Georgia State was quick to put together plans for inhabiting the soon-to-be-vacant Turner Field in Atlanta, but those plans have been put to the side for the time being. A Tuesday meeting with local officials and residents near the baseball home of the Atlanta Braves led a development team to ask Georgia State to hold off on making any plans until more research could be done on the possible future of the stadium and surrounding area.
Last fall the Atlanta Braves announced a plan to pick up and move a short distance away to a brand new baseball stadium, which could happen as early as 2017. With Atlanta being a hot bed for college football, the idea of adapting the previous home of the summer Olympics and Braves baseball seemed pretty obvious, since the stadium really is not all that old. And with Georgia State currently playing home games in Georgia Dome and the Atlanta Falcons preparing to open a new stadium, getting a chance to call a new or renovated stadium the exclusive home to Georgia State football was not too far-fetched of an idea. Either somebody at Georgia State thought the same, or they read College Football Talk.
The plans previously reported would have Georgia State modify Turner Field into a 30,000-seat football stadium as part of a $300 million redevelopment project that would turn the stadium and surrounding area into an expansion effort for the university and intend to bring new retail stores to go with student housing and residential buildings. Of course, this is not Sim City where changes can be made on a whim (cheat codes encouraged). Much more goes into these sorts of talks, with many getting a chance to voice an opinion.
A public meeting Tuesday allowed residents a chance to voice their concerns. As you can imagine, negative reception to the Georgia State plan was heard, although there were some positive remarks as well. The bottom line is by the time the Braves move into their comfy new home over in Cobb County, Georgia State may still be years away from having its own place to call home, one way or the other.