Soccer in the South: Where Atlanta went wrong.
Saturday, 25 July 09, 10:39 AM · Comments (4)
I like Atlanta, for the most part it's a nice city. It's certainly the center of Southern culture and business. Atlanta is the first thing most people think of when they think of the South. Overall, I have no problem with Atlanta.
But Atlanta may have ruined it's chance to have a soccer team by feeling that it's entitled to an MLS team simply because of the things I mentioned in the previous paragraph. While those things still apply today, Atlanta's gravitational pull has been lessened by the rise of fellow Southern cities like Birmingham, Nashville, Raleigh, Memphis, and Atlanta's second-city and biggest rival, Charlotte.
Even on into the 80's Atlanta could rightfully have a sense of entitlement when it came to professional sports in the South, because if it wasn't in Atlanta, it likely wasn't going to work. But the population influx into other Southern population centers has made that a thing of the past. Charlotte, Memphis, Nashville and Raleigh all host successful professional teams now, which is why Atlanta was wrong to expect a possible Southern MLS entry to fall into it's lap.
Atlanta hosted a modestly successful USL First Division team, the Silverbacks, for over a decade but support for the team was lackluster at best. There are plenty of reasons for this, the team did play at a soulless cement hell in DeKalb for a number of years - thus making it somewhat difficult for Fulton and Cobb based fans to attend matches - before moving to an incomplete stadium in Chamblee for it's final years. But the main reason was that the Silverbacks were a USL team, and when Atlanta says they want a soccer team, Atlanta means they want an MLS team.
Up the road from Atlanta is a foothills city of 170,000 called Chattanooga. Chattanooga is the fourth largest city in Tennessee. Like Atlanta, Chattanooga too wanted a soccer team, but unlike Atlanta, Chattanooga doesn't have much pull nationally. This didn't stop Chattanooga from getting a team though, because in early 2009 Chattanooga FC was born. CFC plays in the National Premier Soccer League, the fourth tier of American soccer, and has become America's rising star in the sport averaging a division high 1,500 fans per match.
Meanwhile, the Silverbacks suspended operations in 2008. This doesn't mean Atlanta doesn't have a soccer team, it has two, Atlanta Blackwatch, and Atlanta FC, both play in the fourth tier, like Chattanooga. But unlike Chattanooga, the community has not embraced the teams, they're still holding out for MLS.
Atlanta may well have a future in MLS, but it's just that, a future. Atlanta has a strong soccer community, you can see this when you watch friendly matches held at the Georgia Dome, but the Atlanta soccer community needs to learn from Chattanooga. There are supposedly two spots left in the twenty team grand plan for Major League Soccer, and yes, Atlanta needs to chase one of those spots, but it also needs to learn to support what it has.
In the USL Atlanta had a good thing, a very good thing. An intense rivalry with the Charleston Battery, and a lesser rivalry with Charlotte and Raleigh (Cary). With Tampa about to enter the league, there was potential there too, but now it may be gone for good.
To make matters worse for Atlanta-based fans, Birmingham now wants an MLS team. While many would laugh at the idea, Birmingham isn't, they're serious. Not to mention the fact that Charlotte and Nashville are hotly chasing after the right to host World Cup matches. Atlanta may have counted it's chickens before they hatched, and lost out big time.
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Bobby
Charlotte, US
Random rantings about football
4 Comments · Add yours
So here's the question, why not put the South's MLS team in Chattanooga? 3000 people attended the final home game of the 2009 season and that was on July 4th when there were a ton of other things going on in downtown.
Also, Chattanooga is the TRUE center of the South. It is 2 hours from Nashville, Birmingham, Atlanta, Knoxville, and an hour or so from Huntsville. Along with that, the smaller nearby towns of Cleveland and Dalton have an enormous soccer fan base. If MLS wants to look at placing a team in the South, Chattanooga is the only logical choice.
Chattanooga already has a brand new 20,000 seat stadium that is perfect for soccer. Next year in the fourth tier, projections of 5000 and 6000 fans per game are being made. Even if the other cities mentioned only brought 1000 fans per, the Chattanooga team would find itself above the league average for attendance in MLS.
