Let the Festivities Begin

14 hours ago

Tharon Johnson,

Can you believe that it hasn’t even been 10 years since Atlanta United’s first match? Soccer has become an integral part of our city’s sports identity right alongside the Braves, the Falcons and the Hawks. Tens of thousands of people go to every game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium with throngs of fans in their jerseys cramming into MARTA trains and packing Downtown streets with energy.

With such incredible excitement for soccer developing in so little time, is it any wonder that Atlanta was one of the 11 American cities selected to host eight of this year’s FIFA World Cup matches? The World Cup is the No. 1 most viewed sporting event on the planet with billions of people – that’s right, billions – tuning in every four years to cheer on their country’s best players on the biggest stage possible.

What is coming to Atlanta now is more like hosting eight Super Bowls in a month.

Atlanta is no stranger to the spotlight, having hosted countless major events in the last 30 years, from the Summer Olympics in 1996 to hosting the Super Bowl in 2000 and 2019 (with another one scheduled for 2028). We’ve hosted more conventions, college championships and music festivals than I can count.

There is no question that we’ve got the experience to make this historic occasion a momentous success, but there’s one big thing separating this event from every other one – scale. When we host a Super Bowl, we have years to prepare for a single event. What is coming to Atlanta now is more like hosting eight Super Bowls in a month, with 300,000 visitors expected to descend upon our city during the games in June and July.

This is a thrilling opportunity to showcase just how much our city has grown in the last 30 years, and Atlanta leaders are ready to meet the moment. MARTA has been working overtime to modernize fare gates, launch new train cars and streamline bus routes, all of which will be vital to getting visitors around without suffocating our streets.

Meanwhile, the Atlanta Sports Council has lined up thousands of multilingual volunteers to welcome international fans from dozens of countries and make their experience here as simple and joyful as possible. Many Americans only recently came down with soccer fever, but this sport has long been a phenomenon in the rest of the world, one they arguably enjoy with even more fervor than football fans here. It’s incumbent upon us to make sure nothing gets between them and getting to the game, including language barriers.

And then, of course, there’s City Hall. Mayor Andre Dickens and everyone on his team have overseen Atlanta’s fastest pace of infrastructure improvements in recent memory, which comes as no surprise to anyone who has had to navigate around construction in the last year. Our streets are being repaved, crosswalks are being repainted and the Beltline has rapidly had new miles added to it, with a key stretch in Southeast Atlanta opening just this past April.

Perhaps most importantly, this administration recognizes that at the end of the day, these events can and should have some long-term benefit for Atlanta residents. As the mayor said earlier this year, “We’re making sure it happens with Atlanta, not to Atlanta.” The World Cup is expected to generate $1 billion in economic impact, which has the potential to be a transformational amount of revenue for a city that would benefit from more affordable housing, transit options and infrastructure upgrades.

It’s not just the city of Atlanta, either. We have about 90,000 hotel rooms in the city, which you may notice is somewhat less than the number of guests we’ll be welcoming. Cities all over the metro area, from Decatur and Sandy Springs to Smyrna and Lawrenceville, will be alongside Atlanta on the world stage, right where they belong. For those of us who have lived in the area for most of our lives, we know how special it is, with some of the best food, most beautiful parks and vibrant communities you’ll find anywhere in the country.

At a time when many of us are feeling more divided than ever as an overwhelming deluge of bad news confronts us every day, I can think of no better way for so many of us to come together from almost every country on the planet and be reminded just how much we have in common.

This summer, Atlanta will prove it’s more than just the city too busy to hate. We’re the city that’s ready to celebrate.