Georgia State Expanding Its Summerhill Sports Complex
As Georgia State works to transform its downtown footprint with its ambitious “College Town Downtown” projects — an array of efforts to create and recreate vibrant, people-centric spaces for faculty, staff, students and neighbors that define and animate the Georgia State experience — it’s simultaneously transforming an area south of Interstate 20 into a three-sport athletic complex. And one of the newest additions to the Summerhill neighborhood will, for the first time in nine years, bring baseball to the former home of Braves country.
With plans to break ground soon on the new 1,000-seat baseball park along Summerhill’s Pollard Boulevard, GSU will be reimagining and, in a sense, restoring the site formerly home to Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium. Demolished following the Centennial Olympic Games, it’s where the Braves played from 1966 to 1996 before moving to Turner Field, which had been built initially as a venue for the Games, including its opening and closing ceremonies.
Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium is also where batting legend Hank Aaron bested Babe Ruth’s homerun record, smacking his 715th career homer April 8, 1974.
Since its 1997 implosion, the site has been used for parking.
The GSU baseball park, with a budget of $15.85 million, will be funded by Panther Athletic Club gifts and reserves, and Georgia State University Foundation funds and gifts. The lighted, artificial turf field will be easily accessible via Panther Express shuttle bus service for GSU students, faculty and staff, and allow the Panthers to bring baseball in from its current Panthersville home 12 miles east.
In doing so, the baseball team will join Panthers football and men’s and women’s basketball as part of a three-part sports complex embedded in and revitalizing the Summerhill community.
GSU head baseball coach Brad Stromdahl and his team are abuzz about the new facility, which he says has already proven to be a tool in wooing prospects and retaining players on his current roster.
“We’ve got a top-25 recruiting class that can take us into the new stadium. We’re expecting to build on the success we’ve had the last couple of years, and our goal is to take the excitement of the new stadium and go to an NCAA regional. We want to have a watershed moment,” he said.
Building a new home for Panthers baseball won’t be GSU’s first effort at repurposing a former home of the Braves or completing an adaptive-reuse project in Summerhill.
In 2016, Atlanta’s beloved navy and scarlet-red home team moved out to the suburbs of Cobb County, to what’s now Truist Park, leaving famous Turner Field up for grabs. Eyeing an opportunity to grow its campus presence and help revitalize the Summerhill neighborhood, GSU teamed up with Atlanta-based real estate investment and development firm Carter to purchase the storied MLB facility, along with more than 65 surrounding acres. Turner Field became a 25,000-seat stadium for GSU football starting with the 2017 season, and the headquarters for the university’s athletic program.
GSU kept the momentum going, transforming a 6-acre lot (part of the previous 65-acre acquisition) just north of its new football turf into the 8,000-seat Convocation Center. The event venue, opened in 2022 on a site once home to a collection of Georgia Department of Driver Services mobile offices, is the new arena for men’s and women’s basketball, as well as important university events, like commencement and First-Year Convocation.
In 2020, the football stadium became Center Parc Credit Union Stadium as part of a 15-year naming rights agreement, while the university recently announced it’s exploring potential naming-rights partners for the Convocation Center.
“This naming opportunity for our Convocation Center is the next step in strengthening our nationally recognized brand with a corporate partner who shares our vision for community engagement, urban development and economic impact,” said L. Jared Abramson, Georgia State’s executive vice president and chief operating officer.
Baseball’s upcoming addition will mark the third installment in what has become a sports complex for the university — and a catalyst in Summerhill’s ongoing metamorphosis. Co-locating three of its NCAA Division I varsity teams minutes from its downtown campus is just more evidence of the Identity, Placemaking and Belonging initiatives in GSU’s 10-year BluePrint to 2033 strategic plan at work.
Like football and basketball, GSU foresees its home baseball games (35 to 37 per season) driving more people to Summerhill, which has been a magnet for new restaurants, retail and foot traffic in the past eight years. The increased activity will also increase opportunities to engage students and the local community in the Panther culture, with a shared sense of pride.
“Athletic events create a presence in the neighborhood, they help highlight GSU branding and visibility, and they provide an opportunity for faculty, staff and students to interact in more informal settings,” said Georgia State Athletics Director Charlie Cobb. “And that’s when placemaking starts to really make sense.”