Georgia State Stadium

In 2014, the Atlanta Braves announced their plans to leave Turner Field behind and move north of Atlanta to Cobb County. The city of Atlanta made the decision to move out of the city for many reasons, some including the traffic congestion that accompanies every Braves home game, as well as the lower-income communities around it. In 2017, the Atlanta Braves began their inaugural season at Suntrust Park. Later in the fall, the Georgia State University football team opened their inaugural season in the downtown stadium renamed “Georgia State Stadium.” In a few months Georgia State managed to transform a legendary baseball park into a football stadium for their 7 year-old football program. Georgia State renovated Turner Field, again dropping the capacity from 50,000 to 30,000. Although changes on the outside have not bloomed yet, Georgia State plans to surround the stadium with student housing, commercial housing, and retail space. Georgia State has agreed with committees of the surrounding neighborhoods “on the importance of a connection to the beltline as a catalyst for economic development” (Bailey 80). Georgia State University students are mostly minorities, so serving the minority population in Atlanta is something that they deem important. With the expansion of their campus south of Interstate 20, Georgia State can now expand their impact to the lower socio-economic citizens that occupy that region. Although the results from this move have not come to fruition yet, it is expected that the Georgia State’s new territory can reach the hands of these people who otherwise would not be affected.