News that the stadium built as a centrepiece for the Centennial 1996 Olympic Games looks set for the scrapheap following the decision by the Atlanta Braves baseball team to move to a new venue is...

Well, what is it exactly? Unexpected? Not really. Expediency was all when this privately funded stadium - it cost $207 million (£135 million/€154 million) - was completed in 1996 to seat 85,000 for the duration of the Games before becoming the land of the Braves.

At the time there was some regret locally at the imminent demise of the Braves' old stadium just a home-run sized smack of a baseball away - the Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium which had housed the team since 1966 when they had transferred from Milwaukee. But it was business first.

(While we're on the subject of business in Atlanta, let's recall the 1996 Games mascot - "a futuristic, animated, computer-generated character with large starry eyes and a big grin, oversized sneakers and lightning bolt eyebrows".

The "F" is silent - Izzy, the 1996 Atlanta Olympics mascot

It broke with Olympic tradition in that it did not correspond to any identifiable creature and could assume different forms. Oddly, its original name of Whatizit changed in the year of the Games to Izzy – a subliminal reminder, perhaps, of the firm which operates out of Atlanta and which many still believe was heavily influential, as a key sponsor, in the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) decision to choose the US hosts for the Centennial Olympics in preference to the hosts of the original modern Games of 1896, Athens.)

And now business dictates that the Braves re-locate to the Cobb County arena in another Atlanta suburb when their 20-year lease on the current venue runs out in 2016 after the collapse of talks between them and the local authority over funding for improved facilities.

Mike Plant, the Braves' executive vice-president of business operations, claimed Turner Field - or "the Ted" as it is known after its namesake, the former Braves owner Ted Turner - needed up to $200 million (£125 million/€149 million) of infrastructure improvements to enhance fans' experience over the next few years.

The old County stadium lives on as a thriving car park. Let's look on the bright side. The stadium in which Muhammad Ali lit the Olympic flame could soon become a bustling supermarket.

Muhammad Ali lights the Olympic Cauldron at the Atlanta 1996 Opening Ceremony @Getty Images

"Does it matter?" I hear you ask.

Personally I think it's a terrible shame. Some of the images that come to mind when I recall the events that took place in that stadium during the Games are, I admit, less than inspiring. Dense swathes of spectators penned in holding areas ahead of ticket checks, quarter of a mile from the stadium perimeter. In sweltering heat, endless opportunities to drink Coca Cola - and nothing else.

Journeying to the Stadium for the Opening Ceremony, the bus on which I was travelling had no air conditioning - with the temperature in the nineties. Sweat was trickling down everyone's faces. A photographer - it is always photographers on such occasions - was attempting to force open a rear door to allow some air in.

Our driver, unaccountably, drove past the dazzlingly lit Stadium and looped round on a drive which took us past scenes which did not reflect well on our host city: scrapyards piled high with rusting vehicles; boarded-up houses with collapsed verandas, overgrown with plants; groups of resentful-looking men gathered at the corner of dirt roads. Incredulity turned to impatience turned to exasperation. Due to popular demand, our driver turned the bus round once again, admitting cheerfully that she had no idea where she was going because she was from out of town. At that point she was almost home.

Donovan Bailey reacts after winning 100m gold ahead of Frankie Fredericks in a world record of 9.84sec at the Atlanta Olympics @Getty Images

But let's not dwell on the downside. Let's recall instead some of the staggering action which that Stadium, once all the whys and wherefores had been set to one side, provided the Olympic story.

Can it really be that, years from now, some wandering shopper musing on the whereabouts of the biscuit aisle will occupy the same space on Mother Earth as did Michael Johnson in his most glorious moment of a glorious athletics career when he stopped the clock in the 200 metres at the extraordinary time of 19.32 - a world record to last for 50 years if ever there was one? (Although Usain Bolt had other ideas just a dozen years later...)

Michael Johnson wins his second gold of the 1996 Games, adding the 200m title in a world record of 19.32sec to his earlier 400m victory @Getty Images

Can it really be that, years from now, some harrassed mother with a carful of squabbling children will reverse over the patch of ground on which Donovan Bailey roared in triumph after crossing the line in the 100m in a world record of 9.84?

Can it really be that, years from now, the oval of ground which pulsated with noise and excitement, drawing the attention of world leaders and a television audience of millions to the greatest regular celebration of sport known to man will become something dull and ordinary?

Of course it can. Just watch.

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, covered the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics as chief feature writer for insidethegames, having covered the previous five summer Games, and four winter Games, for The Independent. He has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, The Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. His latest book Foul Play – the Dark Arts of Cheating in Sport (Bloomsbury £12.99) is available at the insidethegames.biz shop. To follow him on Twitter click here.