Concessions: Food Variety, Food Quality, and Craft Beer/Other Drinks

As every new ballpark should, the Braves have an impressive bevy of concession items with both solid variety and great quality (relatively speaking, as always).

Out of everything SunTrust Park has to offer compared to Turner Field, the food is probably the biggest upgrade, as most of the regular concessions at the Braves’ old home were awful.

Yes, we have your obligatory Chick-fil-A stands, but the variety of culinary choices is right up there with the best in baseball, and most of it is local. Food is apparently sourced from more that 40 Atlanta farms and urban gardens.

Because this is Braves country, let’s start with the BBQ. Fox Bros. BBQ and Smokey Q serves scrumptious fare including pork butts, ribs, smoked BBQ sandwiches, smoked whole hog, smoked sausages, chopped brisket, BBQ spice popcorn, mac N cheese, and other specialties. If you’re looking for something that’s local and good, this might be your best bet, assuming BBQ is your cup of tea. Fox Bros. in particular is one of the most popular smokehouses in Atlanta.

Taco Factory serves solid Mexican cuisine. Taco bowls, the street taco trio, and chips & queso are served. Real queso. Not stadium nachos. Specialties include the blackened catfish po’ boy taco and jalapeno cheddar popcorn.

Even the Italian options are good at SunTrust Park. Forget about the stale Papa John’s Pizza seen at other ballparks. The Slice serves pizza, the “burgerpizza,” breadsticks, cannoli, salads, and Italian garlic Parmesan popcorn. You can see a trend here of specialty popcorn matching the flavor of a particular cuisine, and I think that’s a fantastic idea. Regular stands serve bacon cheddar popcorn.

While it’s a shameless rip off on Safeco Field’s Asian stand (The Braves and Atlanta in general love ripping things off and they don’t apologize!), Intentional Wok serves fantastic Asian cuisine. This might have the highest quality food in the park, as Gu’s Dumplings are very highly regarded in the Atlanta community. Dumplings, Chenghu noodles, and chicken pad thai noodles are on the menu. It was probably a good call to cut the popcorn trend off here and pass on pad thai popcorn!

The Carvery has roast beef sandwiches and rotisserie chicken. Potato Cutter is SunTrust Park’s dedicated fry stand, and they are pretty good. High Road Craft Creamery, serving the desserts at SunTrust Park, is based in Marietta.

SunTrust Park has a great presentation of healthy fare. Field of Greens has a wide assortment of vegetarian options, including veggie dogs, sausages, and burgers. Salads, fruit cups, veggie cups, and even gluten-free beer are available. Center Field Market is SunTrust Park’s “grab and go” station featuring turkey wraps, sushi, and other snacks. Check out the hand made guacamole here!

While I’ll expound upon this further below, SunTrust Park is the second park in the majors to feature a brewery on site. The ATL Brew Lab, located adjacent to the taproom, is a microbrewery developing different styles of beer. Some are being cultivated as baseball-themed brands.

I’m on the fence about awarding a “5” here, because SunTrust Park has great breadth, meaning they really cover all the bases (i.e. Mexican, Asian, BBQ, etc.), but not necessarily great depth, meaning they don’t have a deep selection in any one category.

Don’t forget you can easily venture outside the gates into The Battery if you fancy something else!   But as I said in the introduction, the Braves do a great job of providing amenities inside the park, even when they knew all the activity outside the park might draw more attention.

Score: Food Variety: 4/5; Food Quality: 4/5; Craft Beer/Other Drinks: 4/5

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Regional/Signature Concession(s):

For many years, the food at Turner Field had the inspiration of a minor league expansion team in Peoria. There was no unique fare recognizing the region’s southern sensibilities. It screamed “everyplace, USA.”

That certainly isn’t the case at SunTrust Park, which has a unique presentation of foods from states across the South. Braves fandom crosses state lines arguably more than any other team, so this makes sense.

Instead of having one dedicated location to feature all of the Southern cuisine, the Braves decided to sprinkle dishes across SunTrust Park’s concessions stands. It reinforces the concept of the differences between Southern foods within the South.

