 Interior of the stadium during the 1996 Paralympic Games with Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium in the background | |
 Interactive map of Centennial Olympic Stadium | |
| Location | Atlanta,Georgia,United States |
|---|---|
| Owner | Atlanta Fulton County Recreation Authority |
| Operator | Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games |
| Capacity | 85,000 |
| Surface | Grass |
| Construction | |
| Broke ground | July 10, 1993 |
| Opened | May 18, 1996 |
| Renovated | 1996–97 (reconstructed asTurner Field) 2017 (reconstructed asCenter Parc Stadium) |
| Closed | August 27, 1996 |
| Demolished | 1996–97 |
| Construction cost | $209 million[1] ($419 million dollars in 2024) |
| Architect | Atlanta Stadium Design Team (a joint venture ofHeery International, Inc.,Rosser International, Inc., Williams-Russell and Johnson, Inc. andEllerbe Becket, Inc.)[2] |
| Tenants | |
| 1996 Summer Olympics 1996 Summer Paralympics | |
Centennial Olympic Stadium was the 85,000-seat mainstadium of the1996 Summer Olympics andParalympics inAtlanta,Georgia,United States. Construction of the stadium began in 1993, and it was complete and ready for theopening ceremony in July 1996, where it hostedtrack and field events and theclosing ceremony.[3][4]
After the Olympics and Paralympics, it was reconstructed into the baseball-specificTurner Field, used by theAtlanta Braves ofMajor League Baseball for 20 seasons (1997–2016). After the Braves departed forTruist Park, the facility was purchased byGeorgia State University, which rebuilt the stadium a second time asCenter Parc Stadium, designed forAmerican football.
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During the week-long athletics program, the stadium bore witness toDonovan Bailey ofCanada winning the 100 m in a world record time of 9.84 s;Michael Johnson winning both the 200 and 400 meters titles, breaking the 200 m world record in the process; andFrance'sMarie-José Pérec also winning the 200/400 double. Meanwhile,Carl Lewis won his fourth consecutive Olympic title in thelong jump, becoming only the second person, afterAl Oerter, to win the same athletics event at four consecutive Games. After the closing ceremony of the1996 Paralympics, the stadium was reconfigured so it could be leased by theAtlanta Braves.
The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games (ACOG) designed and built the stadium in a way that it could be converted to a new baseball stadium, and ACOG paid for the conversion.[5] This was considered a good agreement for both the Olympic Committee and the Braves, because there would be no use for a permanent 85,000 seattrack and field stadium inDowntown Atlanta since the 71,000 seatGeorgia Dome had been completed four years earlier by the state of Georgia and became the home of theNational Football League'sAtlanta Falcons. The Braves had already been exploring opportunities for a new venue to replaceAtlanta–Fulton County Stadium.
The southwest corner of the Olympic Stadium was built to accommodate the future baseballinfield and seating; in the Olympic configuration of the stadium, the seats are not placed next to theoval running track. The southwest part of the stadium also had four tiers of seats,luxury boxes, a facade facing the street, and a roof, whereas the north half of the stadium used a simpler two-tiered seating configuration.
During reconstruction, theathletics track was removed and relocated tothe field hockey stadium located atClark Atlanta University, which uses it for athletics andfootball, and the north half of the stadium wasdemolished, reducing the capacity to 49,000. Because of the need to fit a track within the stadium in its earlier incarnation, the field of play, particularly foul territory, while not large by historical standards, was nonetheless larger than that of most MLB stadiums built since 1990. Reconstruction was completed in 1997, and the facility was renamedTurner Field. Afterward, Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium, the Braves' previous home and the venue for the Olympics baseball events, wasimploded and the site became a parking lot for Turner Field. The Atlanta Fulton County Recreation Authority owned Turner Field, and the Atlanta Braves occupied the revised stadium until the expiration of their lease in 2016; the Braves moved toTruist Park inCobb County in the following year.[6]
Georgia State University acquired Turner Field and its surrounding parking lots in January 2017 for a mixed-use expansion of the Georgia State campus, which includes private and student housing, academic, retail, and office space in addition to the redevelopment of the former ballpark intoCenter Parc Stadium.
TheAtlanta Track Club's annual Father's Day four-mile (6.4 km) road race ends inside the stadium near the warning track where the finish line was located for the Olympics.[citation needed]
| Preceded by | Summer Olympics Opening and closing ceremonies (Olympic Stadium) 1996 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Estadi Olímpic de Montjuïc Barcelona | Summer Olympics Olympic athletics competitions Main venue 1996 | Succeeded by Sydney Olympic Stadium Sydney |
33°44′08″N84°23′22″W / 33.73556°N 84.38944°W /33.73556; -84.38944
