Braves to leave Turner Field after only 16 years

Wretched excess: Major League Baseball's Atlanta Braves announced today (Nov. 11) that they will depart Turner Field in downtown Atlanta and move to a new ballpark in 2017 in suburban Cobb County.

Turner Field opened in 1997. According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution and Yahoo.Sports, Cobb County will throw in $450 million and the Braves $200 million. (Note: teams count as their contribution so-called "naming rights" and "advertising rights" that really should count as the government's contribution, because it is spending far more than the team.)

Neil deMause of FieldofSchemes.com says that Cobb County "is not exactly flush."

The team complains that Turner Field's downtown location hurts attendance.

In San Diego, the Padres claimed they had to have a downtown location to survive, but comparative attendance has hardly been impressive compared with their old location at Qualcomm.