ABSTRACT
The Atlanta Braves’ move from a 20-year-old ballpark in downtown Atlanta to a new venue in suburban Cobb County in 2017 was unusual for several reasons, most notably its divergence from the present-day trend of professional sports teams moving from the suburbs to urban centers. As we discuss in this chapter, the Braves’ new ballpark and the district it anchors were not only borne from the team’s desire to reach a higher concentration of existing fans but also out of Cobb policymakers’ aspirations to establish a space for building and expressing a collective civic identity that was politically, economically, and socially distinct from the broader metropolitan region. Like its downtown counterparts in cities across North America, Truist Park–Battery Atlanta may not only serve Braves fans themselves but also support a spirit of homegrown entrepreneurship, strengthen local identity, and further establish the community’s political, economic, and cultural distinctiveness.