What do you think?
Ideally it could, but I don't think it'd be able to. Some people, not all, from those bigger cities would hold a grudge and never support it.
You have to also remember, sadly, people outside of the South don't know anything about Chattanooga, just that it's a town in the South not called Atlanta, Charlotte, New Orleans, or Raleigh.
I was a fan of the Silverbacks for the final 2 years and was frustrated by the lack of interest of the fans even from the official supporters group. Even the supporter's group fans found it hard to make it to home games to support the team.
We had a great stadium, a great location and a solid team (was in the USL Final 2 years ago). When I tried to help drum up interest, I was met with apathy and many fans saying they would not go to a USL game, but would to a MLS game. (???)
I never understood that. If you love soccer and want to show the world that this would be a great place to have an MLS team, it seems that you would want to sell out the stadium every home game. But most games we had less that 1000 for home games in a soccer specific stadium that holds 4000.
I hate to say this, but Atlanta doesn't deserve a top tier team until it supports what it already has.
The thing Atlanta has over all the cities mentioned above is it's international nature due in part to it's media industry. Some cities are simply major league and will never follow what is perceived as a minor league team.
Toronto case in point. The Lynx used to draw 1k to 3k a game in the USL. Never would have suspected the success of TFC. I grew up in WNY about and hour south or Toronto and remember going to Toronto Blizard games in NASL where there seemed to be more people on the field between players, trainers and officals than fans in the stands.
History is one thing but a strong ownership group with commitment to do it right is by far the most important thing. I would still say Atlanta is by far the most likeliy SE city.
So here's the question, why not put the South's MLS team in Chattanooga? 3000 people attended the final home game of the 2009 season and that was on July 4th when there were a ton of other things going on in downtown.
Also, Chattanooga is the TRUE center of the South. It is 2 hours from Nashville, Birmingham, Atlanta, Knoxville, and an hour or so from Huntsville. Along with that, the smaller nearby towns of Cleveland and Dalton have an enormous soccer fan base. If MLS wants to look at placing a team in the South, Chattanooga is the only logical choice.
Chattanooga already has a brand new 20,000 seat stadium that is perfect for soccer. Next year in the fourth tier, projections of 5000 and 6000 fans per game are being made. Even if the other cities mentioned only brought 1000 fans per, the Chattanooga team would find itself above the league average for attendance in MLS.
What do you think?
Ideally it could, but I don't think it'd be able to. Some people, not all, from those bigger cities would hold a grudge and never support it.
You have to also remember, sadly, people outside of the South don't know anything about Chattanooga, just that it's a town in the South not called Atlanta, Charlotte, New Orleans, or Raleigh.
I was a fan of the Silverbacks for the final 2 years and was frustrated by the lack of interest of the fans even from the official supporters group. Even the supporter's group fans found it hard to make it to home games to support the team.
We had a great stadium, a great location and a solid team (was in the USL Final 2 years ago). When I tried to help drum up interest, I was met with apathy and many fans saying they would not go to a USL game, but would to a MLS game. (???)
I never understood that. If you love soccer and want to show the world that this would be a great place to have an MLS team, it seems that you would want to sell out the stadium every home game. But most games we had less that 1000 for home games in a soccer specific stadium that holds 4000.
I hate to say this, but Atlanta doesn't deserve a top tier team until it supports what it already has.
The thing Atlanta has over all the cities mentioned above is it's international nature due in part to it's media industry. Some cities are simply major league and will never follow what is perceived as a minor league team.
Toronto case in point. The Lynx used to draw 1k to 3k a game in the USL. Never would have suspected the success of TFC. I grew up in WNY about and hour south or Toronto and remember going to Toronto Blizard games in NASL where there seemed to be more people on the field between players, trainers and officals than fans in the stands.
History is one thing but a strong ownership group with commitment to do it right is by far the most important thing. I would still say Atlanta is by far the most likeliy SE city.