Braves announced that they will move AAA club

[Billsman]

<tt>Hello Bisons Booster Club members and friends,

This may be old news to some of you, but if you want to see the Bisons
play at the Diamond in Richmond, you need to go there this season because
in a press release on January 17th, the Atlanta Braves announced that
they will move their Triple-A franchise from Richmond to Gwinnett County,
Georgia for the 2009 season. The Gwinnett County Stadium will be about
30 miles from Turner Field in Atlanta. The new stadium, which has not
been constructed yet, will seat about 7,000 people and will have room for
an additional 3,000 fans on the outfield berm.

Richmond has been home for the Braves Triple-A affiliate since the 1966
season and in 1985 the Diamond was opened, but the stadium has become
outdated. The field is in bad condition and the stadium lacks modern
amenities, such as indoor batting cages.

Bisons fans will remember that a combination of extended heave rains and
a bad drainage system forced the Richmond Braves to play each of the 2004
playoff games on the road. They ended up losing to Buffalo in the
Governor's Cup finals.

Gwinnett County already is home to an East Coast Hockey League team and
an Arena Football League team. A recent study showed that the County is
the most suitable area in the country for a Minor League baseball team.
Deposits already are being accepted for season tickets in 2009.

For more information, go to gwinnettbraves.com

Charlie Greene, President,
Buffalo Bisons Booster Club
</tt></pre>
<!-- end of AOLMsgPart_0_cf74766d-8086-4b37-9449-70cd8f49a24b -->

[billsfan69]

Well that will make it easy for the Braves to call somebody up from triple-A.

[Snarf]

It is not a surpise the Braves are on the move because nobody in Richmond really cared. Attendence was poor and even the newspaper articles I read about the team moving in the Richmond paper, it seemed people did not care. I was a bit suprised they were moving to the burb's around Atlanta. It is not like people flock to Braves games, so will people go to minor league games? The people around Gwinett do support the ECHL hockey team very well, so maybe there is a niche for minor league sports.

I believe the stadium will be bigger then 7,000 seats because I believe that stadiums are supposed to seat at least 10,000 for Triple A. And 7,000 seems a bit small even with the additional 3,000 seats. Buffalo seats 18,025 which is is the second largest in Triple A, Omaha seats thirtysome thousand because of the college world series. But most stadiums in Triple A seat around 12,000.

[ckg68]

As far as Omaha goes,I've heard that they might be building a new stadium to be exclusively used by the Royals(and/or Creighton University and the University of Nebraska at Omaha),with Rosenblatt Stadium used only by the College World Series. Why? Well,the Royals can't fill up the Blatt-which has over 23,000 seats.

[two4trippn]

Richmond won't know what to do. Games at The Diamond always were followed with a trip to Bill's barbecue off the Blvd across the street. First that town lost the Renegades (ECHL) and now their AAA baseball team, there's nothing left but Nascar twice a year.

http://www.billsbarbecuetogo.com/Bills1Restaurantmenu.asp

[Papaduke]

I am excited. I love minor league baseball and won't have to fight downtown traffic and parking in the hood to catch a game. The town they are moving to is called Buford LOL.

[JLB]

http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/images/2005/06/24/SfxntHLS.jpg

Go Bisons!!!