Did Bartholomay look specifically at Atlanta?

[DTF955]

It seems that the Braves' owner bought them from Lou Perini almost with the intent of moving them. My question is, did he have Atlanta on his mind right away?

it seems odd that Charlie Finley asked to move his team to Dallas - I would think because it was ripe for development - but I have never read anything but that Bartholomay wanted Atlanta. (Then again, Finley was a real maverick, perfect for the West; perhaps the very conservative Atlantans had one conversation and said, "No thank you!" :-)

I have read recently that Atlanta was also wooing the Phillies; suppose they (or some other club) had moved there instead. Where would Bartholomay have moved? Or, would he just not have bought a ball club?

[aqib]

From what I read he was looking to buy a team for the specific purpose of moving to Atlanta. Any team would do.

[Los Bravos]

I think it's worth mentioning that the Civil Rights movement had a lot to do with opening up the south as a viable home for professional sports.

Without having to worry about state and local laws getting in the way of the civilized norms of the rest of the country, the NFL (and I'm including the AFL in this, since they were essentially tied together after the announcment of the planned merger), NBA and MLB all felt like they had an open field of new cities to base teams in.

There were a few there before (the Cowboys come to mind), but the floodgates really opened for real in '65-'66 (Braves, Falcons, Saints, Dolphins, the Hawks relocating from St. Louis...and on and on.)