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 Atlanta Fulton County Stadium
Atlanta, GA
Atlanta Fulton
County Stadium was home to some very good and bad
teams during its existence. Construction of a stadium in Atlanta was
first discussed in the 1930s. However, the first major proposal for
a stadium came in 1956. A dome stadium was first mentioned, but
that idea was dropped. The city was offered an American Football
League franchise and Charles Finley, baseball owner of the Kansas City A’s
visited the city of Atlanta, but both were unhappy with the
city’s slow pace in building a stadium. In Milwaukee, a group of investors
that had
recently purchased the Milwaukee Braves began looking to relocate
the team because of falling attendance
at
County Stadium. On March 5, 1964, the Milwaukee Braves announced
they would move to
Atlanta if a stadium was completed by 1966. Construction began
immediately for the stadium on April 15, 1964. The stadium was named
after its location, and was called Atlanta Stadium (later renamed
Atlanta Fulton County Stadium). It was one of the first
cookie-cutter stadiums to be built and was multipurpose in order
to accommodate both football and baseball.
The stadium was completed
by the 1965
baseball season, but
the Braves did not move to Atlanta until the 1966 season. During
1965,
Atlanta's International League team, the Atlanta Crackers, played at
the stadium. Opening day for the Atlanta Braves came on April 12,
1966 when 51,500 fans attended the game. The stadium was completely
enclosed as three levels of wooden blue seats circling the entire
stadium. The field was 30 feet below the 10,000 car parking area. Two
scoreboards sat behind the outfield fence in both right and left field. The
Braves attracted over 1.5 million fans during their first season in
Atlanta.
Beginning in 1967, a teepee/wigwam of the team mascot, Chief Noc-A-Homa was located on a 20-foot-square platform behind the left
field fence. The teepee/wigwam was moved to different locations
throughout the years and was removed after the 1983 season. The
most historical moment at Atlanta Fulton County Stadium was Hank
Aaron’s 715th homerun on April 8, 1974 breaking Babe Ruth’s record of
714 homeruns. A marker over the left field wall marked the location where the
homerun landed. With extremely low attendance and with an awful team,
Atlanta businessman Ted Turner bought the team in the mid 1970s. Promotions were staged on a daily basis
to attract fans to the stadium.
In 1977, the stadium was given a new look,
with new seats. All of the wooden blue seats were replaced by blue,
orange and red plastic seats. A new scoreboard/video board was placed below
the stadium roof in centerfield. Atlanta Fulton County Stadium
remained basically the same until it closed. The Atlanta Falcons
(NFL) moved out of the stadium in 1991. Because the city maintained the playing
field and its bad conditions, a groundskeeper was finally hired
1990. After years of bad teams in Atlanta, the Braves finally began
winning in the 1990s and the team won its first World Series in 1995.
The Braves played their last game at Atlanta Fulton County Stadium,
a World Series game, against the New York Yankees on October 24,
1996. The Braves moved into
Turner Field after the 1996 season. An Atlanta group called
"Save Our Stadium" tried to save the stadium. They were
unsuccessful and on August 2, 1997 the stadium was demolished in
less than 30 seconds. It is now the site of parking for Turner
Field.
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