It appears that the Braves have revealed the new version of FanFest, and early returns aren't good in my opinion.  I don't know how many of ya'll went to the debacle that was last years "Treasure Hunt", where you pay $20, stand in line for 2-3 hours, maybe more for the late arrivals, and you got the autograph of whoever happened to be up front at the time. It could be Chipper Jones, it could be Brian Snitker. (as the kid that sat next to me on the busride home got.)  Needless to say, there were lots of complaints.  I wrote a letter, and the Braves called me back to discuss it, and they said that FanFest wasn't supposed to be all about the autographs, its more for the kids. Fine, then advertise it that way.  They assured me that this year would be better.  Well here it is:  Braves 2009 AutographFest!

http://atlanta.braves.mlb.com/atl/fan_forum/autographfest.jsp

Because its not about the autographs after all!  The first page is pretty vague, about all you can tell is that its back at Turner Field, its Saturday, January 24th, and its for the Braves Foundation, as it has always been.  Its when you click on the Buy Ticket icon that it becomes a little confusing, and very shocking.  The Braves apparently want to assure fans that they can get their favorite player's autograph-all its gonna cost is $100 or more.  The ticket prices are as follows:

Chipper Jones: $125

Tom Glavine: $125

Bobby Cox, Jeff Francouer, Brian McCann, and Phil Niekro: $100 per player

Tim Hudson: $75

Where it gets confusing is the Gold ($50) and Silver ($20) tickets, that don't explain anything.  I'm guessing these are the lesser players, coaches and retired players.

So the question is, if they are doing it for autographs, and its at Turner Field, why don't they do what they did before last year? Put the players in different places in Turner Field, give people a schedule and charge $20 per person, and they can stand in line for 2 hours and get who they want?  Are the Braves paying attention to the economy? Maybe i'm wrong, and there's more to be revealed that makes this the Best Ever, but it doesn't look good so far.