MLS considers Atlanta

City would need to build stadium

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.