It takes a village: How to build an MLB ballpark in 2025 - ESPN

Editor's note: This story was originally published on June 4. Atlanta's Truist Park is the site of tonight's 2025 MLB All-Star Game.

The Battery was fully charged that first day, more than eight years ago, when the Atlanta Braves unveiled baseball's next big thing to the greater MLB world.

This was April 14, 2017, the date of the Braves' first regular-season game at Truist (then SunTrust) Park. It was a perfect, 79-degree day, as 41,149 patrons turned out to see the new digs, the Braves' third home since arriving from Milwaukee in 1966. A smiling Hank Aaron waved to the fans as he made his way onto the field with the aid of a cane to deliver the first pitch. Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter were on hand.

«It is a classic-feeling ballpark,» an unusually effusive Rob Manfred, baseball's commissioner then and now, said before the game. «Just had a little tour. Some of the different seating areas in the ballpark, a lot of imagination, a lot of options in terms of seating. It's the kind of ballpark that will attract, not only our hardcore fans that really are the backbone of our game, but really people who may not be quite as interested [in baseball], because there are so many options here.»

Ah, the options. As much interest as there was in the new park, baseball had seen many ballparks unveiled over its long history. This was different, because the Braves were introducing not just a stadium, but a village, a new neighborhood in Cobb County, Georgia, that did not exist before. The mixed-use development, called The Battery, wasn't quite finished that first day — the hulking Omni Hotel that now overlooks the ballpark wasn't up and running just yet, among other things — but most of it was ready for action. And whether they realized it