Soccer in the Southeast of the United States has never had it so good.
In the last three months the region has been handed two Major League Soccer franchises, with Orlando City arriving in 2015 and David Beckham’s Miami franchise set to begin play in 2017.
Those two Florida franchises could have a Southern foe to do battle against, as MLS might be heading to ATL.
According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Atlanta Falcons President Rich McKay told city officials on Thursday that the NFL side is “far along in negotiations with MLS” about becoming the league’s next franchise.
With the Falcons about to break ground on their new stadium just a few hundred yards from their current home in the Georgia Dome, plans to have an MLS side based in the new $1.2 billion venue have been apparent for quite some time as NFL owner Arthur Blank has spoke of his admiration for an MLS franchise in downtown Atlanta. On Thursday McKay reinforced those feelings.
(MORE: Who’s left? With Miami confirmed, MLS down to two expansion slots)
How do we feel about Atlanta’s potential arrival into MLS?
It could work, especially with Orlando and Miami as regional rivals a la the Seattle, Vancouver and Portland triangle up in the Pacific Northwest. The far Southeast corner of the U.S. has been neglected in soccer terms for many years and deserves a shot at bringing a whole new dimension to MLS, which I think it will.
Having a franchise in ATL playing in a 70,000 American Football stadium may not sound that attractive to many people, but the Vancouver Whitecaps have proven it can work as they have a partition that folds down and acts as a ‘fake roof’ at BC Place, as ‘Caps fans sit in the bottom tier of the 60,000 seater stadium and get crowds of over 20,000. This would not be a return to the dark ages of MLS when teams played in huge stadiums and struggled to get crowds of over 10,000 in the ’90’s.
It is something that could happen as early as 2017, as that’s when the Falcons new stadium will be ready. Perfect timing to join Miami’s Beckham-owned franchise as they are likely to join the league in ’17.
The league does like to introduce expansion sides in groups, as we saw Chivas USA and Real Salt Lake join in 2005, Portland and Vancouver in 2011 and New York City FC and Orlando City will arrive together in 2015. This is all beginning to make some sense, but I can’t help but think some other cities in the U.S. would be feeling pretty miffed if MLS did arrive in Georgia. Cities like San Antonio, Minneapolis and Sacramento have a decent chance, but there will only be a maximum of 24 MLS sides in the foreseeable future after Commissioner Don Garber said so.
So, ATL to MLS, what do we think?