While one Atlanta professional sports franchise has been getting lambasted by citizens and media alike since it decided to uproot to Cobb County, another has taken a different approach to community involvement.
Atlanta United Football Club, which hasn’t played a game yet, (its first match is scheduled for March of 2017) but already it is building up quite a fan base in the Atlanta metro area. Over 22,000 fans have already bought season tickets, a staggering number for an expansion soccer team in this football crazed town. Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which will be the team’s home upon completion, has a customized canopy system designed specifically for soccer and its reduced attendance from NFL games.
The club’s hiring of Gerardo ‘Tata’ Martino furthered enthusiasm, as the Argentinian manager boasts an impressive resume including stints as head of the Argentinian national team and FC Barcelona, one of Europe’s, (and therefor the world’s) premiere teams.
The team hasn’t only been focused on improving itself on the pitch though, it has also been working hard to foster a strong bond between it and the community it now calls home.
A concept of the proposed soccer facility at the Five Points MARTA station
Nowhere is this more evident than in the team’s partnership with MARTA and Soccer in the Streets to create ‘station soccer’, “the first soccer field to be built inside the perimeter of a major urban transit station in the world.” The field, which will be located at Five Points MARTA station, will serve as an opportunity for urban youth to get a chance to play the game by removing two of the key roadblocks – lack of accessibility and lack of availability.
Said MARTA CEO Keith Parker on the plan, “Our partnership effort will help foster a sense of community around our most active MARTA station. These collaborations are important because they turn a rail stop into a point of destination where customers can plan an entire outing—from grabbing a meal to shopping then a match—all while using the system.”
Phil Hill, Executive Director of Soccer on the Streets, continued, saying, “The partnership between Soccer in the Streets and Atlanta United demonstrates the club’s commitment to providing access to the game of soccer to our city’s youth, especially in areas that have historically been marginalized. The field will allow our organization to expand through a totally new concept in urban soccer, designed specifically for kids who live in underserved neighborhoods.”
Atlanta United may not have played its first game, but by partnering with MARTA to help bring opportunities to the city’s youth it is already creating bonds with Atlanta that may ease some of the pain of its baseball team leaving downtown.
Hey, soccer’s not the most popular sport in the world for no reason right?