• South Carolina: At 1871 Grille, the pimento cheese patty melt is served, topped with caramelized onions and smoked paprika. The sandwich is served on rye.
• North Carolina: The Smokey Q stand cooks up a smoked whole-hog BBQ sandwich with coleslaw and vinegar sauce.
• Tennessee: At Fry Box, the Nashville hot chicken is served with bread and butter pickles. This one has gotten particularly good reviews.
• Mississippi: At Taco Factory, the aforementioned blackened catfish po’ boy taco is on the menu, served with coleslaw and “comeback sauce.”
• Alabama: Finally, at Braves Big Bites, a giant fried tomahawk pork chop is served on a very large potato roll with collard greens and white BBQ sauce.

I absolutely love this concept. I must say though, shouldn’t Georgia be here? Maybe I’m missing the point. Anyway, the Braves were clearly conscious in correcting their regionally uninspired fare at Turner Field. Two thumbs up.

Like Turner Field in its later years, SunTrust Park also features a Waffle House, located by the Xfinity rooftop. The Waffle House serves hash browns, Bert’s chili, a Texas Philly, and of course, waffles.

Braves Big Bites has the delicious Kevin Rathbun Steak Sandwich, a must try if you still have room.

But I’ve saved the best for last: the famous H&F burger. Holeman and Finch Public House and its hometown chef are frequently mentioned as providing one of the best burgers in the nation, not just in a ballpark. At the actual restaurant, people wait in long lines to get their hands on a very limited number of burgers (it isn’t on the restaurant’s menu). At SunTrust Park, there is one kiosk located on the main concourse and another permanent stand on the Chop House Deck. This is the best place in the city to get these burgers.

I would wager that this is absolutely the best burger in a major league ballpark, above even Shake Shack at Citi Field, Nationals Park, and now Minute Maid Park. These are gourmet burgers from a top-flight restaurant.

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Social Gathering Areas: Social Spaces, Restaurants, Bars, and Sitting Areas

The Braves have an excellent system of informal eateries and hip social spaces throughout the ballpark, at least in theory. My only worry is that they seem intent on making some areas “private group spaces,” or “hospitality areas,” as the Braves cleverly label them, which limits the park’s potential in this category. Most of the areas I mention below will always be open to all fans, and then I’ll discuss some other areas where I wish that were the case.

Like at Turner Field, the Coors Light Chop House is the Braves’ signature restaurant. The full-service restaurant serves informal fare. If you are planning on dining here, be prepared to wait. It seems more people opt to go to the more social bar area. Because those aforementioned seats (the ones with cooled cup holders) occupy the outside area, there is no outdoor dining available. The glass windows are retractable and you can catch a glimpse of the game from your table.

The Coors Light Chop House deck above the Chop House is a more social area featuring an indoor bar and outside standing area. The highlight is the eating area with red chairs and white tables, overlooking both the field and The Battery. The Braves look like they are open to making all of this a group area, which is quite annoying.

Ballpark aficionados and average baseball fans love to complain about “premium seating” encroaching on the average fan’s ability to enjoy the ballpark, but I’ve always found “group areas” to be the primary encumbrance. It blocks off entire areas of the ballpark that are normally accessible. The notion that no matter what you’re willing to pay, you can’t access an area unless you are part of one large group irritates me from a “ballpark reviewer” perspective. Anyway, the Chop House Deck is open to all fans as of now, despite what the Braves website says. An area beneath the Chop House called “Below the Chop” is a group area.

Featuring Fox Bros. BBQ, the bi-level Terrapin Taproom is probably the best restaurant in SunTrust Park. The taproom features a bar service area, a full-service restaurant with both indoor and outdoor seating (overlooking The Battery), and a more informal social area on the second floor. The menu is more extensive than what you’ll find at the Fox Bros. concession stand, and the quality is as good as any BBQ restaurant in the South.

The ATL Brew Lab can be viewed through the glass from some tables in the restaurant. Like Coors Field did with Blue Moon (yes, Blue Moon was created at Coors Field. That amazing fact isn’t talked about enough), the Braves are working on creating their own brand of beer.

