It was announced yesterday that Atlanta is getting an MLS team in 2017. The team will be owned by Arthur Blank one of the founders of Home Depot as well as the owner of the Atlanta Falcons NFL franchise.
The team is slated to play it's home games in the new Falcons stadium (which will have some corporate sponsor name by the time it opens.) They were talking on the radio this morning about how 20,000 fans attending the games would be great and that they didn't need to fill up the stadium for it to be a success.
I know that some of the MLS teams play in stadiums specifically designed for soccer and others play in "borrowed" stadiums. I think that walking into a 60,000 seat stadium and it only being 1/3 full will be pretty lame compared to a 20,000 seat stadium that is packed.
Am I off base?
The stadium is going to seat 29,000 for soccer.
But will it feel empty? I went to a Georgia State Football Game where they only had around 15,000 fans in the Dome and it looked pathetic.
They probably don't want to invest in a new stadium just yet if they aren't sure how successful this new franchise will be.
As an expansion team, they don't need to sell out every game. The first few years is always about building the brand, building the team, and building a following.
When MLS came to Toronto, there was an initial spike in popularity (soccer in Toronto is something I never thought would happen), and then it died down as TFC built up its brand and reputation that is attracting long-term fans, not just ones that go once out of curiosity.
There were plans to build a new stadium for the falcons way before the MLS news arrived.
Pretty interested to watch how they'll be able to "shrink" the # of seats. Are they really just putting sheets over the upper level deck seats?
According to the Huffington Post, "Curtains will descend from the roof automatically to close off the upper sections, creating the sort of intimate atmosphere that works better for less-attended MLS games.The new facility is designed to seat about 71,000 for NFL games, Blank said, but can be reduced to about 29,000 for soccer using only the lower bowl." So their definition of "stadium shrinking" at this point is cover the seats in a way that you cant them.
All I know is that 2017 is going to be epic for Atlanta sports: new stadiums for Braves and Falcons, along with a brand new MLS team. If im not mistaken, arent LeBron and Durant free agents in 2017 also? Looking for the Hawks to make some moves!
Atlanta has had so many chances to get good players and they spend $119 million on Joe Johnson. Still mad about that one.
only thing i dont get is why they're building a new baseball stadium! Turner Field is only 17 years old and a really nice stadium, and the new one is in one of the most inaccessible locations in the city (not even in the city... in freakin suburban Cobb county where traffic is horrible and MARTA doesn't even go.. not that it's that great anyway. but still..)
new NFL/MLS stadium is supposed to be pretty sick though. cant wait to see it! (though not like the GA Dome is that old, either. not even 22 years old yet, and still fairly nice)
I don't think the new Stadium will be worse than Turner. They have at least purchased enough land to make parking easier and less sketchy. Since MARTA doesn't really go to Turner Field that won't be much different at all.
They're building the new Braves stadium basically for three reasons:
Be closer to the fan base that actually buys tickets - rich, white people in the northern OTP suburbs.
Own the stadium, as opposed to the City owning it.
(Hopefully) create an area where people will want to be all day, as opposed to people driving down to Turner right before the game and immediately leaving afterwards.
Yeah thank god the Hawks got rid of him and Josh Smith. If they can get a solid small forward to help out in points, they should be good with a healthy Horford. Got high hopes for them this postseason against the Pacers. Need Teague to go off and they can pull it in 7.
The new Braves stadium will be within walking distance of my office. Can't wait to see how bad traffic will get after they build it.
My wife works near there as well. The owner of her company is has already had discussions about breaking his current lease and moving the office to Dunwoody.
It's incredible what a big business a variety of sports are in the US. If you look at Europe, beyond soccer there isn't much that attracts investors or generates a lot of money in general. You have a few exceptions, such as a few boxing events, but that's about it.
As for the stadium only being one third filled, I remember that the San Antonio Spurs also used to play in a converted football stadium, didn't they? It worked for them, you just have to limit the overall space to the desired seating number.
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