Photos of Braves' new Cobb County stadium released

There had been a few whispers about what the new Braves stadium in Cobb County would look like. On Wednesday, we finally got to see some artist renditions. Here they are, courtesy of Home of the Braves.

General thoughts:

• Lots of seats behind home plate and down the baselines, not many in the outfield. As someone who does not like sitting in the outfield at all – mostly because, you know, you can't really see anything – I love it.
• As you can see from a couple of the designs, it looks like there will be a ton of restaurants, bars and places to shop around the stadium. The AJC has more on the $400 million plan.
• As they kind of have at Nationals Park and a few other places, it looks like there will be panels all around the stadium to provide shade. A lack of shade is a serious issue at Turner Field, and it's good to see them address this.
• All-in-all, everything looks good. I've said this a few times now and I'll say it again: I love that the new stadium will only hold 41,000 or so instead of 50,000+. Maybe now the national media will get off Braves fans' backs when there are a few open seats at a playoff game, even though there are more people in attendance than in Boston, Pittsburgh or almost anywhere else. Having 10,000 fewer seats will not only make the stadium look fuller on a nightly basis, but will also create a higher demand for tickets.