Turner Field's first season was 1997. Originally, it was built as the stadium that hosted the track and field events for the 1996 Olympics, with the plan to convert it to a full-time baseball facility once the games were over. Visually, it's difficult to tell that it was anything other than a baseball stadium.
Once we arrived, it appeared there were a very limited number of gates, which seemed strange considering the stadium holds 49,500. Ordinarily, it probably isn't too much of a problem, but a full-capacity opening day crowd led to the mess pictured below. Not fun!
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| Extensive pregame tailgating meant most everyone pictured here is hammered |
Promotions:
Free foam tomahawks were handed out to all fans that wanted them, so everyone could properly do the Chop. Needless to say, we passed. We were there on a Friday night, so they had a nice post-game fireworks show and a short musical performance by the Civil Wars. We'll bump the final score a notch for the surprise "concert" and the fact they were at least not stingy with their giveaway. Grade: B
Concessions:
All of the standard options are widely available all over the park, but in the night's recurring theme, the stadium seemed under-equipped to handle a sell-out. Lines were extrememly long at most stands. Some of the less-traditional standouts were gyros, sushi, and crepes. We opted for the gyros, which turned out to be a pretty solid selection.
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| No lack of soda variety, though few were interested |
The wild card is Chick-Fil-A was served at a few stands, which begs the question, can those be open on Sunday games?
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| If you want Chick-Fil-A, you're going to have to deal with a giant cow somewhere |
Beer selection wasn't overwhelmingly diverse, and prices were consistent with most other MLB parks we've visited. Grade: B
Overall gameday experience:
Braves fans have not been widely known for packing the yard. Afterall, there were divisional playoff games in the early 2000's they couldn't sell out. Over and over, though, it felt cramped and crowded most everywhere we went, although this is supposedly far from the norm.
The incessant Tomahawk Chop that started up with seemingly every Braves' hit got old in a hurry. Ryan Braun's first Turner Field appearance after his off-season steroid accusation did add some fun. Fans made sure to boo him heartily on every at-bat and play he made. For whatever reason, everyone also seemed to take great pleasure in booing former Brave Alex Gonzalez, though we weren't sure why exactly a journeyman shortstop's departure would inspire that much wrath.
There were a few interesting features to be had. We entered the stadium through the centerfield concourse, which is the one area that provided a large area for milling about. There's a large video board where fans could watch the game while standing in line for concessions or consuming their favorite beverage, which a surprising number were doing.
On the main concourse on the 3rd base side, there's a Braves museum. There was a nominal $2 entry fee, but it houses some pretty cool, albeit Braves-related memorabilia. Inside are awards and artifacts from Braves' Hall of Famers, lockers representing each season of their record consective playoff appearance run from '91-'05, and even an old railroad car you could walk through that was used by the Milwaukee Braves from the early 50's.
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| Playoffs from '91-'05... |
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| But only 1 title! |
While all of this was pretty cool, the design of the stadium is fairly generic and certainly not well designed for large crowds, while also lacking the character of many of the other stadiums we've visited.
Final grade: B-
