Turner Field opened as the 85,000-seat main stadium for the 1996 Olympics, hosting athletics as well as the opening and closing ceremonies.
After the Olympics, the stadium was renamed after former Braves owner Ted Turner, downsized to about 50,000 seats and converted to a baseball park for the 1997 season,Duke Johnson Jersey, replacing Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium across the street. The old stadium was imploded and turned into a parking lot for the new facility, just a week after the city's Omni coliseum met the same fate. |