Competition facility
The facility is designed as a 3,250-person competition venue. Atlanta Track Club says it intends to host World Athletics, USATF, NCAA, collegiate conference, national high-school, Junior Olympics, and GHSA state championships, with major events nationally broadcast and smaller events streamed through the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. For comparison, New York’s 4,000-seat Armory hosts more than 100 track meets each year.
Benefits to students
The signed LOI and presentation lack specific details or promises of benefits for students. The LOI says APS would receive dedicated weekly hours at no cost for track and field, cross-country, and running-related extracurriculars. It contemplates an APS championship and practice sessions. The proposal also includes a STEM and financial wellness lab but lacks any explanation of what these might be. Secondary uses negotiated in a future MOU include broadcast training, drone-operation skills, lacrosse, ultimate frisbee, and other activities.
Community access
The presentation proposes 30 weekly hours each for community use of the indoor track, fitness and weight room, and meeting space. Summerhill already has community meeting space at the Georgia Hill Neighborhood Center, approximately 500 feet away. The written proposal says Atlanta residents would be charged ATC’s “standard normal rate” and nonresidents its “standard rate,” but specifies neither amount. It raises the possibility of “APS-family-based preferential pricing,” but offers no similar commitment for Summerhill residents.
Average rent
The proposed agreement gives Atlanta Track Club a 50-year ground lease on the Cheney property. Our Cheney calculates the scheduled rent at an average of $67,964.08 per year in constant dollars—about $943,000 less than our estimated annual market ground rent. See the full financial analysis. The deal also lacks clear safeguards for Atlanta Public Schools if the facility is abandoned, becomes financially unviable, or reaches the end of its useful life.
There is an inherent conflict between a community facility and an elite competition venue. ATC’s elite-track plans are defined in remarkable detail—down to the championships it wants to host and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution livestreaming smaller events. In contrast, the documents do not say how many hours APS students will receive or how students will be transported to the facility for extracurriculars. It is clear that the local community will lose significant access to its park. How is a grandfather supposed to park and watch his grandchild play soccer while 3,250 spectators, athletes, officials, media crews, and event staff are using the same site?
Thirty weekly community hours amount to less than 15% of the operating hours of a typical gym. It is clear that a neighbor is not going to be able to run while the NCAA indoor championships are taking place. If ATC reaches 100 events per year, it seems clear that most weekends will not be available. If track clubs and APS students are running organized events in the evenings, those will not be available either. The likely way this all works out is that community access is during the weekday while most of the neighborhood is at work.
All of this comes with financial terms that provide APS a small financial benefit while leaving it with very large long-term risks. This is Our Cheney’s goal: public benefit for public land. We want to push the facility toward one that benefits APS students and the wider community. We want to maintain the local neighborhood’s access to its park. We want fair financial terms that return the value of the land.