Soccer City

Soccer in the U.S. is more popular than ever. And those on the business and development side of the sport say “opportunity” is the key word.

Since the U.S. hosted the 1994 FIFA World Cup, soccer has taken off. Major League Soccer launched in the U.S. in 1996 with 10 teams and is now the fastest growing sports league in the country. MLS’s Atlanta United is enjoying record crowds, and revenue growth is expected to exceed 100% between 2024 and 2030. Participation from Mini Kickers to senior walking soccer is growing across the state. And the U.S. Soccer Federation is about to make Georgia home as it moves its headquarters from Chicago and builds a first-ever, state-of-the art training center in Fayette County.

“This is a soccer city,” says Neil McNab, president of Georgia Soccer, the authorized state youth and adult soccer association. “Soccer is hot across the country. In Georgia, it’s white hot. It’s the market to be in right now.”

Major soccer events in Atlanta – the recently concluded FIFA Club World Cup, next year’s FIFA World Cup and the 2031 Women’s World Cup – are only raising the heat.

“We want these events to make a change,” says Stuart Sharp, head of Extended National Teams for the U.S. Soccer Federation. “It’s an opportunity for new people to get involved in the game and get caught up in the fantastic atmosphere that the sport can bring.”

Sharp believes these events will trigger a lasting movement in the U.S. “I really want the game to flow across the country and leave its mark,” says Sharp. “And I think that’s the opportunity that we have in front of us.”

“Soccer is hot across the country. In Georgia, it’s white hot. It’s the market to be in right now.” – Neil McNab, president, Georgia Soccer

In June and July, Atlanta hosted six World Club Cup games – a new tournament modeled after the World Cup but featuring 32 professional, rather than national, teams. The tournament is FIFA’s attempt to monetize soccer’s biggest clubs and players.

Just prior to the tournament, FIFA and the World Trade Organization estimated 3.7 million attendees in the 11 U.S. host cities, $9.6 billion in revenue and the creation of more than 180,000 jobs. In Atlanta, the average attendance across the first four matches came in at less than 40,000 in a stadium that seats 71,000. The total combined attendance of all six matches at Mercedes Benz Stadium was approximately 258,265, far less than its capacity of 426,000.

Katie Kirkpatrick, president and CEO of the Metro Atlanta Chamber, says the Club World Cup was a learning experience that will help the city prepare for next year.

“Events like FIFA Club World Cup present valuable opportunities for Metro Atlanta to engage with the global sports community,” says Kirkpatrick. “This is a brand-new competition … Moments like these help elevate the region’s visibility and reinforce our growing role in international sport.”

World Cup Excitement

Digital billboard clocks around the city are counting down to World Cup 2026 – now less than a year out.

Great Momentum: Chelle Adams, chief financial officer of the U.S. Soccer Federation. Photo credit: Woodie Williams

Beginning next June, Atlanta will host eight games at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, including a semifinal, during the 104-game tournament featuring 48 teams across 16 host cities in North America. “It’s the biggest sporting event ever in the world. In the world,” says Chelle Adams, chief financial officer of the U.S. Soccer Federation. “There’s definitely great momentum right now, an unprecedented moment of opportunity.”

It also will be the largest global event hosted by Atlanta since the 1996 Olympics with an estimated economic impact of over $1 billion, according to a statement Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens made in April to a group of city officials. Local leaders compare the tournament to hosting eight Super Bowls in terms of revenue, fan engagement and infrastructure demands.

“I have no doubt that we will do it well because we do ‘big’ well,” says Kirkpatrick. “This really is an important time for us to showcase this region in the state and show that we are the epicenter of soccer so everybody else can learn from us.”

William Pate, president and CEO of the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau, says Atlanta offers an “unbeatable logistics package” with Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and 114,000 hotel rooms – 13,000 of which are within walking distance of the stadium, MARTA and a wealth of restaurants and attractions. “Not only have we done big events, and we do big events regularly, but in many cases, the same people have been working in those events [for] 15 or 20 years. That’s one of the reasons we’re able to execute them so flawlessly.”

Pate anticipates many of the estimated 500,000+ visitors will stay about two weeks and use down time between matches to explore.

