Gwinnett County

Gwinnett votes to demolish Olympic tennis center

GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. — Another venue from the 1996 Olympics is coming down. Gwinnett County officials voted Tuesday to demolish the 21-year-old tennis stadium near Stone Mountain Park.

Channel 2's Tony Thomas went to the stadium Tuesday. He reported facility looks in fine shape for the most part from the outside, but as Thomas' photographer flew NewsDrone 2 over the site, it showed the marks where water has damaged the court.

Thomas was told some of the structure could have issues as well.

The facility was built for the Olympics, but will come down for dreams of a modern development.

The facility was built for the 1996 Olympics, but will come down for dreams of a modern development.

Those who live around the old Olympic tennis stadium told Thomas they would love to see it come down.

“We walk past it every day,” said neighbor Suzanne Cook.

“Leaving it this way is just awful,” Cook’s husband Wendel told Thomas.

The 13,000 seat arena stands in the shadow of Stone Mountain.

It has been used rarely since the 1996 Olympics and has fallen into disrepair.

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Gwinnett County bought the property last year and approved a $1 million contract Tuesday to demolish it.

“People play tennis in Atlanta, but they don't watch it very much and therein lies the challenge,” said Jim Brooks, head of the Evermore community improvement district. “I think this is going to be the greatest thing that has happened to this area in a very long time, probably since 1996.”

So the question now is: what's next?

Brooks and county leaders hope subtraction means addition.

“So people can have a vision for what it can be,” Gwinnett County Commissioner Lynette Howard told Thomas.

County leaders envision maybe a 20-story office complex or a mixed-use facility on the available 504 acres nearby.

“It's just been a very difficult thing, a difficult property to redevelop,” Howard said.

Officials say there’s no firm project lined up for the property, but they believe with the stadium gone, one will come quickly.

“If they build a community of some type, but I don't think I like the high-rise idea personally,” Wendel Cook told Thomas.

The demolition of the facility is expected sometime in the summer but not before there is one more tennis match held there.

Two county commissioners, Jace Brooks and John Heard, plan to square off one last time on the court before it comes down.