Located adjacent to the Terrapin Taproom, Chef Hugh Acheson’s First and Third Hot Dog and Sausage Shack serves locally sourced sausages and hot dogs. I don’t know if gourmet hot dogs will take off at a ballpark, but it’s an interesting concept. It seems to me that fans who eat hot dogs in the first place aren’t looking for $13 “sausages with artisanal flavors and locally sourced proteins.” Anyway, the restaurant sausages and food are good, and include Andouille, Merguez, and radish-Serrano salads.

The First and Third Hot Dog and Sausage Shack and the Terrapin Taproom will be open year-round.

If there’s one downside to these three restaurants, it’s that they’re all located in the same place (right field). I would have appreciated some sort of watering hole, bar, restaurant, or sitting area on the main concourse around the infield. The platforms by the entry gates above the main concourse feature picnic tables.

Finally, the Xfinity Rooftop experience is SunTrust Park’s bona fide social space. It’s divided into three spaces: the Xfinity Patio, the Xfinity Cabanas, and the Xfinity Lounge. Sporting a sleek design with red mood lighting, the climate-controlled lounge is a bar always open to all fans and a welcome oasis during Atlanta’s scorching summers.

SunTrust Park is only one of five ballparks in baseball with a climate-controlled area for all ticketed fans in the upper deck (Coors Field, Comerica Park, Target Field, and Citizens Bank Park are the others). In most parks, if you want to sit down at a bar or are seeking refuge from extreme weather, you have to trek all the way down to the lower concourse. I can’t reiterate enough how much I appreciate a climate-controlled area in the upper deck open to all fans. It’s a minor but welcome amenity.

As opposed to the Xfinity Lounge, the patio and cabanas are sometimes rented out as group spaces. The Xfinity Patio features high top seats overlooking the field, red lounge areas, and large screen TVs. On the other hand, the Xfinity Cabanas are rented out individually and overlook The Battery. Ping-Pong and foosball are set up adjacent to the cabanas, which makes sense because in terms of entertainment, you can’t even see the game from here.

The fact that the latter two are often group areas limits their potential as accessible social spaces in the vein of The Rooftop at Coors Field (although this also includes group spaces) or the 416 New Amsterdam Bar at Comerica Park.

Located in left field where the 755 Club resided in Turner Field, the Hank Aaron Terrace is a large group area that I can’t quite figure out. Because of its size, it’s pretty unique in Major League Baseball. I simply didn’t know there was a market for a single-game group area with 300 seats. I can’t think of anything analogous in baseball. The idea of different individual groups of 300 people renting a space for 81 different games seems untenable to me. I imagine this space goes unrented or partially rented much of the time. Perhaps in the future, the Braves will open this space to all fans, sell season tickets here, or turn it into a private club.

For what it’s worth, there’s a bar open to all fans on the terrace level concourse right outside the Hank Aaron Terrace.

Overall, SunTrust Park certainly excels to a degree here, but I wish there was more emphasis on accessible social spaces instead of private group “hospitality” spaces. Again, I also wish there was a bar or restaurant on the main concourse around the infield. They could also use a more upscale accessible restaurant, but I understand there really isn’t a market for that. Nevertheless, the sheer quantity of the accessible options ensures a high score.

Score: 8/10

Premium Seating/Clubs:

SunTrust Park dazzles in this category, offering nothing short of some of the best premium seating in baseball in terms of options, amenities, and quality.

With two ultra-premium all-inclusive clubs behind home plate, two more informal dugout lounges down the lines, a smaller mezzanine club (as opposed to a “club level”), a limited number of high quality but well placed luxury suites, and the introduction of terrace tables into the baseball premium seating market, SunTrust Park’s premium seating model represents a culmination for the industry.

The continued emphasis is on making the best seats premium seats, bringing novel concepts to the table, and limiting your inventory but improving the quality of your luxury suites. SunTrust Park’s premium product mix is second only to that of Yankee Stadium, which simply dwarfs everyone else in terms of number of clubs and premium seats offered.

Important note: If I occasionally take a critical tone during this discussion, it’s because I want to highlight some areas for improvement in what is obviously an industry leader. SunTrust Park gets a lot of easy perfect scores, but this might be the easiest.

