Baseball returns to the place where the Braves first played in Atlanta and Hank Aaron broke his record for home run 715.
The state of Georgia has finalized plans for a new 1,000-seat baseball stadium in a parking lot that occupies the size of the old Atlanta-Fulton County stadium.
This place helped lure the Milwaukee Braves in 1966 and is known as the approximate stadium where Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s home run record on April 8, 1974. The logo has since been overshadowed by Barry Bonds.
Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium served as the home of the Braves during the 1996 season, when it was replaced by a new facility located a few hundred yards away, originally built as the first site for the Centennial Olympics.
The old stadium imploded and was replaced by a parking lot for the new site, which became Turner Field. The Braves played “Ted” until they moved to the suburb of Truist Park in 2017.
Turner Field was later sold to Georgia State, who converted it into a school football field known as Center Parc Credit Union Stadium. Now, with progression in full swing on what was once a strip of parking lots, the state Board of Regents has approved plans for a roughly $15. 85 million stadium that will allow the Panthers to move their baseball program from a facility about 19 miles away to a less remote location. less than a mile from their downtown campus.
As part of the project, the Hank Aaron statue recently in the plaza of Center Parc will be moved to the new ballpark. There’s already a modest display honoring the spot where his 715th home run crossed the left-field wall.
After Aaron’s death in 2021, his funeral procession was detoured to the old Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.
“There’s a lot of work to be done, but it’s an exciting day for Georgia State,” athletic director Charlie Cobb said in a statement.
The new stadium is expected to open in time for the 2026 school baseball season. The Panthers also plan to build new facilities for their softball program, adding them to a sports complex that already includes the football stadium and basketball field that opened in 2022.
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AP College Sports: https://apnews. com/hub/college-sports
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