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Centennial Olympic Stadium

Location	755 Hank Aaron Drive SE, Atlanta, Georgia 30315
Broke ground	July 10, 1993
Opened	July 19, 1996
Renovated	August 27, 1996 (Reconfigured as Turner Field)
Owner	Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games
Surface	Grass
Construction cost	$207 million
Architect	Heery International; Rosser International; Williams-Russell and Johnson; Ellerbe Becket
Capacity	85,000
Tenants
1996 Summer Olympics

Centennial Olympic Stadium was the 85,000-seat main stadium of the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta. Construction of the stadium began in 1993, and it was complete and ready for the Opening Ceremony in July 1996, where it hosted track and field events and the closing ceremony. After the Olympics and Paralympics, it was reconstructed into the baseball-specific Turner Field.

During the week-long athletics program, the stadium bore witness to Donovan Bailey of Canada winning the 100 m in a world record time of 9.84 s; Michael Johnson winning both the 200 and 400 metres titles, breaking the 200 m world record in the process; and France's Marie-José Perec also winning the 200/400 double. Meanwhile, Carl Lewis won his fourth consecutive Olympic title in the long jump, becoming only the second person, after Al Oerter, to win the same athletics event at four consecutive Games.

After the closing ceremony of the 1996 Paralympics, the stadium was officially given as a gift to the Atlanta National League Baseball Club, Inc. (the Atlanta Braves). Ted Turner, then owner of the Braves, agreed to pay a large sum of the cost to build Centennial Olympic Stadium (approximately $170 million of the $209 million cost). As part of the deal, the Olympic stadium was designed and built in a way that it could be converted to a new baseball stadium, with the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) paying for the reconstruction. ^[1] This was considered a good agreement for both the Olympic Committee and the Braves, because there would be limited use for a permanent 85,000 seat track and field stadium in Downtown Atlanta, since the 71,000 seat Georgia Dome was completed four years earlier by the state of Georgia, and as the Braves had already been exploring opportunities for a new venue to replace Atlanta Fulton County Stadium.^[2]

The southwest corner of the Olympic Stadium was built to accommodate the future baseball infield and seating. This is easily seen in aerial views and diagrams of the stadium in its Olympic configuration, where the seats are not placed next to the oval running track. The southwest part of the stadium also had four tiers of seats, luxury boxes, a facade facing the street, and a roof, whereas the north half of the stadium used a simpler two-tiered seating configuration. During reconstruction, the athletics track was removed, and the north half of the stadium was demolished, reducing the capacity to 49,000. Because of the need to fit a track within the stadium in its earlier incarnation, the field of play, particularly foul territory, while not large by historical standards, is still larger than most new MLB stadiums.

Reconstruction was complete in 1997, and the facility was renamed Turner Field. Afterward, the 1960s-era Atlanta Fulton County Stadium, the Braves' previous home and the venue for the Olympics baseball events, was imploded.

[edit] References

1. ^ Sandomir, Richard (1996-07-30). "At Close of Games, Braves Will Move Into Olympic Stadium". The New York Times (The New York Times Company). http://www.nytimes.com/specials/olympics/0730/oly-stadium-braves.html. Retrieved 2008-07-24. 
2. ^ Kendrick, Scott. "Turner Field". About.com. The New York Times Company. http://baseball.about.com/od/photogalleries/ig/MLB-Stadiums-Gallery/Turner-Field.htm. Retrieved 2008-07-24. 

[edit] External links

• Interactive diagram at Clem's Baseball site showing both Olympic and Braves configurations
• Aerial View of Olympic Stadium
• Reconstruction into Baseball Stadium
• 1996 Summer Games

Coordinates: 33°44′08″N 84°23′22″W / 33.73556°N 84.38944°W / 33.73556; -84.38944