Centennial Olympic Stadium

Centennial Olympic Stadium
The stadium during the 1996 Summer Olympics
Data
place	Atlanta , USA
Coordinates	33 ° 44 '8 "  N , 84 ° 23' 22"  W Coordinates: 33 ° 44 '8 "  N , 84 ° 23' 22"  W
owner	Organizing Committee for the 1996 Games
start of building	July 10, 1993
opening	July 19, 1996
Renovations	August 27, 1996 (start of conversion to Turner Field ) February 27, 2017 (start of conversion to Georgia State Stadium )
surface	Natural grass
costs	approx. US $ 207 million
architect	Heery International; Rosser International; Williams-Russell and Johnson; Ellerbe Becket
capacity	85,000 seats
Events
1996 Summer Olympics 1996 Summer Paralympics

The Centennial Olympic Stadium in Atlanta was the main stadium of the 1996 Summer Olympics . The arena with a capacity of 85,000 was the venue for the opening and closing ceremonies as well as the athletics competitions . In addition, the 1996 Summer Paralympics took place from August 16 to 25 . Construction of the stadium began on July 13, 1993. Because it was later used as a baseball stadium, the interior was not oval from the outset, but was planned and built with a corner appropriate to the baseball field. After almost exactly three years on July 19, 1996 the stadium was opened.

Only two days after the end of the Summer Paralympics began on August 27, 1996, the conversion to the new home of the Atlanta Braves baseball team . The northern half of the stadium was removed along with the athletics facility. With the renovation, the old multi-purpose stadium Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium in the immediate vicinity became superfluous and was blown up on August 2, 1997. A large parking area was created at the site. The Olympic torch originally attached to the Centennial Olympic Stadium is now about 200 meters down the road above a plaque; which lists all medal winners from the 1996 Olympic Games by name.

The ballpark was named Turner Field after media entrepreneur Ted Turner and last had 50,096 spectators. Turner, as the owner of the Atlanta Braves at the time, paid about 170 of the $ 207 million construction costs. The stadium was built in such a way that it could easily be converted into a baseball arena. The city would have had no use for the large stadium either, because there was still the roofed Georgia Dome, built in 1992, with approx. 71,000 seats.

After the main user of the stadium, the Atlanta Braves , moved to the newly constructed SunTrust Park in 2016 , Georgia State University acquired the stadium and then converted it into an American football stadium. The stadium now called Georgia State Stadium currently has a capacity of 25,000 and is mainly used by the NCAA college football team of the Georgia State Panthers .

Web links

Commons : Centennial Olympic Stadium  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Page of data to the stadium (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ aerial image of the stadium (English)
2. ↑ Video of the demolition