Georgia State Stadium -- formerly known as Centennial Olympic Stadium and then Turner Field -- has "undergone plenty of changes since it broke ground less than a quarter-century ago" ahead of the '96 Atlanta Games, according to Paul Newberry of the AP. GSU CB Chandon Sullivan said of the renovations to change Turner Field into a football venue, "If I wasn’t from Georgia, I would have no idea this was a former baseball stadium. They’ve done an amazing job with it." GSU AD Charlie Cobb said, "When you realize the iconic nature of this stadium, the history that’s in this stadium ... it’s a fascinating opportunity for us. It’s transformational. It gives us a chance to take a football program that we’re still trying to grow, we’re still trying to develop, and we’ve got as nice of a facility as anybody." The price tag for the "latest renovation" was around $50M. It took only about seven months to "complete the biggest phase of the project: building a new section of seats in what used to be right field, installing an artificial turf football field and new lighting fixtures, removing the dugouts and first few row of seats to improve sightlines, [and] constructing a locker room." For now, there are "no plans to remove the large section of unused seats beyond the former right field, a now-obscured area that included the Braves bullpen and the old Chop House restaurant." Over the next decade, GSU and its real-estate partners "intend to turn the huge swath of asphalt around the stadium into dormitories, athletic facilities, offices, homes and retail space" (AP, 8/29).
