FanPost

Hopes and Fantasies for Our New Home Stadium

As a Braves fan and mythologist with knowledge of a new home and space, I want to put my fantasies out there.

My background is in the history of entertainment – from prehistoric ceremonies to mediums of the future. All entertainment is delivered in an environment, whether it’s a cave deep in the ground or the coliseum of a massive city. Sometimes entertainment is even built around the setting. Disneyland, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and New Zealand’s Middle Earth are all examples of how strong the relationship with the environment of one’s entertainment can actually become. In Disneyland, what you find is that every detail is taken as an opportunity to integrate existing memories into present experience. This effect can also be inverted, as exemplified Toon Town, which uses present experience to tend aging memories.

Consider the Harry Potter franchise in contrast with Star Wars. I have a Yoda cup that I bought from a fast food restaurant. I have also eaten countless of those Harry Potter Jelly Bellies. The difference between these amplifications of their stories (or anchoring entertainment products) is that the Yoda cup implicitly tells me I’m outside of the Star Wars galaxy – there certainly wouldn’t be Yoda cups in the Star Wars galaxy. On the other hand, when I eat a jelly belly, I am doing what characters in the story actually do – this takes me in as opposed to sets me apart. I actually do not think that either of these options is necessarily better than the other – there are reasons for both. My point is that, from here, we can start to see how the experience of the Star Wars or Harry Potter franchise begins to be immersive. THIS is what I believe that the Braves, in building a new stadium, could do better than any MLB team.

I think we should think of going to a game (or even watching one) as a ritual. When we do, we will concentrate on the entirety of the experience. Of course this is said, but by "entirety" I do not just mean that every aspect of the experience should be pleasant, or that an overactive multi media multi experience should be crafted.

For me it becomes about memory – raising the dead really. The more dimensions of imagination and intellect that the Braves can grow into, the stronger their fan base will be. Memories belong in more than banners, programs, and a few named items. I want Braves stadium to be Braves World and a Braves museum. Wherever people are standing in line they should be offered complimentary entertainment that elucidates the continuity of past with present. Stores should be seen as more than an opportunity to sell things, they are the opportunity to bring the imagination into a strong relationship with the Braves and their history. Why are there so many bare walls? How about murals of great moments like when Sid Slid? In Disneyland the parking sections aren’t B2, they are Mickey 2 – I would think our parking lots should similarly take the opportunity to use immersive names, as a start.

And here’s what I’d do with the beer – the drink is one of the most important parts of virtually any ritual. I would do what Aldi does at their grocery store and pick a brand I like, tell them I’ll sell their beer under my name at a certain price, and if they say no, I’d go to the next brand. I would sell one brand of draft of beer in the entire stadium that I would actually rebrand with a baseball-oriented name. I would pick a brand that could provide a variety of beers. I would also heavily recruit local breweries for bottled beer as one of the primary symbolic opportunities to represent a strong relationship with the local culture and economy. This introduces the secondary emphasis on representing Atlanta, but while I’d want to see it in the beer, it can’t be overplayed. One of the greatest (and most depreciating) assets of the franchise is its history on TBS and presence as the South's team.

The season in which the Braves start in the new stadium is a season of entertainment in which they will get to selectively reclaim and redefine their identity. In addition to happening throughout the new stadium, I’d also like to see it in their TV programming. Personally, while I’m putting my fantasies out there, I want a dirt-cheap series of old Braves stories told by old Braves personnel and fans – from single game stories, moments, successes, seasons, careers, etc - with supporting imagery and video (when available). Alongside this cheap series I’d want to see some extremely well produced stories. I’m a big fan of the fan-investment in Gattis and Kimbrel with the specials surrounding them – these are done all the time. We hear these stories I’m describing all the time, I’m just wishing for an intentional campaign. I would then double this campaign into content for the Braves HOF, which should have an awe inspiring home in the new stadium.

In addition to memory, the stadium should also represent a look towards the future while recognizing the current global environment. The stadium has got to be green. A thermal solution, like the one Greensleeves offers, could heat and cool the entire new complex for half the resources of a traditional HVAC system while presenting a considerate public image. Building a whole set of buildings like this is really an opportunity—on so many levels. Please find the grants or the support – there are people out there – who would bend over backwards to use this building event as a demonstration of new conservational technologies. Do the industrial stuff for sure, nothing untested, but use solar panels, geo thermal, thermal storage, and seriously strongly consider the technologies that can translate sound and vibration into electricity. The Dallas Cowboys stadium is truly an insult of endless entitled solipsism, please don’t let the Braves be the team with a questionable mascot and a brand new wasteful stadium. If done right, the Braves stadium complex could be a power generator for the county. Imagine a scoreboard graphic that doesn't just show how loud the audience was getting, but how much energy they are creating – it would simultaneously strike the imaginal chords of energy transmission and environmentalism.

This is a little of the more-ness I want from our stadium. We have read about a lull in Braves fan support. You can’t control the team, you can’t control the fans, but you can make the franchise and stadium a magnet for the imagination and beacon of mindful progressiveness.

I look forward to your thoughts!

Will

My site is Mythosophia.com

This FanPost does not express the views or opinions of Battery Power.