While the SunTrust Club detailed below is the ballpark’s most exclusive product, the Delta Sky360 Club is probably SunTrust Park’s flagship offering. Decked out with rich walnut ceilings and marble bar tops, the 18,000 square foot Delta Sky360 Club is very large for an ultra-premium club. With over 1,500 seats, the club is divided into chairman’s seats and executive seats, but both receive identical access and amenities save the valet parking included in the chairman’s package.

The all-inclusive menu includes access to an upscale buffet, informal ballpark food, beer, and wine. Liquor is the only thing that is not included. I enjoyed how the Delta Sky360 Club was segmented into different areas, resembling a restaurant with action stations, a sports bar, a more formal bar (two bars total), a bistro, and a lounge in different places.

When my correspondent and I were there, food included charcuterie, fried zucchini, Paninis, BBQ quesadillas, roast beef and bourbon melts, turkey tips, a great assortment of salads, potato stuffing, broccolini, an assortment of pastas, wings, egg rolls, mahi-mahi, and some nice desserts. The selection was great, but it didn’t seem quite as high-end as some of the best clubs in baseball, which makes sense given that they are probably saving the best for the SunTrust Club.

All of the requisite amenities people have come to expect are included: high back 21-22 inch fully padded seats, in-seat service, premium parking, batting cage views, and views of the post game press conference. We oddly could not find the batting cage views or any access to a post game press conference, so I’ll have to inquire about that on my return trip in 2018. Memorabilia includes a display of Silver Slugger Awards and an entire wall adorned with Gold Gloves.

If I had any critiques, it’s that the experience felt too crowded and not very intimate. I’m not one to complain about free alcohol, but I’m not sure of the wisdom of giving 1,500 fans access to free booze. I’ve seen these tickets go as low as $70 on Stubhub (they average about $110 on the secondary market, and the face value is $175-$225), which is an insanely good deal, so I got the sense that you had a bunch of fans there who just wanted to stuff their faces with as much free food, beer, and wine as possible. In fact, we saw multiple people asked to leave because they were suspected of being intoxicated. It was kind of chaotic, frankly, in contrast to more intimate ultra-exclusive clubs where everyone seems to know each other. The notability of the experience is somewhat diminished when you have so many people. But that’s why the Braves have the SunTrust Club!

I would imagine the Braves might limit access to the Delta Sky360 Club at some point in the future, and the layout of the seating is very conducive to that. Since you have an entire section on top of the club, many of the seats with access to the club don’t necessarily have to even go through the club. My guess is they designed it this way to easily respond to the possibility that they overextended the market.

The SunTrust Club is the Braves’ most exclusive ballpark experience, and perhaps the most exclusive in all of baseball. These could only be described as super ultra exclusive premium seats! Confined to only 160 seats in the first four rows behind home plate, all of which are in front of the back of the dugout from end to end around home plate (in other words, everyone is closer than a fan sitting in the first row behind the dugout), these are some of the hardest tickets to obtain in baseball.

Highlighted by natural materials like pecky cypress wood and polished brass and bronze, the atmosphere is simply stunning. The SunTrust Club is where you’ll find that rarified environment of crusty old men in suits eating lobster while checking their stock portfolio. Millennials looking to drink their ticket price? Not so much. The refinement extends to private wine lockers available for club members. Note the polished wood floors and wine bottle displays. The tablets are walnut, custom-built by a local design firm. Historical decorations include bats and signed baseballs.

All of the amenities included in the Delta Sky360 Club experience are included here, but liquor and valet parking is gratis as well. Food offerings are even more upscale, and patrons get access to the Delta Club itself if they want anything else not confined to the SunTrust Club.

Perhaps the coolest perk of the SunTrust Club are the seats themselves. Fans enjoy plush leather seats similar to those in the Delta Club, but they are 23 inches wide and include a small countertop with touchpad tablets. The tablets can be used to order food and drinks, and have full television and internet capabilities. I saw someone watching a football game, all while being closer to the field than players in the dugout! Here’s another feature that sounds like it would have been in the “ballparks of the future” brochure circa 1995! (Interesting aside: Tropicana Field had something similar when it opened in 1998, but the technology often malfunctioned and the concept was scrapped.  Now that’s a piece of ballpark history trivia I bet you didn’t know!)

