The Braves are a s***** organization:
____
Some of those against the stadium deal were forcibly removed from the room. The meeting was over within two hours, the commissioners approving everything without debating or taking questions.
The Braves have been masters at brokering no dissent:
•When Atlanta balked at replacing the nearly 20-year-old Turner Field, team executives approached Cobb County—secretly, because as the team president said, if people knew about it, they would have said no.
•The funding was secured through some creative taxation, specifically chosen to avoid requiring a public referendum; Cobb County residents were never allowed to vote on giving $397 million to a baseball team.
•The actual vote on the operating agreement was only announced after 6 p.m. on the Friday before Memorial Day—concerned parties had just a long weekend to examine the details of a massive deal.
And the deal still contains questions and landmines. Cobb County has committed just $14 million to transportation improvements that are likely to cost at least 10 times that. The bond measures, released for the first time on Friday night, reveal that the Braves do not actually guarantee the $400 million in private development around the stadium that they had touted, rendering one of the project's biggest selling points imaginary long before ground is even broken.
This is going to cost Cobb County taxpayers well more than $400 million. But will the new ballpark provide an economic benefit in return? Well, there's a first time for everything.
http://deadspin.com/opponents-barred-from-speaking-as-cobb-county-approves-1582556255