As some who lives in the southeast i agree. I would say it has gotten better here in the last 5 years or so. 10 years ago when i would bring up soccer the conversation would immediately go to how people thought the rules should change to make it higher scoring and more "American". I don't really hear that anymore. The thing people here still get upset about is all the injury faking and i can say as a lifelong soccer fan it still pisses me off too.
Interesting note from an article on the law firms that advised Arthur Blank on the deal: http://www.dailyreportonline.com/ho...2617074542&curindex=2&slreturn=20140321213212 Looks like the $70mm expansion figure is a general figure going around, given what Orlando City SC paid to get into MLS. What I thought was more interesting were the specific tidbits related to the fact that the official negotiations took 4 months, which they considered record time. Seems like the deal was made just in time prior to the WC and new TV deals being negotiated. Though, no more specific details in regards to the single entity, other than the M&A of the local holding company which owns the operating rights to the franchise.
I hope Atlanta succeeds. Major League Soccer needs a solid footprint in the Southeast along with Orlando and Atlanta may very well be it.
I don't know how it is where you live but down in the South even a U-8 academy team plays all year long and trains a minimum of twice a week. Being an academy dad myself I know the amount of time that you can spend on it. Sounds like the Blanks have been doing this for a long time now.
Now that you mention it, last year the Georgia Shakespeare Festival had Iago clad in an orange smock and tool belt! Hmmmm.
I just have a question for the people around Atlanta. What's the location like for the stadium? Location to me is always a huge issue. I actually think the ownership will be fine, out of all the NFL owners Blank is one of the few to me who would do a decent job with a MLS team. Question is will enough people consistently show up?
There is no ideal location for a stadium in Atlanta due to the sheer enormity of the metro area and the lack of adequate transportation infrastructure. Having said that, I believe a downtown stadium makes more sense for MLS and the NFL than for the Braves. Getting to downtown is fairly quick and painless for most of the metro on the weekend. However, weekday games will be an absolute nightmare in Atlanta.
yes, the entire 5 and a half million atlanta metro population is a homogeneous group of SEC zombies. obviously the countries 9th largest city (last in the top 10 without an MLS team) is doomed to failure! MLS should focus on cities ranked 50+ with 25% of the population if they REALLY want to lay down a national footprint for long term success!
I'll admit to being a skeptic. That said, I know of at least a few college programs in Georgia (Mercer, Georgia State, Georgia Southern) so there is some support for soccer below the professional level. The positives are there for Atlanta, and it is a major untapped market. I'm just unsure if an MLS franchise will succeed in capturing any audience.
that's a far more reasonable post then a throw away comment about it being SEC territory implying they are going to be a bust because of it. your concerns are valid, i just think they are over blown. with a metro population the size of atlanta, and with atlanta teams often pulling fans from the general south east area, i think they have a leg up compared to many other teams.
The current MLS schedule benefits Atlanta right off the bat; their only real competition during the spring and summer will be the Braves, and there's more than enough people for both teams to share. But if the league ever switched their season to match the Europeans it would go up against high school and college football, and the Falcons. As long as the league keeps their schedule status quo it should be okay.
High school and college football run August to November. The MLS regular season overlaps almost all of that. Not quite the same percentage with the NFL but close. If MLS switched to fall to spring it would overlap almost the same amount of the football season depending on how the winter break was constructed. A little more but not a huge amount. I never understand this reasoning.
Because the Dynamo and FCD are doing terribly right in the heart of Friday Night Lights land? TFC, the Whitecaps and the Impact are doing badly in the heart of hockey land? Atlanta is a huge city, it will do fine in MLS given committed ownership.
If Qatar throws enough money at Europe, we can expect to hear more comments from select clubs who question why they don't play in the summer, and supporting arguments from bean counters estimating how much money could potentially be lost due to inclement winter weather. Of course nothing will kill the momentum faster than Blatter saying, "Why don't we follow the lead of the Americans?"
first off, there is no shortage of leagues that have schedules more in line with MLS than europe. second, there were conversations being had about switching to summer schedules before qatar bought the world cup.
First off, I'm talking about the European leagues that would need to alter their schedules to work around a winter WC in 2022, and secondly, money has a way of influencing people that haven't progressed past the "Maybe we should do something about that" stage. Thirdly, I'm a skeptical, sarcastic, SOB.
Over 3800 people have put down a deposit for Atlanta MLS season tickets so far http://www.reddit.com/r/MLS/comments/23oyll/over_3800_people_have_put_down_a_deposit_for/
As someone who lives in the southeast (4.5 hours drive from Atlanta), I can tell you that many people in the southeast will see this as their team. The soccer fans I know that live near me are very excited and we all plan to travel to games often. If I didn't have young children (one of them won't be that young in 2017) that I don't want to take to Atlanta every other weekend I would most likely be buying season tickets. If they offer a half-season pack I will probably be purchasing it. I can't promise you all fans in a 4-5 hour radius will feel this way but there is a good chance many will. This team will draw from much more than just the Atlanta metro area. I think people are going to be surprised.
Exactly! I live about three hours away. I'm a founder of the club and also hope they offer a half-season package. Atlanta is really the only city that will have a chance to represent the south. Sure I wish Birmingham could get a team, but I know there isn't a snowballs chance in hell of that happening. ATL is the south's club.
I live in Alabama too. I have put down my seat deposit and joined TL . I know that there are more people from Al that are on BS that have done the same .