While I only got to see it during the tour, I was slightly disappointed in one sense by the SunTrust Club, probably just due to sky high expectations. It seems more like an offshoot of the Delta Club than a truly expansive premium space. The buffet and restaurant were certainly sufficient for accommodating 160 fans, and it included two full service bars, which is more than sufficient for that capacity. But I don’t even think the SunTrust Club has a private entrance, as you have to enter through the Delta Club (I could be wrong here). Think of it as more of a club within a club.

Since 2012, I’ve always tried to sit in a ballpark’s best seats to get my readers the best pictures, but the SunTrust Club goes into the category of “no sane person would buy these,” beyond even the Legends Suite at Yankee Stadium (where ticket prices can go way down on the secondary market). While the face value is $500 per ticket, they rarely enter the secondary market, and when they do the quantity is so scarce you’re often looking at $600-$1000 per ticket.

Ultimately, perhaps the main perk here versus the Delta Club is less commotion and more individualized attention, while of course being closer to the field. Caveats aside, this is one of the most rarified experiences in sports.

Located on the mezzanine behind home plate above the ultra premium seating, the Infiniti Club is SunTrust Park’s entry-level premium space. The club is more casual and welcoming, exuding an openness that is both comfortable and sophisticated. The space includes a signature center bar, two other full-service bars, upscale food options, and a series of lounge areas. The Infiniti Club has a number of notable historical references. Braves Cy Young Award winners, Rookie of the Year winners, and Braves no-hitters are honored. Note the wood panels with images of Maddux, Glavine, Smoltz, and Cox branded into the wood.

Seats are similarly fully padded, but don’t have high backs. In-seat service is included, as is premium parking. This isn’t an all-inclusive experience, but fans sitting here get a $15 credit included in their ticket price.

This is probably where I would choose to sit if I was a season ticket holder, assuming I could afford it! Unlike the ultra exclusive clubs I just detailed, you don’t feel like you’re hunkered down in a dark bunker. With its high ceilings, the Infiniti Club has an airy vibe to it, providing views of the suburban landscape through tall windows on the far side. Be sure to check out the two baseball glove lounge sofas!

Located behind the Infiniti club seats but in front of the Infiniti suites, SunTrust Park’s 88 terrace tables have gotten a lot of attention. Terrace tables and loge boxes are common in the basketball and hockey markets, and were long overdue for the Major League Baseball market. Think of them as a middle ground between a club seat and a luxury suite.

The terrace tables include four movable chairs in front of a semi-circular table. They also feature tablets similar to those in the SunTrust Club for watching TV and ordering food. Each seat also includes a food and beverage credit. These have been the easiest premium packages to sell, according to Braves management. If they could do it over again, they said they would double or triple their inventory of terrace tables.

SunTrust Park also features some of the best luxury suites in baseball. With only 38 luxury suites, the Braves prioritized location and quality over quantity. According to the team, the 12 Champions Suites, located on the main concourse behind home plate, are the second closest in all of baseball. Located at the back of the Infiniti Club seating, the 24 Infiniti Suites round out the luxury suite inventory. There are also two dugout suites that blend in with the SunTrust Club, and I can’t find out any information on those. Perhaps they’re reserved for team officials and sponsors, so the Braves don’t bother talking about them.

While this doesn’t qualify as premium seating, fans sitting below the moat in the dugout seats down the lines have access to two dugout lounges. These aren’t upscale in the least, featuring white countertops with no seating, a few concession stands, and restrooms. The “lounges” are mostly just a gesture so fans sitting in these areas don’t have to hike up to the main concourse. Any fan can actually access these “lounges” before the game.

Finally, I’d like to offer two broad critiques of the premium seating at SunTrust Park overall.

Most notably, all three clubs don’t feature views of the field. When you are inside a club, you don’t even know there’s a baseball game going on. If you look at the similar setup at Nationals Park, you’ll note that one of the clubs behind home plate on the main concourse offers field views, as does the mezzanine club. This is a minor drawback at SunTrust Park, in my opinion.

