Truist Park

About Truist Park

In the Cumberland district of Cobb County, a ballpark and an entire entertainment district went up as one project. Truist Park seats 41,084, and it is ringed by The Battery Atlanta, a 60-acre development of restaurants, bars, a hotel, and residential towers built in the same breath as the stadium. A $1.1 billion bet that fans would come for more than nine innings.

The Braves moved here in 2017 after just 20 seasons at Turner Field, the shortest tenure of any modern MLB ballpark. Turner Field, originally the main stadium for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, had poor highway access, thin parking, and no surrounding entertainment. The decision to move 12 miles northwest to the suburbs was controversial. Suburban flight, some called it. But The Battery delivered the mixed-use district Turner Field never had.

Built for about $622 million, with the surrounding Battery development pushing the total past $1.1 billion, and designed by Populous, Truist Park is intimate by modern standards. Its canopy roof covers the upper deck and shades roughly 60% of the seats during afternoon games, essential in Atlanta’s brutal summer heat. The park opened as SunTrust Park and became Truist Park in 2020, after SunTrust and BB&T merged.

The ballpark found its defining moment in 2021, when the Braves beat the Houston Astros in six games for the World Series, Atlanta’s first title since 1995. The run, carried by Jorge Soler, Freddie Freeman, and a pitching staff that dominated October, gave Truist Park its identity. The clincher came in Houston, but The Battery erupted anyway, and the parade through downtown Atlanta sealed the park’s place in Braves history.

Getting to Truist Park

Public Transit

Truist Park has no direct MARTA rail service, one of the most criticized aspects of the move from Turner Field. CobbLinc provides bus connections on game days.

The lack of MARTA access is a real issue. Most fans drive, and the Braves built The Battery’s extensive parking infrastructure accordingly.

Driving + Parking

The ballpark address is 755 Battery Avenue SE, Atlanta, GA 30339. I-75 and I-285 are the primary approaches.

The Battery has approximately 15,000 parking spaces at $20–$40. The Silver, Gold, and Blue decks are closest. Pre-purchasing is essential, the lots fill quickly and post-game traffic on I-75 is severe. Arrive early, park, eat at The Battery, and walk to the game.

Rideshare

Uber and Lyft have designated zones on Circle 75 Parkway near The Battery’s north entrance. From Midtown Atlanta, expect $18–$25. From Buckhead, $12–$18. Post-game surge is heavy, eat dinner at The Battery and wait for traffic and surge pricing to settle.

From the Airport

Construction & Design

The Braves wanted more than a new ballpark. They wanted to own the neighborhood around it. Turner Field had sat in a sea of surface parking. No bars, no restaurants, no reason to arrive early or stay late. So the franchise built the ballpark and its surroundings as a single development, and ground broke on September 16, 2014, in Cobb County at the crossing of I-75 and I-285.

Populous designed the park, and the American Builders 2017 joint venture, Mortenson with Barton Malow, Brasfield & Gorrie, and New South, put it up. The ballpark itself cost about $622 million; the broader development, The Battery included, pushed past $1.1 billion. Cobb County covered roughly $392 million of the public financing, a figure that drew years of local controversy.

The bowl is deliberately compact, one of the smaller footprints among the newer parks, which pulls the stands closer to the field. A canopy shades about 60% of the seats, a real consideration in a city where afternoon first pitches routinely land above 90°F. And the whole thing is wired to The Battery: you walk out of the seating bowl and straight into a district that runs 250-plus events a year whether the Braves are home or not.

History of Truist Park

Truist Park was built to replace Turner Field, which itself had been converted from the 1996 Olympic stadium. The roughly $622 million ballpark, designed by Populous, broke ground in 2014 near the intersection of I-75 and I-285. The surrounding Battery Atlanta development added roughly $400 million more, pushing the total past $1.1 billion and making it one of the most expensive ballpark developments in history.

First Game (April 14, 2017): The Braves defeated the San Diego Padres 5–2 before a sellout crowd of 41,149. The park opened as SunTrust Park and drew immediate praise for the intimate seating bowl and The Battery’s pregame atmosphere.

Naming Change (January 2020): SunTrust and BB&T merged to form Truist Financial Corporation. The park became Truist Park, the first name change the ballpark experienced and a seamless transition that required only new signage.

2021 World Series (October–November 2021): The Braves defeated the Houston Astros in six games to win their first championship since 1995. Jorge Soler’s three-run home run in Game 6 sealed it. Games 3, 4, and 5 at Truist Park were deafening, the Tomahawk Chop echoing through The Battery as 40,000 fans willed the Braves toward October glory. Freddie Freeman’s tears on the field after the final out became the image of the franchise’s redemption.

The Battery Atlanta: The mixed-use district has exceeded expectations since opening, with year-round foot traffic that doesn’t depend on game days. Live Nation’s Coca-Cola Roxy venue hosts 250+ events per year. Residential towers are at capacity. The model has been studied by every team in professional sports looking to build a ballpark-anchored development.

Honoring Hank Aaron: The stadium’s street address, 755 Battery Avenue, is no accident. It marks Hank Aaron’s 755 career home runs, and a monument of 755 bats stands near his statue outside the park. Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s record as a Brave in 1974, and the franchise, which traces back through Milwaukee to 19th-century Boston, is one of the oldest continuously operating teams in American sports. The move to Cobb County in 2017 was only the latest chapter in a long history of the Braves chasing the right home. So far, with a 2021 championship and near-constant sellouts, the gamble has paid off.

From Turner Field’s short life to The Battery’s long-term vision, Truist Park represents a new model for baseball, a ballpark that is the center of a neighborhood rather than the center of a parking lot, built by a franchise willing to bet $1.1 billion that fans want more than a night out.

Sources & Further Reading

• Ballparks of Baseball, Truist Park: ballparksofbaseball.com. Capacity, cost, the design team, and dimensions.
• Populous, Atlanta Braves ballpark: populous.com. Design, the canopy, and The Battery integration.
• Wikipedia, Truist Park: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truist_Park. Naming history, the 2021 World Series, and construction.