Cobb County Commissioners Set For Key Votes On Braves Ballpark

Cobb County (Ga.) commissioners tonight will be asked to authorize borrowing close to $400M for the Braves' new ballpark, "an amount that is higher" than the $368M the public had been "previously told" the county would borrow (ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION, 5/25). The commissioners also are scheduled to hire a general contractor for the $672M project, "approve hundreds of pages of contract language with the Braves concerning the partnership and hire a lobbying firm" (MDJONLINE.com, 5/24).

Tonight's vote "culminates months of negotiations between county and team officials, which followed commission approval of a preliminary agreement in November." The ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION reviewed "more than 1,200 pages of documents detailing the back-and-forth of those negotiations." The documents show that Braves officials "balked when the county tried to get them to commit to a minimum investment and a date certain for the private development's completion" (AJC.com, 5/26).