'Backs in Atlanta Biz Journal

[eric515]

Kind of a rehashing of the article from a few months ago:

http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/stories/2006/05/15/focus4.html

The writer starts off in kind of general terms, about soccer teams being fly-by-night (really, should have stressed that is the case primarily in Atlanta).

Overall, a good article...and uses that fly-by-night thing to describe how the S-Backs owners are taking things slow, and would like to get to MLS someday.

I have to breathe a sigh of relief on that one. Personally, I think they are lukewarm to the I/O model MLS runs...and are waiting for that to be relaxed even moreso.

Obviously, having a visible facility like the new park will hopefully build demand, so they can have steady attendance once in MLS, as opposed to only in the honeymoon period, like many expansion teams.

[BigKahuna]

I don't think I had seen that article before...good stuff. It is becoming more and more clear to me that the Backs do indeed want to get into MLS at some point. This contradicts some arguments I've heard during the past few years.

The clamor over soccer in Atlanta is so great that Major League Soccer toured the city in the fall of 2005 and discussed the idea of an expansion franchise with the Atlanta Sports Council.

Mark Abbott, the president of MLS, described the Silverbacks' ownership group as "very smart business people," but Atlanta seems to be ranked below four other cities at the moment.

The partners have an eye toward taking the Silverbacks into Major League Soccer, though they want to do it with a prudent plan and not be added to the casualty list of pro soccer teams.

"We don't believe, at this time, Atlanta is ready for an MLS franchise," Pratten said. But the Silverbacks want to get ready. The stadium, which will be named RE/MAX/Greater Atlanta Stadium, will seat 3,000 in the initial land acquisition and building phase, which will cost $6 million.

The club wants to get to 15,000 seats, the MLS minimum for seating, which will require building an additional deck. That will cost another $20 million.

"The stadium has been designed with expansion in mind," Pratten said.



This passage in particular is very exciting...once again, its proof that we need to support the Backs as much as we can if we want MLS to come to Atlanta.