A team (Rome) is about 45 minutes away up I-75 to the north.
Looks like AAA team (currently in Richmond) is going to move to Gwinnett - north on I 85.
Yet another reason for me to not go anywhere near Gwinnett.
A 3rd Braves team in the metro ATL
The Class AAA Richmond Braves, the organization's highest-level minor-league affiliate, could play in Gwinnett as soon as 2009. The Braves' three-year contract at the Richmond, Va. stadium, known as The Diamond, runs through the 2010 season, but the Braves have the option to pull out after the 2008 season. The Braves must give notice on or before Oct. 1 each year. The Braves have wanted much-needed renovations at the stadium for years.
There currently isn't a stadium in Gwinnett that could accommodate a Class AAA baseball team and a location for such a stadium is not known.
The Gwinnett County Board of Commissioners is expected to consider a $5 million "purchase and sale agreement" of 12 acres of land owned by Brand Properties when it meets Tuesday. The item is included on the commission's agenda new business under Support Services.
Brand Morgan, Brand Properties owner, declined to comment on the sale or what the land will be used for, but did say he plans to attend a news conference at Gwinnett Center on Tuesday.
County Commissioner Mike Beaudreau declined to comment when asked if he knew of plans to relocate the franchise to Atlanta, whether the county was involved in the project or if the commission would consider anything related to the alleged relocation at its meeting Tuesday.
Demming Bass, a spokesman for the Gwinnett County Chamber of Commerce, also declined to comment, citing confidentiality agreements, and referred telephone calls to Preston Williams, general manager of the Gwinnett Center.
Williams was in a meeting, according to his assistant, and did not immediately return a telephone call.
The announcement on the move "will be coming in the foreseeable future," an official for the Gwinnett County Convention and Visitors Bureau said Monday. Lisa Anders, marketing manager for the visitor's bureau, declined to elaborate on what the announcement would entail, when it would be made, or the involvement of the visitors' bureau or the Gwinnett Center, which operates the county's convention center and arena, in the deal.
Gwinnett's minor-league field of dreams has been on the table for some time.
Last July, a consulting firm has concluded that the county provides "one of the strongest markets in the country to support a minor-league baseball team."
That conclusion was contained in a draft report of the study, which was prepared by Convention, Sports & Leisure International, a Minnesota-based consulting firm. The Gwinnett Convention & Visitors Bureau hired the firm to study the feasibility of building a baseball stadium for a minor-league team in Gwinnett.
The report showed that building and operating the stadium could create hundreds of jobs, generate up to $7 million in consumer spending every year and generate as much as $12 million in tax revenue over a 30-year period.
The report also put the price tag for building a stadium between $25 million and $30 million.
"It was a pretty detailed and thorough report," Williams told The Atlanta-Journal Constitution in July. "In comparing Gwinnett County with the demographics of other metro areas that already have minor-league franchises, in most all the categories it was in the top four or five."
Williams was a leading proponent of the new stadium.
• A Gwinnett stadium should have 5,500 permanent seats, grass seating for up 1,500 people, at least 16 private suites, 300 club seats and 2,300 parking spaces in walking distance of the stadium.
• The study also looked at a variety of ways to pay for the new stadium.
• The report also found that its projected $890,000 to $1.5 million operating surplus for the stadium wouldn't be enough to pay off an annual debt of $2.1 million if the stadium were paid for by issuing bonds.
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Originally Posted by GoReds
