Atlanta Braves, Cobb County close to final stadium deal

May 2, 2014; Atlanta, GA, USA; A general view of the stadium in the third inning between the Atlanta Braves and the San Francisco Giants at Turner Field. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Shirey-USA TODAY Sports

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Atlanta Braves and Cobb County have almost completed the negotiations and paperwork that are necessary for construction to begin on the Braves new ballpark.

The AJC received hundreds of pages of drafts Wednesday and representatives from both Cobb and the Braves said that many more changes are not expected before Cobb commissioners vote on the deal May 27.

"“I don’t anticipate any substantial changes to any of those documents,” Lee said. That doesn’t preclude the possibility, he added, that small portions of the agreements might be reworked if something comes up “as our teams take a breath and step back and look at this.”Said Plant: “Our teams are going to keep working for the next couple of weeks on tweaking a few of the things in there.”"

Among many other things in the draft were numbers on the budget for the development of the stadium, including the amount that the county would be responsible for, what the team would be responsible for and details on rent payments that the team would make after the initial spending.

"The county and team have said consistently since announcing the Braves move in November that the stadium cost would be $672 million. But the current budget outlined in the stadium development agreement lists the “total project cost” at $622 million, with a “maximum stadium cost”of $672 million.The budget also says the “county contribution” toward the stadium budget is $368 million, which includes $92 million that the county says will be repaid with $6.1 million in annual rent payments from the team. The Braves’ cash contribution to the project is listed as $230 million, according to the budget,which lists an additional $50 million of “Braves discretionary” spending.At $230 million, the Braves would be paying 37 percent of the stadium project’s up-front costs. If the Braves kick in the $50 million in discretionary funds, their contribution would be about 42 percent of the project cost. Those percentages don’t include the rent payments."