This is about tradeoffs, though. Would you rather the Braves allow for field views from their clubs, forcing them to create separate levels for suites above, raising the upper deck even higher? I don’t think so. So looking at the ballpark overall, the Braves probably made the right call.

To continue our discussion of ultimate first world problems, it’s also odd that the Braves use a generic “premium entrance” for all three clubs (SunTrust, Delta, and Infiniti). It seems strange that there wouldn’t be a more specialized entrance for fans paying $500 a game versus those paying $92. Yankee Stadium, for example, does this much better.

In sum, the premium seating at SunTrust Park is essentially as good as it gets. While there may be some tweaks, this is the model future ballparks will use for their premium seating product mix. I know all of this was extremely granular, so thanks for staying with me! It’s important, because like it or not, this is the future of baseball.

Score: 9/9

Celebrating History: Museums, Historical Exhibits, Memorabilia, Art, and Other Displays

The transition from Turner Field to SunTrust Park perfectly represents the evolving philosophy of how to showcase team history in ballparks.

In 1997, Turner Field’s Museum and Hall of Fame impressed fans and critics alike (for the record, the Museum did open in 1997; Wikipedia says 1999 because that is when Braves Hall of Fame members began to be inducted). The exhibition was as good as any ballpark museum in the country. It housed over 600 Braves’ artifacts from eras in Boston, Milwaukee, and Atlanta. Other exhibits include members of the Braves Hall of Fame and information on the Olympics. The coolest feature was an original Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Car showing how the team traveled in the 1950s.

In recent years, the consensus in the ballpark community has shifted away from museums. Starting with Comerica Park in Detroit, ballparks began to create different historical exhibits all around the park, integrating nostalgia into the ordinary ballpark experience. No matter how great a team museum was, officials recognized that stashing all of your history in one area wasn’t the way to go. The consequence would be that the ballpark itself would have little mention of the team’s history, and only a handful of fans would enter a museum located off the concourse. Don’t stash artifacts in one standalone area; weave it into the fabric of the ballpark!

With Monument Garden at SunTrust Park, this new school of thought has come to full fruition. This isn’t just one of the best historical displays in baseball, but one of the most beautiful features in all of baseball.

Monument Garden features a comprehensive interactive timeline of the franchise’s history from Boston to Milwaukee all the way to Atlanta. There are many retired numbers, glassed-in jerseys, historical murals, championship banners, memorable moments, MVP honors, Gold Glove award winners, Cy Young recipients, and so on. You might even learn some interesting trivia. The 1995 World Series trophy is through the glass inside the Champions Suite hallway.

The exhibition combines all kinds of artifacts in perfect rhythm and proportion, from photos and videos to bats, gloves, and baseballs. Braves Hall of Fame plaques are located on the brick façade.

Anchoring the middle of Monument Garden is a statue of Hank Aaron. This is a new statue, not the old one from Turner Field. Capturing the moment of impact when Hank Aaron’s bat hits home run number 755, there’s certain poise and resoluteness in Aaron’s facial expression that makes the statue come to life. It’s one of the better statues I’ve seen in baseball. Note the cascading fountain and the videos showing his accomplishments. A sculpture made of 755 Hank Aaron Louisville Slugger bats in the shape of the number 755 is especially cool as well. The whole scene will give you goose bumps.

The exhibition is very much an interactive one. You can put yourself in Sid Bream’s knee brace and hear Skip Caray roar as he announces Bream’s game-winning slide that sent the Braves to the 1992 World Series.

The garden allows fans to get close to displays while enjoying a mundane stroll around the park. You don’t go to Monument Garden. Monument Garden comes to you. Even if you don’t care about the history, it’s aesthetically gorgeous.

Monument Garden’s location on the main concourse behind home plate is quite clever as well.

Ballparks in recent years feature clubs or suites behind home plate, meaning fans sitting behind home plate don’t directly venture to the main concourse. They go under the stands into clubs or into suites. Here, for example, everyone sitting behind home plate uses the clubs beneath the seating bowl. The result is a main concourse behind home plate that is completely devoid of activity. Compare similar areas on the main concourse at Citi Field and Nationals Park. It’s dead.

