Turner Field will be demolished, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed says

Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed says the city will demolish Turner Field after the Braves leave for a new stadium in the suburbs in 2017.

Let’s see, Turner Field cost $209 million to build when it opened in 1996. It will be torn down 21 years later. Where’s my calculator ... so Turner Field cost about $9.5 million a year, about the price of a solid No. 3 starter.

Reed said Tuesday that the land will be used to create a development for middle-class people.

Reed also said that the city would have had to take on $150 million to $250 million in debt to make the improvements the Braves wanted at Turner Field.

Turner Field began as the 85,000-seat Centennial Olympic Stadium, built for the 1996 Summer Games. About 35,000 seats were removed before it was renamed Turner Field and became the home of the Braves in time for the 1997 season.

“It was built for three weeks’ use, and a lot of the things done were not overly forward-thinking,” said Derek Schiller, the Braves’ executive vice president for sales and marketing.

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