Cobb County is Paying 45 Percent of Costs for the Atlanta Braves New Stadium

Monday the Atlanta Braves announced – to the shock of pretty much everybody – they were packing up and moving away from the run-down, dilapidated, eyesore known as Turner Field, which opened in … 1997. The Braves home starting in 2017? A new stadium a Jason Heyward homer away from downtown Atlanta in Cobb County.

Details are starting to trickle out about the new facility’s financing and WSB-TV reports Cobb County will foot about 45 percent of construction costs for the $672 million stadium. That works out to about $302 million of public money to help a sports team build a new stadium when their previous home isn’t even old enough to buy a beer legally in America.

Another sports team getting a sweetheart deal to fund their new stadium? Sigh.

Cobb County residents – where the Braves say the heart of their support lives – must be thrilled. For their tax dollars they save a solid 20-30 minutes trying to get to watch a live game. Meanwhile the county’s school budget for 2013-14 recently slashed close to 200 teaching jobs.

The more details that emerge from this story you have to wonder if the Braves ownership group, Liberty Media, will be vilified the way the Marlins’ Jeffrey Loria is for the way he fleeced Miami for a new stadium.