Politics & Government

Ott Schedules Braves Stadium Town Hall

All four district commissioners will be having public meetings before Tuesday's scheduled vote.

By Wendy Parker

Smyrna-Vinings Commissioner Bob Ott is joining his fellow district commissioners in having a town hall meeting regarding the Atlanta Braves stadium deal. 

Commissioner Ott will hold his town hall meeting at 7 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 25 on the second floor of the Cobb Board of Commissioners' office in downtown Marietta.

Yesterday, Ott and Commissioner Lisa Cupid announced Monday town hall meetings on the subject. Cupid's town hall meeting will be at the South Cobb Community Center, 620 Lion Club Drive, Mableton.

North Cobb Commissioner Helen Goreham's town hall tonight was scheduled in advance of the Braves-to-Cobb announcement last week, but figures to be dominated by the topic.

Goreham's meeting tonight begins at 7 p.m. at the Cobb Senior Wellness Center, 1150 Powder Springs Street, Marietta. 

Commissioner JoAnn Birrell announced Thursday that she will hold a town hall meeting from 4:30-6 p.m. Monday at the Mountain View Community Center, 3320 Sandy Plains Road.

Cobb Commission Chairman Tim Lee, who worked secretly with Braves officials for four months before revealing the plans last week, has committed $300 million from the county for the proposed $672 million stadium near Cumberland Mall. 

The commissioners are scheduled to vote on a proposed memorandum of understanding between the Braves and Cobb on Tuesday. Lee has said he would not delay a vote, nor would he have a public meeting beforehand. 

But Cobb citizens have been flooding commission phone lines with robocall-inspired messages on either side of the issue, prompting county government spokesman Robert Quigley to liken it to "a denial of service." 

According to an AJC sampling of e-mails sent to commissioners, a majority of the responses are opposed to or skeptical of the stadium deal. 

Braves president John Schuerholz told The Atlanta Business Chronicle that the team has "no Plan B" as it prepares to leave Turner Field and downtown Atlanta and begin playing in Cobb in 2017: 

“We think very positively that the vote will go in our favor. We’ve had a lot of great, positive feedback about the feelings of many, many people in Cobb County and the leadership of Cobb County.

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