A semi-comprehensive guide to Atlanta Braves new spring training facility

With the lack of anything baseball due to the coronavirus crisis, I decided I’d share my thoughts about the Atlanta Braves new spring training complex.

In the aftermath of baseball’s recent postponement amid the COVID-19 crisis, I have honestly lacked the motivation to write about baseball. My quarantined weeks have been spent studying for college and playing MLB The Show. The Atlanta Braves were not at the top of my mind.

In my recent boredom, I’ve been scouring YouTube for old videos about the 90’s Braves, looking for something to fill the void that sports has left in my life. I was able to find the Miracle Braves tapes I used to watch on VHS when I was a kid, and suddenly I found the creativity I needed.

I took what will probably be the best-timed spring training trip of my life this Spring. I started the trip on March 8th with my dad in Tampa watching the Braves play the Yankees, his favorite team.

We had a great time at the game, and I was lucky enough to get Dansby Swanson and Johan Camargo to sign photos for me. I was very lucky, as I would later learn by talking to Luke Jackson that the players had very recently been barred from signing for fans due to the virus.

Get on with it!

Alright, alright, I’ll get to why you’re here. The Braves’ new facility at Cool Today park is world-class. The Brand new stadium seats 8,000, and as the Braves say, there really isn’t a bad seat in the house.

The fan experience inside the stadium is great. Unlike the Yankees stadium, where fans can’t access the lower levels without a ticket there before the game, the Braves are very open about fan access before the game.

Unfortunately, the Braves usually take batting practice before the gates open. If you’re a fan of the visiting team, this means that you get to watch at least some of your favorite players warm up. However, I’m willing to bet that most of you who read this are Braves fans.

Issues

This leads to my biggest problem with the new stadium, the lack of fan access to the Braves. When I arrived, the only areas open to the fans before game time were the minor league fields. Even these had only been open for one day, and spring training had been going on for over half a month.

Access to the minor league fields was top-notch, that isn’t what I have an issue with. I feel bad for all of the fans who came earlier than I did and had basically zero access. This was a big fan complaint ever since the complex opened, and it took the Braves a while to address it.

My main issue is the fact that access to the major leaguers is behind a paywall. The Braves had a “VIP” pass that fans could buy for $75. Normally I wouldn’t care about something like that, the Braves do it with batting practice in the regular season.

The problem is spring training is about fan access. In Orlando you could watch the team practice on their fields and wander over to the minor league fields if you wanted to. Here, the minor league fields are the only option unless you want to fork over 75 bucks along with the cost of parking, tickets, and food you have to pay for already.

Here’s a quote from an article showing part of the fan frustration with the new setup.

"“It’s so frustrating,” said Carla Gaddy, who made the drive from Newnan, Ga., with her son, daughter and husband. “We’ve got two kids that are huge Braves fans, and they’ve totally limited access to us. They’re just letting us on the main fields, and all the players are on the back fields. So we can’t even get back there. They won’t even let us look over the walls to see the players.”"

Gating off fan access to only those who have the disposable income to spend an extra 75 dollars on a whim is very unfair to those who make the trip. Most love the increased access that spring training offers for fans, at least in the past.

Stadium Experience

When I was there, it was a packed house for my games on March 9th and 10th, even with the beginnings of the current coronavirus crisis starting to show up. The seats are fairly roomy, even for a 6-foot-4 person like myself.

The team store is incredibly nice. It has two floors and rivals the Braves clubhouse store at Truist Park in size and grandeur. The staff was very friendly, just like the game day staff in Atlanta, which I used to be a part of.

The food is your standard ballpark food, fit for a captive audience. It’s a bit more expensive then I’d like, but hey, it’s what you have when you aren’t allowed to bring food into the stadium.

Overall, I really like the new stadium. It’s a big upgrade from the field in Orlando, but a lack of fan access to practice is concerning. I hope the Braves make an effort to open it up more to fans next season, assuming we have a regular spring training schedule by then.