Just south of the skyscrapers that illuminate Atlanta’s downtown stands a patch of land sacred to both the city and the sports world. This is where Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s unbreakable home run record and it’s where Carl Lewis soared toward the last of his nine Olympic gold medals.
It’s where the Braves won 14 consecutive division titles and Atlanta’s first World Series crown. It’s where Chipper, Andruw, Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz became Hall of Famers under the guidance and tutelage of fellow Cooperstown immortals Bobby Cox and John Smoltz.
It’s where Muhammed Ali lit the Olympic torch to begin the 1996 Olympic Games. It’s where Aaron homered in the 1972 All-Star Game and where Chipper went deep in the 2000 Midsummer Classic.
It’s now where Georgia State University will play both its football and baseball games.
The Olympic Stadium used for the 1996 Games became Turner Field before the start of the '97 season. The Ted served as the Braves’ home until they moved to Truist Park at the conclusion of the 2016 season.
But it’s now the home of the Panthers and serves as Georgia State’s football stadium, going by the name of Center Parc Stadium. The reconfigured stadium can hold approximately 33,000 fans. Along with being GSU’s home since 2017, the stadium also hosted the Georgia high school football playoffs for two years.
Long before becoming the home of the Braves, ’96 Olympics and Panthers, this patch of land was a parking lot located across the street from Atlanta Stadium, which was later known as Fulton County Stadium and then Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.
The Braves moved from Milwaukee to Atlanta after the 1965 season and played within Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium through the end of the '96 campaign. Aaron hit his historic 715th homer on April 8, 1974, and Dale Murphy won consecutive MVP Awards for the Braves in 1982 and ’83. The team went worst to first in 1991, and won the World Series with the help of Tom Glavine’s Game 6 gem and David Justice’s timely blast in '95.
After the Braves moved across the street to Turner Field to begin the 1997 season, Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium became a parking lot. But a portion of the structure’s wall still remains and there has always been a lasting monument marking where Aaron’s historic home run landed.
Once the Braves moved to Truist Park, Georgia State began building dormitories and other university buildings where Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium once stood. But a portion of the outfield wall and a memorial commemorating No. 715 still stands.
It will also stand when Georgia State uses a part of this land to build a baseball park that overlaps where the Braves first played in Atlanta.
GSU’s baseball stadium will be within the tall cement walls that once stood as the structure for Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. The left-field corner will sit around where Murphy, Marquis Grissom and Atlanta’s other center fielders roamed from 1966-96.
So, baseball will once again be played a stone’s throw away from where Aaron’s monumental home run landed over Atlanta’s left-center-field wall.