Reports are coming out of both Georgia and Mississippi that the city of Columbus, GA have begun efforts to woo the Mississippi Braves, AA affiliate of the Atlanta Braves, to relocate for the 2025 season.
As written by the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer,the ballpark renovation begun on Columbus' Golden Park stadium is being undertaken to lure one of five teams, all owned by Diamond Baseball Holdings, to Columbus:
High-A Rome Braves, now known as the Emperors
AA Mississippi Braves
AA Midland RockHounds (Oakland Athletics affiliate)
Single-A San Jose Giants (San Francisco Giants affiliate)
AA Wichita Wind Surge (Minnesota Twins affiliate)
The Jackson Clarion Ledger, citing multiple sources and digging deeper into the initial report by the Ledger-Enquirer, has reason to believe the Mississippi Braves are the primary target.
For starters, Mississippi's lease is up after the 2024 season, giving the team the ability to relocate without any need to pay exit fees or break any contracts.
In addition, the Mississippi Braves have not seen very good attendance during their time in Pearl, coming in 29th out of 30 teams in all of AA in attendance at 2,545 fans per game. (For reference, per Baseball America, average MiLB attendance is 4,076 fans per game.)
UPDATE: An earlier version of this story put the team in Jackson, Mississippi. We regret the error.
Interestingly, the only team worse in AA than the Mississippi Braves for attendance is also located in Mississippi, with the Biloxi Shuckers (Milwaukee Brewers affiliate) drawing 2,440 fans per game.
There's also potentially competitive reasons for a new ballpark in a new location - Trustmark Field is commonly seen as one of the worst offensive ballparks in baseball, with 52% lower home run production there versus the average park in the minor leagues. Additionally, the rest of Atlanta's minor league affiliates being within driving distance provides flexibility for rehabilitation of major leaguers, with injured starting pitcher Max Fried making a mid-July rehab start last season at High-A Rome, only a one hour drive away, when AAA Gwinnett went out on a road trip in the middle of his rehab stint.
What has Columbus done so far?
The city council for Columbus voted unanimously to explore $50M in bond issuances for upgrading Golden Park, built in the 1920s, but has not yet finalized plans or funding mechanisms for the bonds.
Major League Baseball issued new ballpark standards in 2022, requiring several upgrades to player medical and nutrition facilities, playing surfaces, and facilities for non-team personnel (umpires, MLB officials, etc.)
Golden Park does not currently conform to Major League Baseball's updated standards. It is unknown if Trustmark Park is currently in compliance, although minor upgrades were done prior to the 2023 season.
Golden Park last hosted a MLB-affiliated team in 2008, the Columbus Catfish, a Tampa Bay Rays affiliate for its final two seasons and a Los Angeles Dodgers affiliate prior to that. Its current tenants are a collegiate summer league team called the Columbus Chatt-a-Hoots, of the Sunbelt Baseball League, which would need to relocate if the entire plan goes through.
Golden Park sits in the "South Commons" development, a 170-acre complex that also houses a city ice rink, the Columbus Civic Center, a football stadium (A.K. McClung Memorial Stadium), and a skateboard park.
What is everyone saying about the potential relocation?
The Jackson Clarion-Ledger made several attempts to contact Mississippi Braves Vice President and General Manager Pete Lavin for comment, but he did not respond to phone calls or text messages.
Pearl, MS mayor Jake Windham admitted to the paper that he was unaware of any possibility the team could leave after the lease expired following the 2024 season, stating "We are not aware of anything like that. We are just looking forward to the next season, which begins in April."
A spokesperson for the Atlanta Braves declined comment, as is typical in these scenarios. The Mississippi Braves, while holding a Player Development License to be in the Braves minor league system through 2031, are owned by Diamond Baseball Holdings and not the Atlanta Braves.
Diamond Baseball Holdings, established in 2021 by media company Endeavor, currently owns and operates 28 minor league baseball teams across the United States and Canada, including all four of the Braves minor league affiliates.
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