar be able to hook up with the Maglev train, but create 3 transfers just to get downtown (streetcar,maglev,marta), reducing ridership? Thoughts?

[cwkimbro]

Originally Posted by CCATL

I have a question to pose for everybody. What do you think will happen if it IS the maglev chosen to be built- will any transit ever be extended to the zoo? If maglev is chosen, I can't see that going to Georgia Ave to Grant Park. The area is too residential, and I can see there being a lot of uproar from those who live in Georgia Ave and don't want an elevated train going within 50 ft of their front doors (think noise and property values) as well as from those who will say it destroys the historic urban character of the neighborhood (think what would be required by an elevated station- that could be very ugly next to the peacefulness of the park). I can't see anything but a streetcar working to get to the zoo, which doesn't necessarily work for Turner Field due to traffic and capacity. So, that said, will the buildout of Maglev close the door permanently on transit expansion to Grant Park? Or will a streetcar be able to hook up with the Maglev train, but create 3 transfers just to get downtown (streetcar,maglev,marta), reducing ridership? Thoughts?

Will we need to remember this is a private initiative...

They are only dishing out the money for a single purpose... The braves, so they will not be inclined to spend the extra millions for other purposes that don't make money.

unless there is significant public involvement/spending.

Even then, a streetcar won't necessarily be good at moving the huge flocks of fans at one time.

[westau]

Originally Posted by MattCW

Fine, an illegally tax-exempt monopoly is putting up some money. Good for them.

Because a new Falcons Stadium across the street, maintains the status quo, with the exception of the costs. A new Braves Stadium, next to all the other sports arenas in Atlanta, will drive a significant amount of economic development. Because suddenly, you have a true year-round sports life area, that businesses can profit off of by moving close to the area to take advantage of the year-round crowds. There's no reason for any businesses to open up near the Dome or Turner field right now, they'd have large portions of the year where they're just vacant vs a small handful of days or maybe weeks if everything is together.

It is already close to a year-round sports area. The Falcons start having games in August and the Hawks went until early May this season. Then they usually have random concerts/sporting events already in the summer like the Gold Cup recently that had over 50,000 people. Blank has been saying for years that he wants to start an MLS team and their schedule runs from April-October. He was even saying this long before he was looking to get a new stadium built.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by CCATL

I have a question to pose for everybody. What do you think will happen if it IS the maglev chosen to be built- will any transit ever be extended to the zoo? If maglev is chosen, I can't see that going to Georgia Ave to Grant Park. The area is too residential, and I can see there being a lot of uproar from those who live in Georgia Ave and don't want an elevated train going within 50 ft of their front doors (think noise and property values) as well as from those who will say it destroys the historic urban character of the neighborhood (think what would be required by an elevated station- that could be very ugly next to the peacefulness of the park). I can't see anything but a streetcar working to get to the zoo, which doesn't necessarily work for Turner Field due to traffic and capacity. So, that said, will the buildout of Maglev close the door permanently on transit expansion to Grant Park? Or will a streetcar be able to hook up with the Maglev train, but create 3 transfers just to get downtown (streetcar,maglev,marta), reducing ridership? Thoughts?

Streetcar along hill street to the current downtown loop.