ICYMI: Atlanta Braves Wall Will Be Small…In Some Spots
By Jeff Schafer
Braves Will See Smaller and Larger Outfield Fences In 2017
Let’s not forget about the Atlanta Braves 2016 season and the final year at Turner Field, but big/small things could be coming our way shortly.
Back in 2013, the Braves organization announced that they will be moving to a brand new state of the art facility at the start of the 2017 season in Cobb County…roughly 10 miles away from downtown Atlanta. This new ball park will be between Interstate 75 and Interstate 285…two of the busiest highways in Atlanta.
The reason for the move came down to improvements to Turner Field that could cost up to $150-200 million, the MARTA system and that they couldn’t acquire an additional 5,000 parking places.
SunTrust Park will have 41,500 seats – yes, 20% smaller than Turner Field – a Delta SKY360 hospitality club, two premium seating sections (located between the dugouts) that total around 1,500 seats and the Chop House which will total approximately 10,000 square feet of hospitality space/drinking, eating areas.
What about the fence?
Atlanta Journal-Constituion’s David O’Brien asked executive Vice President of Marketing Derek Schiller about the wall at the new SunTrust Park. He explained to O’Brien that the walls will have some “quirks” and be deeper at some spots and shorter in others…as short as six feet tall!
#Braves exec VP/marketing Derek Schiller said wall at LF foul pole in SunTrust Park will be 6 ft tall, but other parts of wall as high 15 ft
— David O'Brien (@DOBrienATL) February 9, 2016
Schiller and #Braves prez John Schuerholz said SunTrust Park field would have some quirks, wall a little deeper at some spots, etc.
— David O'Brien (@DOBrienATL) February 9, 2016
Six feet tall at the left field foul pole. To put that in perspective, only four ball parks have fences shorter than six feet tall – they are the Angel Stadium, Dodger Stadium, Tropicana Field and Fenway Park. Three other stadiums stand six feet tall in areas – Citizen Bank Park, Comerica Park and PNC Park.
Turner Field’s fences are nine feet tall all the way around. So we’ll see outfield walls that are smaller and larger than the ones we currently have. Currently, we do not know the height dimensions of the walls yet, but John Schuerholz did mention last year that it was going to be a pitching friendly park.
"First look! Watch a virtual fly-through of @SunTrustPark and the new development.https://t.co/N1AgebsDgx— Atlanta Braves (@Braves) May 27, 2015"
Within this video, posted by the Atlanta Braves and SunTrust Park’s twitter account, you can see the renderings of the new outfield wall.
The Braves should use this to their advantage and sign Isuro Tanaka from Major League II.