Politics & Government
Cobb Releases Memorandum of Understanding With Braves
A week before the commission vote, groups supporting and opposing the proposed stadium are gearing up their efforts.
As competing forces in the Braves-to-Cobb move step up their efforts, Cobb County officials late Tuesday afternoon finally released the memorandum of understanding detailing the proposed stadium project near Cumberland Mall.
The 20-page document (see attached PDF) will be what the Cobb Board of Commissioners will be voting on a week from today.
The memorandum sets forth financial terms for the proposed $672 million stadium construction -- with the county committed to providing $300 million in funding -- and lays out transportation and infrastructure improvements already in the pipeline and that will be made to accommodate the stadium and adjacent mixed-use development by the Braves.
The document also spells out how both parties will split revenues and other expenses associated with the project, including capital improvements and repairs, and 30-year revenue bonds that would pay for most of the county's share of the construction costs.
Some of these issues have been detailed in previous stories (see related article links below for more), especially the transportation plan that includes a system of trams to deliver fans between the stadium development and parking around the Cumberland area.
Other topics in the memorandum address rental costs, naming rights, bond repayments and a non-relocation agreement.
Stadium construction would begin in January 2015 and be completed by February 2017, right before the Braves would begin their first season in Cobb.
The county also would be able to have up to three events each year at the stadium.
The memorandum is "not intended as a complete and final agreement" according to language in the document, but:
". . . is binding as to the points specifically addressed in this MOU and to bind the Parties to negotiate in good faith to develop and execute one or more final agreements consistent with these specific points."
The Braves Come to Cobb
- Anti-Braves Stadium Website, Petition Created
- Braves-to-Cobb Draws National Headlines
- Cobb DOT Prepares for Braves' Relocation
- Ott Undecided on Braves Stadium Plan
- Cobb Officials Urged Not to Rush Braves Deal
- Cobb to Fund 45 Percent of Braves Stadium
- Braves Announce Move to Cobb County
No specific public input meetings for the stadium project have been scheduled before the commission vote.
But North Cobb Commissioner Helen Goreham is scheduled to hold a previously scheduled town hall meeting on Thursday that could gauge the political climate for such a project in conservative Cobb.
She has been the most enthusiastic of the commissioners about the stadium proposal. Her town hall starts at 7 p.m. at the new Cobb Senior Wellness Center, 1150 Powder Springs Street, Marietta.
Organizations including the Cobb County Taxpayers League and Common Cause of Georgia have come out against public financing for the stadium, as have an Atlanta Tea Party group and the Sierra Club.
While those latter two strange bedfellows have planned a rally for next Monday, the day before the vote, two visible Cobb business leaders with a long track record of civic involvement have launched a campaign to support the stadium deal.
Jay Cunningham of Superior Plumbing and John Loud of Loud Security Systems are behind the creation of a new website,CobbHomeofTheBraves.com and a companion Facebook page.
Here's Cunningham in an MDJ paywall profile published Tuesday:
“We’re trying to get Cobb to come together and realize that the stadium is a perfect and maybe the best idea ever for Cobb that we have. It brings Atlanta to Cobb. It puts us on show, essentially, forever. We can show the rest of Georgia and maybe even further who we are and how good Cobb is.”
They've also recorded a 30-second commercial (see attached video) that began airing Tuesday on local television outlets, and they will be giving away a pair of 2017 season tickets to a fan who lobbies the commissioners via the new site.Cunningham and Loud most recently teamed up to support passage of the Cobb Education SPLOST that was renewed by Cobb voters in March.
But no referendum is needed for the Cobb vote on the Braves, since the only new taxes would be imposed in the Cumberland Community Improvement District. The bulk of the county's share of revenue bonds would come from extending a surcharge on current park bonds that are due to expire in 2017 and 2018.
According to WABE-FM, Common Cause is asking for a referendum on the stadium proposal, and is seeking a delay in the commission vote next week.
At the same time, robocalls are being made to Cobb householdsfrom unspecified groups on both sides of the issue.
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