Because these areas are devoid of activity, the unintended consequence is that fans sitting in other sections are less likely to walk around the ballpark. If I’m sitting on the first base side, I have less of a reason to stroll around the park with knowledge that there’s nothing going on behind home plate. An effectively planned ballpark should encourage circulation across all areas, putting fans in contact with as many points of sale as possible. So one subtle function of Monument Garden is to get fans out of their seats into an area behind home plate where there usually wouldn’t be much activity. I’m surprised no one has done this before.

SunTrust Park features 300 Braves-themed art pieces throughout the ballpark, all of which appear to be in premium areas or team offices, however. As previously noted in “premium seating,” the clubs are filled with memorabilia.

Finally, SunTrust Park features three statues outside the ballpark. My favorite of the bunch has always been Phil Niekro, just because of how well you can see the knuckle ball motion. With so many statues of players who didn’t really transcend the sport popping up across major league ballparks, many are unrecognizable. But you can recognize the Niekro statue from 50 feet away. It has been pointed out the Niekro statue was transported from Turner Field, but actually, it dates back all the way to the Atlanta Fulton County Stadium days.

The Warren Spahn statue is solid, perfectly capturing his signature high leg kick. This is another one that’s instantly identifiable. The Spahn statue was also transported from Turner Field. Sculpted by Brian Hanlon, the only new statue is the one of Bobby Cox.   The old statue of Hank Aaron remains at Turner Field, while the Ty Cobb statue was moved to Royston, Georgia.

Out of all of SunTrust Park’s merits, this might be the most impressive. Future parks will use SunTrust Park as the model for how to integrate history into their parks.

Score: 9.5/10

Kids’ Areas/Other Entertainment/Other Amenities:

For better or worse, SunTrust Park almost redefines entertainment at Major League Baseball facilities. You can imagine a kid conflating a day at the ballpark with the “zip-lining place.” We’ve had random non-baseball game entertainment at baseball stadiums for decades, but this really is a paradigm shift.

Highlighted by “Hope and Will’s Sandlot,” SunTrust Park has numerous games and activities for the kids. The Braves say they are the first professional sporting venue to have a zip line or a rock-climbing tower. That sounds about right.  Edit: That’s not technically correct; Tropicana Field featured a rock-climbing wall in the early 2000s.  Called “Hope and Will’s Pop Flier,” two zip lines can run simultaneously. The climbing tower has eight spots. No need to worry about lines: fans will be able to use the Braves app to reserve a time for both of these attractions in advance. Adults can join in on the fun too!

The other main “activity” at Hope and Will’s Sandlot is the first base dash. Kids of all ages run from home to first racing a board that simulates the speed of a player. There are two virtual game simulations of note: Hope and Will’s Strike Zone and Hope and Will’s Home Run Derby. The Sandlot also has carnival games, which are welcomed for this category, but begin to veer into the territory of a mall in my opinion. There’s “Chop-A-Mole,” an obvious take on Wack-A-Mole. There’s a gun competition where fans shoot baseball targets in the spirit of a pick off. There is also some sort of water gun game.

If you’re wondering where the “Hope and Will” name comes from, the Braves partnered with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta to create this kid-friendly area, so it has something to do with that organization.

On the main concourse, kids can get in the Braves spirit with face painting. There is plenty of entertainment for adults too: remember, on the Xfinity Rooftop, SunTrust Park has cornhole, Ping-Pong, and foosball.

Last but not least, the Mizuno Glove Experience is one of SunTrust Park’s most unique features. Fans can rent a glove for the entire game at one of the two stations, free of charge. You do need to swipe a valid credit card to rent the glove. If you forget to (or just don’t want to) return the glove, you’re charged the glove’s face value (no extra fees!) and are allowed to keep it. Sounds good to me!

Note how original a lot of this “entertainment” is. Forget the generic playgrounds and jungle gyms.

This is just another example of SunTrust Park having exceptionally novel and well-executed amenities.

Score: 6/6

Total: 44.5/50