“We’re going to have this great opportunity to really move the economic impact of the event, not just in the downtown area, but throughout the metro area and maybe even beyond,” says Pate. “That’s a unique feature to this event.”

Pate says it’s too early to worry how current economic and immigration policies might impact World Cup travel into Atlanta next year. FIFA will hold the draw for the group stage of the Cup in December, which will determine the countries sending teams to the U.S. Pate says some countries could experience longer visa wait times.

“I expect that the United States will ease that visa time as we get closer to the World Cup, because obviously we want to bring as many people into the country as we can,” says Pate.

Scoring Points: FIFA President Gianni Infantino, left, poses with the Club World Cup Trophy alongside Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens and Tim Zulawski, president of AMB Sports & Entertainment, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Photo credit: FIFA

Kirkpatrick wants all Georgians to be able to experience the World Cup, whether attending a match, a watch party, the FIFA Fan Festival or volunteering.

“How do you drive engagement?” says Kirkpatrick. “These conversations are going on with Augusta, Savannah, Columbus, Valdosta, Rome, Gainesville, Athens. Because the reality is the stadium only holds 78,000 people. There are only so many people that can get into the Fan Fest. We want to make everyone understand there’s a connectivity to their community through soccer.”

Success in hosting next summer’s World Cup will impact the role Atlanta plays in the 2031 Women’s World Cup.

“We are, of course, looking for the best host cities for that [FIFA Women’s World Cup] as well,” said FIFA President Gianni Infantino during a visit to the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in April. “And you know, Atlanta can score, definitely, some points on this field.”

Georgia Soccer’s McNab says the five-year gap between the men’s and women’s Cup tournaments could be a good thing.

“We’ve got that span in between where we can continue to build the hype, learn some lessons from being a host city this time around and do an even better job for the Women’s World Cup,” he says. “Fun times ahead.”

Fantastic Atmosphere: Stuart Sharp, head of U.S. Soccer’s Extended National Teams. Photo credit: Ben Rollins

A Soccer Home

For years, U.S. Soccer’s Sharp says, the 27 men’s, women’s, youth and extended national soccer teams have played without something they desperately wanted – home field advantage.

“We need a home,” says Sharp. “For too long, we’ve been nomads. We’re a traveling roadshow setting up high-performance environments.”

With next year’s expected completion of the Arthur M. Blank National Training Center in Fayette County, the national teams will be nomads no more.

“When we bring teams to play us,” says Sharp, “they’re coming into our yard, and we are happy that our yard is in Atlanta.”

U.S. Soccer had been on the hunt for a training center and headquarters site that included accessibility to an airport, a year-round programming climate and a diverse community. When Niki Vanderslice, president & CEO of the Fayette County Development Authority, got a call that U.S. Soccer was interested in an undeveloped site just outside the incorporated lines, she knew this was a rare opportunity. Vanderslice approached Trilith’s leaders and asked if they’d be willing to consider “a project of significant impact.”

“We have the opportunity that when someone says soccer, they think Fayette County,” Vanderslice says she told them. City leaders put together an incentive package that included sewer extension.

“I really want the game to flow across the country and leave its mark. And I think that’s the opportunity that we have in front of us.” – Stuart Sharp, head of Extended National Teams, U.S. Soccer

Atlanta won the training center thanks in part to a $50 million donation to the federation from Arthur Blank, The Home Depot Inc. co-founder and owner of Atlanta United and the Atlanta Falcons, as well as contributions from Chick-fil-A Chair Dan Cathy and Atlanta-based Coca-Cola. To fund the construction, U.S. Soccer held a $200 million bond sale in August 2024 that was oversubscribed by 16.2 times, resulting in more than $3.2 billion in orders.

The training center will feature more than a dozen cutting-edge training fields, high-performance centers and meeting rooms designed to elevate every aspect of the game and benefiting all the teams, including the nine men’s and women’s extended teams – power (wheelchair); deaf; cerebral palsy (CP), which also encompasses stroke and traumatic brain injury; beach, which is played in the sand; and futsal, a smaller version of soccer usually played indoors.

