News & Observer | newsobserver.com | MLS considers Atlanta

Published: Jun 20, 2008 12:30 AM
Modified: Jun 20, 2008 02:23 AM

MLS considers Atlanta

City would need to build stadium

Story Tools

Advertisements
ATLANTA - Will metro Atlanta get a Major League Soccer franchise in the next few years?

MLS is interested in putting a team here, saying it sees Atlanta as a "tremendous" potential market that would expand the league's footprint into the Southeast.

And Atlanta Falcons owner Arthur Blank's organization, AMB Group, is interested in bringing a team here, saying it is doing "a tremendous amount of due diligence" to see "if it makes sense."

The league and Blank's organization said "exploratory" discussions will continue in the months ahead, but both said it's too early to predict whether the process will lead to a team.

One thing is clear: To get a team, a new 20,000-or-so-seat soccer stadium would have to be built in the metro area, a project that most likely would entail public funding.

Major League Soccer, founded in 1996, is the nation's top men's pro league. Fourteen teams are spread from New York to Los Angeles. The league will add teams in Seattle and Philadelphia in 2009 and 2010, respectively, and plans further expansion by 2012.

The league says future franchises will cost $40 million apiece, necessitating deep-pocketed owners, such as Blank.

Blank is approaching the MLS possibility as "a very serious endeavor," said Dick Sullivan, one of two AMB Group executives leading the process. The Blank group has looked at land for a stadium in "about six" metro-Atlanta counties, Sullivan said, and last month met with MLS commissioner Don Garber and president Mark Abbott in New York.

"It is far too early to speculate on what will develop," Sullivan said.

An existing Atlanta pro team, the Silverbacks, plays in the United Soccer League First Division, which ranks below MLS on the American soccer pyramid.

All rights reserved. This copyrighted material may not be published, broadcast or redistributed in any manner.
No comments have been posted for this story. Log in to be the first to comment.


The News & Observer is pleased to be able to offer its users the opportunity to make comments and hold conversations online. However, the interactive nature of the internet makes it impracticable for our staff to monitor each and every posting.

Since The News & Observer does not control user submitted statements, we cannot promise that readers will not occasionally find offensive or inaccurate comments posted on our website. In addition, we remind anyone interested in making an online comment that responsibility for statements posted lies with the person submitting the comment, not The News and Observer.

If you find a comment offensive, clicking on the exclamation icon will flag the comment for review by the administrators, we are counting on the good judgment of all our readers to help us.

Hosting Partners of
newsobserver.com

Member of the
Real Cities Network

A subsidiary of The McClatchy Company