(09-15-2015 12:15 PM)TheEagleWay Wrote:  Plus, you are talking about MGM, its a casino AND hotel. Turner Field or Gulch make no difference really. They could build in the middle of the desert and... wait... oh yeah.

(09-15-2015 12:28 PM)panama Wrote:  And saying the gulch next to GWCC and the Ted are the same is pretty laughable. Maybe look at a map.

Great idea. Two maps same scale

The gulch


Turner Field


So if we take away "speculation", the only area mentioned in the MGM proposal was the gulch area. The mayor was asked about the Civic Center and Turner Field, and he said we would have to consider everything on the table for those areas. He did not say MGM was interested in Turner. Everything else is speculation. He has been saying for 2 years that 2 gaming companies were interested in Turner but won't name them. He'll name MGM though. I wonder why. There hasn't been one other company to come out with a proposal. The other 2 casino companies that have hired lobbyists, Penn Gaming & Boyd Gaming... they don't deal in towns the size of Atlanta. Their casinos are off strip Vegas, and places like St Charles, MO, Aurora, IL, Bossier City, LA, & Peoria, IL. So if they continue the trend, Macon, Columbus & Augusta would be more their speed.

I shake my head to say the gulch and Turner Field make no difference. Look at the maps. They are the same size. It is like saying would you like your business to be next to the Wal-Mart that drives business its way, and you can sponge off of it, or would you like to be in the old, run down, center of town that hasn't been thriving for years.
Just look at the map of the gulch compared to Turner. You have MARTA. You are next to Philips, GWCC & the new Dome. All those red dots are hotels. And you say there would be no difference between Turner and the gulch.

So here is the predicament the City & County is in...
If you decide you are going to sell Turner to a casino, you have no one to buy the gulch. Look at the bigger city downtown casinos that have opened up with recent legislation that only allows limited opening of casinos and it is no coincidence there is only 1 downtown. There is only one casino in downtown St. Louis, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Baltimore, New Orleans, and soon to be Boston. So if Atlanta goes that same route, and you have a buyer for Turner Field, and one of the largest casino companies in the world ready to throw down $1 billion dollars at the gulch... why would you sell Turner Field to a casino company and leave the gulch a parking lot?