Could the SEC Baseball Tournament be Coming to Gwinnett County?
by T Kyle King on May 28, 2010 7:00 AM EDT
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PrintAlthough we in Bulldog Nation have had no reason to notice, the SEC baseball tournament is taking place in Hoover this week. Naturally, we all hope the Diamond Dogs will be returning to the conference tourney soon, but that event may not remain in Hoover for the long haul. The league is looking at other venues.
When the conversation about an alternative site first began, we thought maybe it was Memphis, but it turns out that someplace closer to home may be in play. According to SEC assistant commissioner Craig Mattox, bid packages will go out next month to Hoover, Memphis, and Duluth, Ga., home of the AAA Gwinnett Braves. (Hat tip: And the Valley Shook.)
It appears that Coolray Field is deemed a suitable home for the tournament. The 10,475-seat facility opened for business in April 2009, and Gwinnett County has a strong incentive to maintain the park adequately, lest the Braves opt out of their lease after fifteen years and leave the taxpayers holding the bag for the municipal bonds that run until 2038.
Coolray Field is comparable in size to Hoover’s Regions Park Stadium, which seats 10,800, and the fields are of similar dimensions. The fences in the suburban Atlanta stadium are five feet closer in than those in the suburban Birmingham stadium, as 400 feet separate home plate from straightaway center field in Duluth. Right and left field each are 335 feet away.
The problem with the Peach State site’s potential bid isn’t Coolray Field, by which Mattox reportedly "was impressed," and which, after all, is named "Coolray Field." The problem is the lack of suitable locations for batting practice and of nearby hotel space. On behalf of the Gwinnett Convention and Visitors Bureau, managing director Preston Williams stated with a marked lack of Chamber of Commerce enthusiasm:
We’re waiting on the bid package and certainly are going to take a look at it. If we can meet all the requirements and put together a competitive bid, we certainly want to do that.
I’m sure what he meant to say was, "Gwinnett County is a family-friendly tourist destination featuring an award-winning parks system and the Southeastern United States’ largest shopping mall. We’re proud to be home to AAA professional baseball and minor league hockey, we’re doubly proud to have hosted such significant intercollegiate competitions as the SEC women’s gymnastics championships and two rounds of the NCAA Division I women’s basketball tournament, and we’ll be trebly proud to welcome the excitement of SEC postseason baseball right here to Coolray Field!" It’s marketing jargon, Preston; get with the program, dude!
So what do you think? Would you rather see the conference baseball tournament in Duluth, Hoover, or Memphis? Vote in the poll and offer your thoughts in the comments below.
Go ‘Dawgs!
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Would there really be that much of an issue...
…regarding hotels and batting practice facilities? Surely Gwinnett has enough hotels along 316 and the 85 interchange that they would be able to house everyone (even if it would be more than a five minute drive to the stadium). On top of that, if a team wasn’t playing that particular day, they could always take batting practice/hold a full practice at one of Gwinnett’s many high schools in the area. Just off the top of my head, I can think of Collins Hill, Central Gwinnett, North Gwinnett, Northview, Duluth, Buford, and a few more that are all close enough to hold a practice on an off day, and their facilities can’t be that bad. Plus, they should all be done with school at this point, so you wouldn’t have to worry about interfering with anything like that.
The unofficial ATVS stance...
… has been to advocate rotating the tourney among the SEC home parks. But I’m fine with whatever. We’re going to have to travel a long way. What else is new? Duluth might be nice change of pace.
Fake Pundit. Real Fan.
http://www.andthevalleyshook.com
Duluth as a "nice change of pace".
Of all the possible combinations of words in the English language, that has to be right up there among the least likely. My anti-suburban bias (utter disdain) is well-documented if not well-known. I’ve never been to Hoover, so it might not be any better, but to me, Duluth (indeed, much of Gwinnett) is a model of everything that’s wrong with suburban sprawl. I have kinfolk in Gainesville, and it’s all I can do to keep from weeping openly when I start the drive northeast. These days, I can’t stop gritting my teeth and choking back the tears until I’m well past the 365 (aka 985) turnoff. My daily I-75 commute is better only because it’s shorter, but I still can’t stop repeating the silent question, “whom are you passing?” at the billions of cars who avoid the rightmost lane as though it would burn them. By the way, I drive in the rightmost lane unless actively passing someone or allowing someone in from an on ramp (which I view as related functions), and it doesn’t burn at all. And that’s just one small sample of what’s wrong with people out there.
So that's what's wrong with me?
Thanks. You just saved me a lot of wasted time in therapy.
by hailtogeorgia on May 28, 2010 10:12 AM EDT up reply actions
No big deal...
…I was just making a joke. No offense taken on my behalf. If more people followed your lead and drove in the right lane, I would be a lot less stressed during my commute because I wouldn’t be screaming at people going 65 in the leftmost lane. The main reason I avoid the rightmost lane is that when I’m not getting off of GA 400 until exit 12, there’s no reason for me to fight with everyone who’s exiting and entering between exits 3 and 11.
by hailtogeorgia on May 28, 2010 10:27 AM EDT up reply actions
Because creating then running with tangents is what I do ...
Staying in the rightmost available lane except when actively passing or allowing another car’s entrance requires a certain amount of cooperation on which we, unfortunately, cannot depend. The way it should work is that if you need to move to your left to pass or allow entrance, you signal, and if someone’s to your left, they notice (ha!) your signal and, if possible, duplicate your process and so on until there are no more possible lanes. Believe it or not. I’ve seen it work beautifully. (it really chafes me to recognize that I will need to pass a car ahead, turn on my signal, and a car to my left going barely faster than I can’t be bothered to move into one of the three empty lanes to his left.) It can’t always work on a crowded highway, of course. God forbid someone should actually have to slow down to accommodate another driver. I still maintain that planning one’s behavior exclusively around limiting the risk one might have to slow down or change lanes is inconsiderate to other drivers on the road and part of an “I’ve got mine; F you” mentality that too many people have, perhaps without even recognizing it.
I have very strong feelings about the rules of the road.
My apologies. I don’t often get the chance to rant among such tolerant people.
I certainly see your point.
However, this really only works if there isn’t much traffic. If there’s normal morning commute traffic, people generally can’t move over. Also, while I do stay in the leftmost line the majority of the time, if someone comes up behind me going faster than I am, I have no problem moving over to let them pass as soon as I can safely do so.
On a similar note, they did a study recently (not sure who “they” was) analyzing what percentage of “asshole” drivers was necessary to facilitate the optimal driving experience for everyone. The logic here is that if everyone obeys the traffic laws exactly as intended, traffic actually moves less optimally than it would if a certain percentage of the drivers were overly aggressive. The results were that to have optimal driving conditions for all drivers, you need about 25% of the drivers to be assholes. The problem is, when the percentage of the assholes goes higher than 25%, driving conditions deteriorate very rapidly (and at a much higher pace than if there are too few asshole drivers). Anyway, just thought it was interesting.
by hailtogeorgia on May 28, 2010 1:48 PM EDT up reply actions
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