Atlanta Expansion Club To Be Announced April 16th

NYCFCFan10

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#23

Falcons owner Arthur Blank will be the owner and the team will play in the new Atlanta stadium that's about to begin construction.

Hopefully they come in the same year as Miami.
 
Aside from at the creation of the league, has there ever previously been a 12-month period where four whole clubs were announced?
 
Aside from at the creation of the league, has there ever previously been a 12-month period where four whole clubs were announced?
Don't forget Chivas being resold and essentially becoming a whole new club.

Oh and I assure you Minnesota will be announced in the next 6 months.

NY= $100 mill
LA2 = $100 mill
Atlanta = $80 mill?
Orlando = $70 mill (I think)
Miami = $25 mill

~$375 mill just from these expansions

Throw in the $100 million TV contract and the league has some pretty serious cash to spend....
 
I'm glad the league is growing and glad the NFL owners are seeing MLS as a healthy risk in which to invest. I just hope the MLS would not be greedy and over expand. US soccer should form structures like other leagues and eliminate salary caps. Instead of 3-4 teams being regulated make it 1 team and allow 1 teams to move up from lower leagues like NASL or others. So this part year would have brought up the Long Island Cosmos up to the MLS and DC United down. :eek:
 
Pro/Rel ain't ever happening here. If you gave the Euros the chance to eliminate it over there, they would, too.

No one will vote for something that jeopardizes their investment with no upside for them in return. No one.
 
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Terrible choice. Too many teams in the southeast too quickly. The southeast is known for having terrible fan support, awful move for MLS. Should Have gone somewhere central or west.
 
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Atlanta is a horrible choice. They don't support any of their teams, including the Braves who are in the middle of a 20+ year era of almost annual visits to the postseason. Atlanta is not a sports town. Without a real soccer stadium, it seems like the only question is when that franchise is sold and relocated.
 
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Can't say I agree with all of this either. There are far better markets to explore. Not to mention that over expansion dilutes the quality of the league instantly.
 
St. Louis should have been next IMO, or maybe Minneapolis. Somewhere central and new. I like San Antonio, but with two Texas teams already, I think a new central team would be better. Imagine a St. Louis SKC rivalry, it'd be perfect. Atlanta will be the Chivas of the east.
 
I understand the concerns but Atlanta is a big market. The league needs leverage when they negotiate the next TV deal, that's why they wanted NYCFC, Miami, Orlando and now Atlanta.
 
I understand the concerns but Atlanta is a big market. The league needs leverage when they negotiate the next TV deal, that's why they wanted NYCFC, Miami, Orlando and now Atlanta.

That doesn't outweigh the considerable risk of failure. Ask the NHL about Atlanta. The TV execs show Seattle & Portland every chance they get because they get to show full stadiums. TV markets ought to be secondary to the consideration of a passionate fanbase. Get the fans to create an atmosphere worth beaming into people's living rooms first.

Atlanta has proven in every single sport that it will not do that. Atlanta is the 9th best TV market and big enough to host the Olympics?

MLB: Braves: 13th in overall attendance, 21st in percentage out of 30 with 63.3%.
NHL: Thrashers in last year before they moved to Winnipeg (!): 28th out of 30, drawing around 13400
NBA: Hawks, this season, probably will make the playoffs: 28 out of 30 average attendance drawing 83.6% which is 27th best, only beating out the Bucks (worst team in league) 76ers (a close second) and the Pistons (a disaster of a team in a dying city).
NFL: Falcons, in 2012 when they earned the #1 seed in the NFC: 11th best total in NFL, with a 95.5% drawing, good for...18th best in a league of 32.

The Thrashers were terrible, but those weren't bad teams. The Braves have been one of the best teams in baseball the last two decades. The Hawks have made the playoffs more often than not. The Falcons earned the #1 seed. What other numbers do you need to look at? Atlanta doesn't care about its sports teams. It's not a sports town. Putting a franchise there is a waste, especially there are plenty of other venues out there.
 
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This is all speculation in the end anyway, right? Are there any official articles or any insiders that can confirm that this is the direction they're going in?
 
That doesn't outweigh the considerable risk of failure. Ask the NHL about Atlanta. The TV execs show Seattle & Portland every chance they get because they get to show full stadiums. TV markets ought to be secondary to the consideration of a passionate fanbase. Get the fans to create an atmosphere worth beaming into people's living rooms first.

Atlanta has proven in every single sport that it will not do that. Atlanta is the 9th best TV market and big enough to host the Olympics?

MLB: Braves: 13th in overall attendance, 21st in percentage out of 30 with 63.3%.
NHL: Thrashers in last year before they moved to Winnipeg (!): 28th out of 30, drawing around 13400
NBA: Hawks, this season, probably will make the playoffs: 28 out of 30 average attendance drawing 83.6% which is 27th best, only beating out the Bucks (worst team in league) 76ers (a close second) and the Pistons (a disaster of a team in a dying city).
NFL: Falcons, in 2012 when they earned the #1 seed in the NFC: 11th best total in NFL, with a 95.5% drawing, good for...18th best in a league of 32.

The Thrashers were terrible, but those weren't bad teams. The Braves have been one of the best teams in baseball the last two decades. The Hawks have made the playoffs more often than not. The Falcons earned the #1 seed. What other numbers do you need to look at? Atlanta doesn't care about its sports teams. It's not a sports town. Putting a franchise there is a waste, especially there are plenty of other venues out there.
I get what you're saying but at this point financial stability is the top priority for the league right now. There's no real money in fan attendance, it's all in the TV deals.
 
But the days of "oh, you have a team in x market? Well, that's a huge market! Take my money!" Are over. Cable & satellite providers are fighting tooth and nail with the sports networks for every cent and are perfectly willing to drop carriage.

So if you're a network guy looking at making a deal with MLS, 9th best TV market isn't all that helpful to convince you fork out even more cash unless you can also count on that 9th best market actually tuning in to games. And you can't. So it's not all that helpful in a TV deal.
 
Atlanta was officially announced today. They will be playing in the Falcons new stadium, which for soccer games will seat around 30,000
 
I'm excited for this. Arthur's commitment to this Atlanta club is already greater than I imagined it to be.

I really believe all the Southeast teams will surprise people as far as fan support goes.
 
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Atl has a diverse community. I never thought Portland, SKC would have big fan bases and if anything they have smaller populations then NYC and still draw bigger crowds. I know NYC has a lot to offer but lets face it soccer is the back burner for right now. Baseball,Football and Basketball are this areas major sports but still I feel this support in this area will grow. Back to Atl with all the Hispanics already down there and money to back a team I see this team having a decent foothold in the south.

If anything Miami I feel will be a mistake unless Lebron and PSG do finally come in.
 
Atl has a diverse community. I never thought Portland, SKC would have big fan bases and if anything they have smaller populations then NYC and still draw bigger crowds. I know NYC has a lot to offer but lets face it soccer is the back burner for right now. Baseball,Football and Basketball are this areas major sports but still I feel this support in this area will grow. Back to Atl with all the Hispanics already down there and money to back a team I see this team having a decent foothold in the south.

If anything Miami I feel will be a mistake unless Lebron and PSG do finally come in.
To me, as an American, a team named after an energy drink seems very minor league. Putting old man Henry on the team doesn't do much to change my mind either.

The Jersey Cows have been so horribly mismanaged dating back to the Stars that it should be no wonder they have no real support.

When you build a respectable club, New Yorkers will come out as we saw with the Cosmos in the old NASL days.