SunTrust Park

Reviews 3

WE

Wesley Forlines

The Braves flight out of Atlanta came with dramatically better food, pre/post game activities, better sight lines, a shiny new look, but little else. The food is indeed great, not just for ballpark food. More impressive than the quality is the variety, there are choices for everyone. Outside before and after, a classic manufactured Atlanta mixed-use™ development offers plenty of other options. The best part about this, Ive realized, is the really nice use by the Braves to provide entertainment before and after the game. Game-wise, I havent found a bad seat in the place. Even from the top of the top deck, you feel far closer than most any seat at Turner. The overall seat count is smaller than Turner, but it feels even smaller and more intimate than that. On a minor detail, the LED field lighting is quite bright and vastly better than Turner, plus the fun chases they do for HRs, etc are great. Other than these positives, Sun Trust Park suffers from a variety of issues that all reflect that it seems like the whole place was rushed. I suppose that since they hardly had time to communicate to the public, they also hardly had time to think about concourse size. Even at sparsely attended games, you have to weave your way through lines as theres no room for queues. Trying to get to the upper deck behind home plate? Good luck navigating the maze of staircases and catwalks that criss-cross above the press box as though the architects assigned to the third level werent even told there was a fourth level. Once you make your way out of the stadium at the end of the game, time to hit up the beautifully flowing ride-share lanes that were promised in slick drone-footage promotional clips. As you make your way there you soon find that they dont exist at all; what they call the ride-share pickup area is just Windy Ridge Parkway with four roadsigns that read "Ride Share A–D". Everything else is temporary: temporary barricades, temporary generator light towers, and security personnel pushing the "Push to Walk" buttons in a vain attempt to control the lights (which were installed with the development). These temporary measures make it seem as if the planners didnt expect there to regularly be events that drew over 10,000 people to the park. How often could that happen? Eighty times a year? There are a handful of security and police personnel that attempt to keep things moving, but ask anyone whos been through it, theyd describe it with a phrase that includes the word "cluster". Beyond the logistical issues, theres just blatant oversight of many aesthetic elements. There are vast walls of just flat brick panels throughout, and along the outfield, buildings roofs were built as if no one would ever see them. I understand its a stadium, not a concert hall, but in a facility that has a 16 foot tall spinning video screen "A", can they attempt to blend the Taco Factory air conditioner units in a bit? Or cover the vents on the back of the chop house seat drink coolers? Or make it so the third level deck facade is the same thickness all the way around so the ribbon of video panels on it is the same size? Perhaps Im still upset that this closed door political–corporate deal was made in the first place, perhaps its simply that the Braves no longer play baseball in the city of Atlanta, perhaps its that there is no public transportation available and I used to love the ease of taking MARTA to the games. But I dont love Sun Trust Park. It looks hasty, cheap, and not Atlantan. Braves execs, have you met Mr. Blank? He knows who his teams are named for.

SH

Shawn McLane

Let me just start by indicating that the only reason I didnt give it 5 stars is because of its location in ATL and that the park is brand new ....with brand new young staff. They truly are trying in their own way, but time will weed out the kinks and it will weed out the less productive staff. My family and I did have a great time, dont get me wrong. The old stadium had more of the nostalgic feel than this very contemporary one. But then again, the old one wasnt in the best place in town. The new stadium is in a newer part of ATL, but the traffic and interchange situation during games is truly epic...even on a Sunday. There is, however, a gluten-free snack bar called Centerfield Market which offers options for those adults and children with gluten sensitivity or complete gluten intolerance. The hot-dog buns are GF and you have a choice of Sushi options as well. Yes...I said Sushi!! A great variety of Hard-ciders and GF free beers adorn the open-fridge walls. Expensive...well...isnt everything at a ballgame! Right behind the scoreboard in center-field is the kids entertainment section. Face-painting, zip-line, games, and a batting cage are available for your childs playing pleasure. If you decide to sit in section 152, right next to the scoreboard, be warned: The water geysers shot 50 ft high! Not that I am complaining about the height.....just make sure that it is a warm sunny day when you sit next to them. You will GET WET after every strike-out and every home-run!! Awesome feature, just make sure it isnt windy or below 70 degrees. Youll be grabbing a napkin to dry off All-in-all the park is great and just needs sometime to get used to. The staff will begin to become better trained at crowd-herding and crowd-control. The food tastes great though and the beer flows! Dont forget to check out the hall-of-fame section behind home plate. Lots of great memories of Braves teams of the past as well as a great statue tribute to Hank Aaron.

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Adam Marc Leonard

Very nice new ballpark, however there was no real reason to leave Turner Field. The ballpark itself is beautiful and all the seats seem good, even in the very last row (12th row of the upper level (400s). Since I live in Midtown and was two miles from Turner I could easily Uber to and from the Stadium for less than the cost of parking, or when I drove, I could park in the Hyundai lot which was directly across the street from the stadium, which it does not have at the new stadium. SunTrust does have THE BATTERY, which are a set mixed-use bars, restaurants & shops and apartments that are available year-round. You can go eat there before and after the game next to the stadium. There is a concert area too, or an area to picnic at before the game. The stadium itself is smaller capacity (41,000 seats, compared to 49,000 at Turner), and also the concourses are not as wide, so it is more crowded when walking to your seat or going to buy food & drinks or to the restroom. At Turner Field, the food queues were built into the stands, or the overall design was better. At SunTrust, the queues for food & drinks stick out into where people are trying to pass by, so even if you are not in a line, often you have to walk thru a queue to get where you are going. There are many different varieties of food, however, it is more expensive, than it was at Turner Field, and for someone on a budget, when you have to spend so much on the game ticket and parking, can really make it the ballgame experience real expensive. I decided I will try to get there early and eat at one of the neighboring bars. And I found out that they allow you to bring in a clear one-gallon ziplock bag of your own food or bottles of water. So I will happily go to Costco which is a mile away before the game and grab one or two of the jumbo hot dogs for $1.50 each and bring them into the game with me.

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