Richmond Braves moving to Gwinett County, GA in 2009 ? ? ?

Geeeeeeeeezzzzz, the drive from Gwinett County, GA to downtown Atlanta must be simply awful for them to spend $38 million to build a AAA ballpark and move the Richmond Braves to their area . . . Its only a 20-30 min. drive to Turner Field from there, right ? ? ? Gwinnett Co. residents truly feel that they are not a suburb of Atlanta . . .

BUT, then again Richmond Politicians have screwed up big time in not having a better ballpark plan to present to the team!!!!!! I understand that the Diamond (off of I-95 in the northern part of Richmond) isn't that great of a place to go for a game. For some crazy reason they never considered building a new ballpark near the downtown area near the James River. Oh well, I hope Richmond city leaders realize that they will won't get another minor leage team to move to the until they get a new ballpark built!!!!!!!!!

NOTE: Richmond Braves are owned by the Atlanta Braves . . Richmond Braves=The old Atlanta Crackers minor league baseball team, if I'm not mistaken


Richmond E-fishwrap Story on the R-Braves Leaving Town

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It's official: Gwinnett County building new ballpark for R-Braves NEW!

Posted Jan. 15, 2008 (feedback) (submit story) (discuss)

It's official: the Richmond Braves (Class AAA; International League) will move to Lawrenceville, Georgia -- in Gwinnett County in suburban Atlanta -- for the 2009 season under a 30-year lease approved by the Gwinnett County Commission today. The lease calls for the Braves to pay $250,000 a year in rent for a new ballpark on a 12-acre site at 2500 Buford Drive, just off I-85. County officials signed the lease before actually coming up with a ballpark plan: their previous plan was for a $25-million, 5,500-seat ballpark suitable for an independent-league team, but the current plan is for a larger $38-million ballpark suitable for the Triple-A team. County officials were so eager to close the deal with the R-Braves they didn't even spec out a funding source for the new ballpark. (How sudden was it? The domain name for the team, gwinnettbraves.com, was registered last Thursday -- the same day Gwinnett County officials told us they expected to sign a lease with an independent-league team.)

"We have known that Gwinnett County was interested in building a baseball stadium for about a year; coupled with the fact that we have had some challenges getting a new AAA ballpark built in Richmond made this attractive to have them in our backyard," said Terry McGuirk, Atlanta Braves Chairman and CEO in a press release. He probably should have added the Atlanta Braves realized a new ballpark in rapidly growing Gwinnett County was inevitable, and the more logical approach was to co-opt the event, rather than letting an independent league set up shop.

With the lease now signed, the next step will be for the R-Braves to formally give up the Richmond territory. Whether or not this turns into a situation like Greenville remains to be seen: as you'll recall, Atlanta threw minor-league ball into a tizzy when the Greenville Braves (Class AA; Southern League) walked away, leading to a rather intense fight for the territory. We don't expect the fight this time around to be that fierce (sorry to disappoint the hundreds of you sending us email expecting that it will be), but you never know: it's an election year in Richmond, and if Mayor Doug Wilder does announce he's running for reelection -- and insiders expect him to -- he'll want to clean up the baseball mess more sooner than later and have it be a distraction during election season.

 

I live in Richmond and sorry to see the Braves leave. We have an idiot city government here and they wouldn't give the Braves and answer. Then again the Braves wanted a brand new ballpark. Both sides played chicken and Richmond won/lost depending on the way you look at it.

 

How is the sports landscape in Richmond? I knew that they had an ECHL team there, but that was years ago. Is it pretty much just UVA & VT talk on the local sportstalk radio outlet there (with a little bit of Redskins & NASCAR)? Its sad that an area that big won't have any minor league baseball to support in another year or so!!!!! Is former Virginia Governor Douglas Wilder the mayor now?

 

People from Gwinnett County are all the white flight people who left ATL back in the 80's-90's. It's pretty much like Pleasantville with a crapload of traffic

 

It's maily UVA/Tech and Redskins around here. VCU and U.Richmond get some play but not nearly as much as UVA and Tech. Yes, Wilder is the mayor and he's done a real good job of pissing just about everyone off. He's accusing the Braves of dealing with another town behind his back when it's taking Wilder 4 years to do nothing concerning the Braves. The Diamond, the ball park where the Braves play/played is old as crap and needs to be torn down or redone. The stadium can be seen from I95. Wilder insists Richmond will get another baseball team but he's just talking out of his ass right now. He got beat on this one.

 

seems kinda close to the ATL to have a Braves minor league team though.

 

More major league teams are moving their minor league teams closer.

 

Pawtaucket is about 30-40 mins. from Boston . . . That's the closest a AAA team is close to their parent club.

Also, Gwinett Co. has an ECHL Team (I think its affiliated with the Thrashers). I guess it will work, but I'm just wondering why folks in Gwinett think its a major haul to go to the ATL and catch the Braves. Its a 30 min. drive max

 

On a perfect day, sure. But as sockit mentioned, there is a ton of traffic up there. I lived in Gwinett County for a year and I hated everyday that i had to commute into work. It was an hour each way minimum to midtown.

 

This will be the second Braves farm team moving in a short time period. The AA team left Greenville over similar reasons for somewhere in Mississippi.

I was shocked when the Phillies AAA Scranton team moved