From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium
The Launching Pad
Location	Atlanta, Georgia (now demolished)
Broke ground	April 15, 1964
Opened	April 12, 1966
Closed	October 24, 1996
Demolished	August 2, 1997
Owner	City of Atlanta and Fulton County
Surface	grass
Construction cost	$18 million USD
Architect	Heery, Inc
Former names	Atlanta Stadium (1965-1976)
Tenants
Atlanta Braves (MLB) (1966-1996) Atlanta Falcons (NFL) (1966-1991) Atlanta Chiefs (NASL) (1967-1969), (1971-1972), (1979-1981) Atlanta Crackers (IL) (1965) Chick-fil-A Bowl (NCAA) (1971-1991)
Capacity
52,007 (baseball), 60,606 (football)
Dimensions
1966-68 & 1974-96 Left field: 330 ft. Left-Center: 385 ft. Center Field: 402 ft. Right-Center: 385 ft. Right Field: 330 ft. 1969-72 Left field: 330 ft. Left-Center: 375 ft. Center Field: 402 ft. Right-Center: 375 ft. Right Field: 330 ft. 1973 only Left field: 330 ft. Left-Center: 375 ft. Center Field: 402 ft. Right-Center: 385 ft. Right Field: 330 ft.

Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium, sometimes erroneously referred to as "Fulton County Stadium," was a multi-use (baseball, football, soccer, rock concert, revival meeting, and monster truck) stadium that formerly stood in Atlanta, Georgia. Completed in a then-record 50 weeks for $18 million, it opened in the spring of 1965 as Atlanta Stadium. It was intended as the home of the soon-to-be-relocating Braves, but court battles kept the team in Milwaukee as a lame duck for a year. So the new stadium had a lame duck of its own for that first season: the Atlanta Crackers of the International League, whose previous home had been Ponce de Leon Park at 650 Ponce de Leon Avenue. In its first year it also hosted Atlanta's only Beatles concert, August 18, 1965. In 1966, both the NL's transplanted Atlanta Braves and the NFL's expansion Atlanta Falcons moved in. In 1967 the Atlanta Chiefs of the National Professional Soccer League (reformed as the North American Soccer League in 1968) began the first of five seasons played at the stadium. ^[1] In a move intended to acknowledge the financial contributions of the taxpayers of Fulton County, the stadium's name was changed to the hyphenated Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium in 1976, the same year that Ted Turner purchased the Braves. ^[2] The Falcons moved to the Georgia Dome in 1992, while the Braves had to wait until the Olympic Stadium from the 1996 Summer Olympics was transformed into Turner Field to move out at the beginning of the 1997 season. The stadium sat 60,606 for football and 52,007 for baseball. The baseball competition for the 1996 Summer Olympics was held at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

The stadium was relatively nondescript, one of the many saucer-shaped multipurpose facilities built during the 1960s and 1970s, usually known as cookie-cutter stadiums, like (Washington, New York, Houston, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, San Diego, Cincinnati, and Philadelphia). The stadium was long known for the poor quality of the field of play; no one bothered to hire full-time groundskeepers until the early 1990s, instead relying on a city work crew. The relatively high elevation of the Atlanta area (situated at the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains) meant that the stadium was relatively favorable to long-ball hitters, giving rise to the nickname The Launching Pad. One unusual feature of this stadium is the fact that, unlike most baseball stadiums used for football where the football field was laid either parallel to one of the foul lines or running from home plate to center field, the football field here was laid along a line running between first and third base. Thus, a seat behind home plate for baseball would also be on the 50-yard line for football. Football seating was abysmal, as 50-yard-line seats were more than 50 yards away from the sidelines. (It shared this characteristic with the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum). The stadium was refurbished for the 1996 season prior to hosting the Olympic baseball competition.

The site where Atlanta Fulton County Stadium once stood is now a parking lot for Turner Field. The fence and wall display in the center of the picture commemorates the spot at which Hank Aaron's 715th home run landed on April 8, 1974.

• In 1972, the stadium hosted the Major League Baseball All-Star Game. Hank Aaron hit a home run during the game, and the National League won the game 4-3 in 10 innings.

• On April 8, 1974, Hank Aaron became baseball's all-time career home run leader by hitting his 715th home run off the Los Angeles Dodgers' Al Downing.

• The stadium hosted the World Series for the first time in 1991 when the Braves played the Minnesota Twins in what ESPN judged to be the best World Series ever played^[3]. The Braves won all three games played in Atlanta, two in their final at-bat, but lost the series in seven games.

• The 1992 World Series saw the Braves play the Toronto Blue Jays with the Blue Jays defeating the Braves four games to two, including two of three in Atlanta.

• On July 20, 1993, a fire occurred in the stadium press box during batting practice for that evening's game. This fire occurred on the same day that Fred McGriff arrived for the Braves, sparking their play to come back from 9 games down to win the division against the San Francisco Giants.^{[citation needed]}

• On October 28, 1995, the Braves clinched the 1995 World Series by defeating the Cleveland Indians 1-0 on a one-hit, 8-inning performance by pitcher Tom Glavine. The title was the Braves' first World Series championship in Atlanta, making one title in each of the three cities in which they have resided (also Boston and Milwaukee).

• The stadium's final event was Game 5 of the 1996 World Series; Andy Pettite of the New York Yankees closed down the stadium with a 1-0 shutout over John Smoltz of the Braves. Luis Polonia, made the final out in stadium history when Paul O'Neill of the Yankees robbed Polonia of a potential game-tying extra-base hit.

Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium was imploded on August 2, 1997. A parking lot for Turner Field now stands on the site, with an outline of the old stadium, and a plaque marking the spot where Hank Aaron's historic 715th career home run landed on April 8, 1974, in what was formerly the Braves bullpen.

The stadium was demolished in the same year as another Atlanta sports venue, the Omni Coliseum. That arena was the former home of the NBA's Atlanta Hawks and the NHL's Atlanta Flames.

• TerraServer photo of old stadium outline in parking lot, and Turner Field

Coordinates: 33°44′22.82″N, 84°23′22.69″W