On August 2, the best players from U.S.A.’s football league will face off against Juventus in the MLS All-Star game in Atlanta. The venue where the match will take place is Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the home of Atlanta United.
Atlanta United franchise birth
Atlanta United is an MLS expansion team which was founded in 2014 and joined the league in 2017. The team’s owner Arthur Blank owns NFL’s Atlanta Falcons as well, a franchise which lost the Super Bowl two years ago and has been one of NFL’s best organizations over the past decade. Blank’s desire to run an MLS franchise came about in 2008, when he submitted a bid, but withdrew it due to lack of local support. Once NHL’s Atlanta Thrashers were sold and relocated to Winnipeg, the Atlanta market opened up a spot for football to come to town.
The city was the largest U.S. metropolitan area without a football team and Arthur Blank already had a new stadium being built. In 2017, Atlanta United became a member of Major League Soccer and even managed to reach the playoffs, where they lost to Columbus Crew. Unlike other MLS teams which tend to add experience internationals to their roster, United’s management led by team president Darren Eales (former Director of Football Administration for Tottenham Hotspur), made a conscious choice to build around youth.
“My view was that we could take players at a younger age and almost create stars,”
Tata Martino comes on board
Hiring former Paraguay, Argentina and Barcelona manager Gerardo “Tata” Martino was another stroke of genius. Once that happened, it let everyone know Atlanta was taking this “soccer thing” seriously.
“At the time, the perceived wisdom was that foreign coaches don’t work in the MLS,” – Darren Eales
“…when it was announced that Tata Martino was the head coach, that’s when my jaw dropped. Oh, man, we meant business.” – Matt Stigall, an Atlanta fan
Stigall is the one who helped assemble Atlanta’s loud, colourful supporter groups called Terminus Legion.
Atlanta United fans
Atlanta United came at the perfect time, matching up its youthful, diverse fan base hungry to identify with a team which gave them one.
“They’ve built the right club at the right time in the right place with the right people.” – Atlanta United midfielder Chris McCann
The fans were eager to cheer and the brand new state-of-the-art Mercedes Benz Stadium gave them the opportunity to do so. Atlanta United set the record for average attendance (48.000) in its inaugural MLS year and has broken the overall attendance record multiple times (the last time was just two weeks ago – 72.243).
The team had the league’s first and third highest selling jerseys last year, the ones of 24-year-old midfield dynamo Miguel Almiron and 25-year-old forward Josef Martinez, who leads the MLS’ goalscoring chart this season with 22 goals, eight more than the next best scorer.
“The ownership and front office have done almost everything right. Getting a world-class coach and getting some world-class players – it’s like they’re playing chess and everyone else in MLS is playing checkers.” – Matt Stigall
Atlanta United at the moment
An exuberant, young squad with a distinct, South American flavour, Atlanta currently sits atop the standings and is running the MLS show in only its second year. It’s a remarkable accomplishment, but one which doesn’t come as a surprise to those who know Arthur Blank. He committed to the cause from day one, putting his MLS team in the same basket as his NFL team.
“They went out and treated it on an equal level with the Falcons,”
“The way the Blank family did it, they made a statement right away – we’re not just playing in the Falcons stadium, this is a soccer stadium, too.” – Taylor Twellman, former player and U.S. international
Martino’s men are playing an attractive brand of football and creating a dedicated fan base in the process. For Eales and Blank, this is just the beginning.
“It’s about winning trophies and championships. And we’ve not done that yet. We’ve got a long way to go.”
“My vision and Arthur’s vision for the club is to compete globally,”
“We are part of the global landscape and we will always be striving to have the end goal of being one of those big clubs in the world.”
Take a note, because this is not your typical MLS franchise.