![\"\"](\"http:\/\/totfc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/fuckyoupark.jpg\")
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Long story short<\/a>: The Atlanta Braves break ground on their new ballpark, slated to open in 2017.\u00a0 It\u2019s new name?\u00a0\u00a0SunTrust Park.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n I love the Braves.\u00a0 I hate SunTrust.<\/span><\/p>\n What I\u2019m dealing with here is a perfect conflict of interests.\u00a0 A catch-22, if you will.<\/span><\/p>\n A little backstory: I used to work for SunTrust corporate.\u00a0 Making signage, assets, collateral materials; all sorts of marketing materials that the company used at their over 3,000 branches across the eastern seaboard.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t a glamorous job, but it was for a reputable brand, paid decently, and I worked with some decent people.\u00a0 After about three years, the company decided that in-house designers were unnecessary, and is so often the case, felt that they would rather pay external companies way more money for the same services, but minus the obligation to pay for benefits.\u00a0 So they outsourced myself, eight other designers, two copywriters, an editor, among 1,100 other employees throughout the entire company in 2007.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n On principle, I moved my money out of my SunTrust account, closed it, and have made a conscious effort to not support them or any of their endeavors since then.\u00a0 I turned the other cheek when they got the naming rights to the luxury home plate section at Turner Field, even if it meant being subjected to their big ugly fucking logo during home games.<\/span><\/p>\n SunTrust Park, however, now that hurts.\u00a0 It actually makes me feel genuinely conflicted and feeling trapped.<\/span><\/p>\n I know I often declare myself the worst baseball fan ever, because I hardly go to Braves games as it is now, and when I do go, it\u2019s usually for bobbleheads, and I\u2019m never guaranteed to stay the entire game.\u00a0 And in spite of my general moral disagreement with everything involved with the Braves plotting out their new ballpark, there was still a part of me that was happy and excited about the idea of the Braves having a new ballpark.<\/span><\/p>\n I imagined that Turner Field in 2016 would be somewhat of a swan song for the Ted, and there might be some cool things happening during that season.\u00a0 I envisioned going to\u00a0THE LAST<\/em>\u00a0home game at Turner Field, and wondering what might happen then.\u00a0 And when the new park opened in 2017, I imagined that I would eventually make my way up there, and experience the feeling of newness and exploration of yet another new baseball park, despite it being for my home team.\u00a0 And naturally, use it as an excuse to update my\u00a0ballpark site, among the teams that are having multiple entries for the rapid changing of venues.<\/span><\/p>\n But now,\u00a0I don\u2019t want to go<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0to the new park anymore.\u00a0 Being called SunTrust Park, it\u2019s roughly the equivalent of being called \u201cFuck You Park\u201d as far as my principles are concerned.\u00a0 I don\u2019t want to give my money to SunTrust Park, even if it\u2019s ultimately what supports the Braves, because I know that SunTrust is getting some benefit from it, be it directly or indirectly.<\/span><\/p>\n I don\u2019t want to walk into a gigantic venue with the SunTrust logo and its fucking rays adorned all over the place.\u00a0 I don\u2019t want to be enjoying a baseball game, and then turn my head in between innings only to see a giant SunTrust logo on top of the marquee, or the scoreboard, or any other integral ballpark component, which will undoubtedly snap me back into the shitty reality of being in the presence of the company that boasted \u201cseeing beyond money\u201d but naturally, hypocritically cited money as the justification for firing 1,100 employees.<\/span><\/p>\n I really want to proclaim that I\u2019ll never go to SunTrust Park, as long as they have the naming rights to the venue, but that\u2019s probably not going to happen.\u00a0 Whether it\u2019s bobbleheads, or just my own innate curiosity, I know I\u2019ll eventually go there.\u00a0 I can resist for as long as I want, and come up with rules to justify my means, like only going when the tickets are complimentary, or on someone else\u2019s dime, but the fact of the matter is that I\u2019ll eventually probably still go, which in some capacity does disgust me.<\/span><\/p>\n Regardless, I really fucking hate that it\u2019s come to this.\u00a0 SunTrust Park.<\/span><\/p>\n Being a Braves fan, I\u2019ve witnessed and shrugged off a lot of crap that comes with being a fan of a sports team.\u00a0 Losing seasons, underperforming players, failed playoff runs.\u00a0 I bore witness in 2010 as the Braves got no-hit, and although I didn\u2019t witness it, was still the guy people mocked when they got (combined) no-hit again just earlier this month.\u00a0 Tonight, they\u2019ll probably be the unfortunate victim to having their divisional rivals celebrating the clinching of the division crown on their own home field, when they lose to the Nationals, because they\u2019ve recently decided that they\u2019re playing golf, and the closer to zero they can be, the better.<\/span><\/p>\n None of that shit really bothers me.\u00a0 Sure, it might make me feel frustrated or a little disappointed, but nothing I can\u2019t shake off with a night\u2019s sleep.<\/span><\/p>\n But SunTrust Park, I can\u2019t let go, I can\u2019t get over it.\u00a0 For starters, the new ballpark isn\u2019t even open yet, and when it does, who knows just how long SunTrust locked up the naming rights to the place.\u00a0 One thing is certain is that it\u2019s likely not going to be for a very long time, because unless you\u2019re Dolphin Stadium, naming changes do not occur very frequently.\u00a0 It\u2019s going to be SunTrust Park for a substantial amount of time, and the thought of that actually does disgust me.<\/span><\/p>\n Even when the Braves had a miserable season in like 2008, traded away all their best assets and ended up losing 90 games, it didn\u2019t deter me from remaining a Braves fan and looking forward to the future, and hopes for better things.\u00a0 Even when the Braves underachieved to monumental levels in 2011, and again this year, doesn\u2019t change the fact that when anyone asks me what my favorite team is, it\u2019s still \u201cthe Braves.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n But the Braves selling their soul to SunTrust?\u00a0 This is the first time that the thought of ditching my allegiance has ever crossed my mind.\u00a0 I don\u2019t want to be a fan of another team.\u00a0 But there\u2019s also a part of me that seriously doesn\u2019t know if I want to remain a Braves fan either.\u00a0 I still like going to other ballparks, and checking out minor league parks.\u00a0 There\u2019s still a handful of MLB parks that I haven\u2019t been to yet, either.\u00a0 And when it comes to apparel itself, the Braves\u2019 classic A logo is still amongst the most classic and if for anything at all, representative of where I live, and not necessarily the team I support.<\/span><\/p>\n This just sucks, all of it.\u00a0 The Braves\u2019 season is likely coming to an end on their own, current home field, and it\u2019s announced that the future home field is going to be sponsored by one of my interpretations of a devil incarnate.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s become really, really hard to love baseball lately.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Long story short: The Atlanta Braves break ground on their new ballpark, slated to open in 2017.\u00a0 It\u2019s new name?\u00a0\u00a0SunTrust Park. I love the Braves.\u00a0 I hate SunTrust. What I\u2019m dealing with here is a perfect conflict of interests.\u00a0 A catch-22, if you will. A little backstory: I used to work for SunTrust corporate.\u00a0 Making … Continue reading The epitome of \u201cnot mad, just disappointed\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[88,62,131,66,45,15,49],"class_list":["post-39934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-ballparks","tag-baseball","tag-branding","tag-braves","tag-fail","tag-og","tag-wtf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39934"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39934\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39936,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39934\/revisions\/39936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}