MOVE
Sports & Recreation
All My Rowdy Friends
It may be debatable how much of a sport cornhole is, but you can play with a beer in one hand – how bad can that be?
H
anging out with friends and co-workers after a long day can involve more than eating and drinking. With the CornholeATL Cornhole League hosting games four times a year at Peachtree Corners Town Center, you can add tossing bean bags at a small hole to the mix.
The state’s largest and fastest
ByArlinda Smith Broady
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growing cornhole league is back for another season of fun. CornholeATL’s Fall League starts in August and, as always, there four different divisions of play to accommodate all skill levels.
Make friends and have fun Jeff Brawand, owner of CornholeATL, moved to metro Atlanta from Cincinnati, Ohio in 2007 to work for Delta Airlines. “Growing up in Ohio, cornhole is everywhere,” he said. “When I moved to Atlanta, I was looking for a way to meet people.” He tried kickball games and soccer and things like that, but as he got older, he was looking for an outlet where he wouldn’t get hurt or seriously injured. “I got to the point where I said to myself, ‘I don’t need to be sliding anymore. I’m just trying to meet new people
Peachtree Corners Magazine ■ August/September 2022 ■ LivingInPeachtreeCorners.com
and meet new friends.’ And so, I started the cornhole league, CornholeATL, in 2011,” he said. The league started in Virginia Highlands in a public park. A few years later, Brawand said he “pivoted to playing at bars, mixed use developments and open green spaces.” He likes the fact that players are surrounded by different sorts of restaurants at Town Center and there’s plenty of space to spread out and have fun. “It’s a lot easier than having to play in a public park where people are bringing out coolers,” Brawand said. “It’s easier to play at a venue where people could just buy drinks, buy food and kind of spend their money on site.” One of the first mixed-use developments where CornholeATL set was Avalon in Alpharetta. “They love it because we’re bringing peopeachtreecornerslife
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ple on a night where it might not be as busy,” noted Brawand. “But now people are coming out playing cornhole. They’re grabbing dinner with their friends beforehand; they’re grabbing drinks during and after the games. So it kind of just built up the area a little bit more.” The league came to Peachtree Corners about three years ago, when teams started forming outside the Perimeter. “It’s been really successful outside the city,” Brawand said. “There’s a lot of stuff to do already [in Atlanta] and so it does great here because people might not have as much to do. And when they get home, they probably don’t want to have to go downtown. They want to be able to stay in their area.” When North American Properties General Manager Tim Perry presented his company’s vison for The Forum, events like the cornpeachtreecornerslife
