Atlanta Dream teammates celebrated their season and home opening win at Philips Arena in June. For the playoffs, "home" becomes Gwinnett Arena. AJC file photo

I read a headline like “Sesame Street forces Dream out of Philips,” and I imagine Big Bird’s Muppety foot booting the entire WNBA team out onto Marietta Street. In traffic. And rain. Cue the wistful music. Sad, sad, sad.

As the story explains, “Sesame Street Live” long-ago booked this weekend at Philips Arena. Then Atlanta’s women’s basketball team just went ahead and made the playoffs, which is awesome, except for the Elmo factor.

Oops?

Our fuzzy red monster friend may have some skills on the court, but mostly he’s a money-maker, a family draw and the first to sign the weekend contract downtown. The Dream had to find a new place to play — Gwinnett Arena in Duluth, some 25 miles away.

Contracts are contracts, but evicting a team from its home arena for its first-ever playoff outing is a disappointment. After talking …

Continue reading Why Atlanta Dream playoff games moved to Gwinnett Arena »

Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game festivities, 2008.

When Alabama and Virginia Tech play the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game in Atlanta on Saturday, there won’t be an empty seat in the Georgia Dome. Apparently, Atlanta’s a pretty good place to have a football game.

Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer told the AJC so: “I was with [ESPN College Game Day host] Chris Fowler this summer and he said it’s like no other atmosphere he can remember during the regular season. We’re playing in a great city that really supports football.”

Virginia Tech sold its 31,000 tickets. Alabama sold their’s, too. In fact, all 72,000 seats are sold, and thousands more people are expected to come downtown just for the game day activities. Here’s a guide to what’s going on and how you ought to prepare yourself, whether you’re coming downtown for some fun or just avoiding the crowd.

EVENTS, TIMES AND LOCATIONS

6-10 p.m. Friday: Fan Night, Georgia Aquarium
The world’s largest fish tank will be open late on Friday for …

Continue reading What to know before you go: Chick-fil-A Kickoff Game »

Coincidence? Hmm.

After the news about how Braves fans could get a piece of the old 42-foot Coke bottle adorning left field, it seems only right to let you know how the new 49-foot bottle looked on its first night at work.

New Coke at Turner Field on July 16, 2009. AJC Photo by Jamie Gumbrecht.

Still not as tall as the Chik-fil-A cow, but the fireworks did all right for themselves after a 5-3 win over the Mets.

See you at the game on Saturday?

More Braves:

• Photo gallery: Francoeur returns to Atlanta, as a Met
• Blog: David O’Brien’s Braves blog
• AJC: Latest Braves coverage

For instant updates, follow @insideaccess on Twitter.

Continue reading PHOTO: Turner Field’s Coke bottle debuts and Braves win »

One of 500 baseballs to be distributed during the Mets series. Courtesy of the Coca-Cola Company.

UPDATE 6/15/09: Coke sent a message offering more details of how they’ll give away some artifacts from one of Atlanta’s, um, bigger attractions. See you at the game!

As you can imagine, after years of being exposed to the elements combined with the difficult process of removal, most of the bottle’s artifacts are not in a satisfactory condition to be given away. However, 500 baseballs salvaged from the original Turner Field Coca-Cola bottle will be randomly distributed to fans during the Mets series (July 16-19). The plan is to randomly select rows within sections as the method of distribution over the four games series.

Just got a (very vague) press release from The Coca-Cola Company explaining what they intend to do with all those thousands of Atlanta Braves jerseys, bats and mitts that went into the old 42-foot Coke bottle they retired after 12 years of fireworks displays over …

Continue reading Want a piece of Braves Coke bottle memorabilia? »

After 12 years, Turner Field's Coke Bottle retired July 2. AJC file photo.

If you’ve been to a Braves game at Turner Field in the last dozen years, you had a decent shot at seeing a home run and fiery explosion from a 42-foot Coca-Cola bottle. (Lots of memory swapping going on at the bottle’s very own Facebook fan page.) The old bottle, made of more than 11,000 pieces of authentic Atlanta Braves baseball equipment, retired on July 2. Some 6,680 baseballs, 290 bats and 86 gloves made up its look. Maybe it all seemed too kitsch for ball park with a $10 million video display and a 100-foot baseball photo, because that’s so not what it is now.

If you head to a Braves game after July 16, you’ll see a more “21st century” bottle, the company says. It’s 7 feet taller, made with more blinking lights and high-tech screens. Of course, it still shoots fireworks out the top when things are going well for the home team.

Coke hasn’t said how much the new bottle cost, but said it will “offer …

Continue reading New Coke (bottle) for Turner Field »