Dublin Core
Title
Box 17, Folder 6, Document 18
Text Item Type Metadata
Text
_ BSS Bas a SAAS
a SU Ts Ut oe
iS NN
Lethal pei
: ES Se
a
Atlanta tries to hit one into the stands
It takes an awful lot of dream or
an awful lot of commercial ex-
pectation to make a_hard-
headed, business-minded city
like Atlanta plunk down $18-
million for a major league sports
stadium—especially when _ it
ends up by tagging on an addi-
tional $700,000 to insure comple-
tion within a year.
Yet that is exactly what At-
lanta has done, and all without
any rock-hard assurance that it
is going to get the big teams to
fill its seats for baseball (51,500)
and football (57,100). Of course,
Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen, Jr.,
(picture) and his associates
think they have the transfer of
the Milwaukee (nee Boston)
Braves nailed down for next
spring. But the Milwaukee cit
fathers are putting up a bris
fight in the courts, and nothing
is yet sealed and delivered.
The bait. The answer, of
course, is that the advent of a
major league team brings with it
a shower of gold—much from
out of town—even if it peters
out after a few years. One sur-
vey figures that just in 1961,
after the New York Giants
moved to San Francisco, $11-
million was spent in the city on
baseball entertainment.
Atlanta’s stadium boosters
figure their chances this way.
They'll be the first major league
baseball city in the South. The
city’s own population is 1.2-mil-
lion; to that add 25-million
people in seven Southeastern
states, tied by a network of 32
expressway lanes less than a
mile from downtown Atlanta.
Six metropolitan centers are
within 24 hours driving time of
the stadium, and there’s not a
traffic light to balk them.
On the air. For the first year,
baseball attendance should hit
1.5-million, according to Coca-
Cola bottler Arthur L. Mont-
gomery, one of the project’s
sparkplugs. For his part, Mayor
Allen thinks $50-million a year
would be “a very low estimate”
for the dollar turnover and boost
in sales and services. There are
also rosy expectations for TV
and radio revenues.
Atlanta is betting that its fine
spring and fall weather should
put it way ahead of chilly Mil-
waukee, where postponements
are a hazard. And even Milwau-
kee, with a top team and the
first glow of novelty, shattered
all kinds of attendance records.
It took quite a few years, and
considerable downgrading of the
team, before its attendance be-
gan to shrink.
a SU Ts Ut oe
iS NN
Lethal pei
: ES Se
a
Atlanta tries to hit one into the stands
It takes an awful lot of dream or
an awful lot of commercial ex-
pectation to make a_hard-
headed, business-minded city
like Atlanta plunk down $18-
million for a major league sports
stadium—especially when _ it
ends up by tagging on an addi-
tional $700,000 to insure comple-
tion within a year.
Yet that is exactly what At-
lanta has done, and all without
any rock-hard assurance that it
is going to get the big teams to
fill its seats for baseball (51,500)
and football (57,100). Of course,
Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen, Jr.,
(picture) and his associates
think they have the transfer of
the Milwaukee (nee Boston)
Braves nailed down for next
spring. But the Milwaukee cit
fathers are putting up a bris
fight in the courts, and nothing
is yet sealed and delivered.
The bait. The answer, of
course, is that the advent of a
major league team brings with it
a shower of gold—much from
out of town—even if it peters
out after a few years. One sur-
vey figures that just in 1961,
after the New York Giants
moved to San Francisco, $11-
million was spent in the city on
baseball entertainment.
Atlanta’s stadium boosters
figure their chances this way.
They'll be the first major league
baseball city in the South. The
city’s own population is 1.2-mil-
lion; to that add 25-million
people in seven Southeastern
states, tied by a network of 32
expressway lanes less than a
mile from downtown Atlanta.
Six metropolitan centers are
within 24 hours driving time of
the stadium, and there’s not a
traffic light to balk them.
On the air. For the first year,
baseball attendance should hit
1.5-million, according to Coca-
Cola bottler Arthur L. Mont-
gomery, one of the project’s
sparkplugs. For his part, Mayor
Allen thinks $50-million a year
would be “a very low estimate”
for the dollar turnover and boost
in sales and services. There are
also rosy expectations for TV
and radio revenues.
Atlanta is betting that its fine
spring and fall weather should
put it way ahead of chilly Mil-
waukee, where postponements
are a hazard. And even Milwau-
kee, with a top team and the
first glow of novelty, shattered
all kinds of attendance records.
It took quite a few years, and
considerable downgrading of the
team, before its attendance be-
gan to shrink.
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