Atlanta Braves Foul Territory at SunTrust a Bit Bigger Than Thought

After Further Review: a look at the foul territory at SunTrust Park needs a second look – an update of a story from two weeks ago.

The initial seating charts for the Atlanta Braves‘ new digs at SunTrust Park are available for those thinking about tickets for the 2017 season.

When I saw that seating chart for the first time, I saw something else, though – a minimal amount of foul territory. Today, I took a second look… wondering why various stadium renderings didn’t seem to match up with the seating chart.

Then I figured out why that was the case… and the error is mine.

So this story is intended to correct the record from my prior post – and explain why there was an error in the first place.

For Comparison

First off, let’s remind ourselves of the foul territory present at Turner Field.

That’s the red area on this chart. It’s a size not out of line with most modern parks, though there are also not a lot of parks with a smaller foul ground area.

Citi Field, for example, has about the same in-play foul area as Turner Field overall, but distributes it very differently. They place seating very close behind home plate while expanding the foul areas from the dugouts to the outfield grass.

Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati is renown for being a tight bandbox, but that field still has a ‘bowl’ of ample foul territory extending roughly 60 feet behind home plate. However, that area smoothly curves to essentially zero halfway between the corner bases and the outfield corners.

SunTrust – At First View

That said, I practically panicked when I first saw the SunTrust seating chart graphic.

What you see at right is the chart presented 2 weeks ago. As above, the area is red was believed to be the foul area at SunTrust.

When zooming in, though – and when comparing that chart to one of the official rendering graphics provided at http://atlanta.braves.mlb.com/atl/ballpark/suntrust-park/renderings/, a slightly different picture emerges… and that is represented by the next graphics that follows:

In this updated rendering of the seating chart, I have added an orange area.

This now includes the warning track of foul ground at SunTrust. The previous graphic shaded only the grassy part.

My error was failing to note that the labels for seating sections adjacent to the field were blocking that (now orange) portion of the SunTrust foul ground.

That literally paints a different picture… at least somewhat so.

The Upshot: It’s Still Smaller

When you overlay the SunTrust representation with the Turner Field graphic, an apples-to-apples comparison does show a smaller foul ground. The difference is not nearly as dramatic as that portrayed 2 weeks ago, but there is a noticeable difference.

Instead of averaging 25-30 feet all around as I had previously written, it appears to be more like 30-40 feet in width… perhaps 75-to-80% of the Turner Field’s foul ground. Much safer for all concerned while still enhancing the fan experience… and giving pitchers at least a little more breathing space.

Of note: the areas near the left and right field corners are definitely tighter. The area from the dugouts to the end of the cutoff area have been trimmed a bit as well.

For fielders, there are no unusual cutoff or niche areas… smooth transitions occur all around the seating walls, although you can expect the tarp rollers to be in their usual spots.

In general, if you see balls fall into the first 2-3 rows of the stands next season, you could rightly think “that would have been an out at Turner Field.”

EW in the Scorebook – Error/Writer

More from Tomahawk Take

So please accept my apology for being over-zealous: I am certainly open to being corrected… at least this time I’m correcting myself. But there is a message to deliver here:

In my review of this, I surveyed the other 29 active major league parks to see how SunTrust would compare. It appears that the closest analogs to SunTrust would be at Oriole Park at Camden Yards and PNC Park in Pittsburgh. In absence of actual measurements, it still appears that SunTrust will be in the bottom 3 of stadiums in terms of available foul ground.

Progressive Field in Cleveland has a similarly-sized grassy area, but a much larger/wider warning track. Minute Maid Park appears to be just a bit more spacious in foul ground than PNC.

Every other stadium appears to have a much larger “green space” in foul territory before the warning track kicks in.

Next: Go Ahead - Ask Him!

How much will this ultimately matter? Maybe one extra out per week or so… both ways. It will still be a fair park to both sides, but I imagine you won’t really notice… until it decides a game!