Significant Impact: Niki Vanderslice, president and CEO of the Fayette County Development Authority, right, and Brian Stack, project director for Brasfield & Gorrie, the company building the Arthur M. Blank National Training Center, set to open next spring. Photo credit: Daemon Baizan

“Extended,” says Sharp, also means extended opportunities for coaches, referees, fans and sponsors, or what he calls, an “extension of the opportunity to fall in love and experience the game in a different way.”

“Our vision for the training center is no matter who you are, when you walk in, that you will feel like that training center is for you,” says Sharp. “We want those athletes to come in and feel it’s like their home.”

The new headquarters and center are expected to generate $100 million annually to the Atlanta economy, create 440 jobs and bring in more than 200,000 visitors annually.

Kirkpatrick is excited about the potential benefits.

“We can bring in major tournaments,” she says. “We can bring in tens of thousands of people per week, and that will have a ripple effect across our economy. Just the hospitality side of things will certainly see a positive impact. But I fully believe it will lead to innovation and entrepreneurship in the region as people think about ways that we can support [the training center’s] mission and vision.”

Turning Cheers into Cash

Atlanta United FC’s arrival just eight years ago was a gamechanger for soccer and the city.

“We’ve been having a moment since 2017 when Atlanta United launched,” says Erin Hendrickson, senior director of business development for the Atlanta Sports Council. “Everything that Arthur Blank has done for the sport of soccer has put Atlanta on the map.”

Rare Opportunity: Rendering of the Arthur M. Blank National Training Center. Photo credit: Contributed

Major League Soccer reportedly approached Blank more than 20 years ago to start an expansion team at a time when teams were building 20,000-seat suburban stadiums. Blank declined, wanting a bigger, more urban experience. Plans for the 71,000-soccer-seat Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Downtown Atlanta were a catalyst for Blank, and Atlanta United entered Major League Soccer just months before the stadium’s opening.

Today, Atlanta United is valued at $1.08 billion and is one of the best moneymakers in the sport with $105 million in 2024 revenue, according to Forbes. The team had the highest 2024 average attendance of any MLS team, at 49,351.

“We have hosted 19 of the 25 highest attended matches in league history at Mercedes-Benz Stadium,” said Atlanta United President and CEO Garth Lagerwey in an email. “We attribute that to a multicultural city that clearly embraces the world sport.

“We want to play a pivotal role in Atlanta becoming the epicenter of soccer in North America,” he said.

Ground Breaking: Atlanta United Owner Arthur Blank, center, with first lady Marty Kemp, Gov. Brian Kemp and U.S. Soccer officials at the training center’s groundbreaking in Fayetteville in April 2024, left. Photo credit: Contributed

Lagerwey believes the World Cup could double the team’s fan base and calls the tournament “a golden opportunity to introduce new fans to the game at a world-class venue. … It’s up to us to capitalize on that and engage those fans with our club.” In July, Lagerwey took a leave of absence after being diagnosed with cancer. A statement from Atlanta United said he had begun tretment and “the prognosis of a complete recovery is encouraging.”

Economic Development Goals

South Georgia Tormenta co-owner and President Darin Van Tassell saw soccer’s potential in South Georgia 10 years ago.

“I thought Statesboro was ready to be a professional sports city,” he says. Through teaching sports and international relations at Georgia Southern, Van Tassell came to see soccer as an economic development tool. “It was very clear to me that soccer wasn’t just the biggest sport in the world; it might be the biggest anything,” he says. “What else has 4 billion followers in the world?”

In 2015, Van Tassell founded South Georgia Tormenta FC, a club that plays in United Soccer League’s (USL) League One, the third tier of soccer in the United States.

“One of our ambitions as U.S. Soccer is soccer everywhere. We want to be able to provide everyone everywhere the opportunity to really experience soccer and the joy that it can bring. Sports changes lives.” – Chelle Adams, chief financial officer of the U.S. Soccer Federation

Seeing Potential: Darin Van Tassell, South Georgia Tormenta co-owner and president. Photo credit: Frank Fortune

Seven years later, the Optim Sports Medicine Field at Tormenta Stadium – a 5,300-seat, multi-event stadium in Statesboro – became Tormenta’s home. When the stadium-centered campus is completed in 2027, Van Tassell says it will include retail, restaurants and housing, contributing to the local economy and increasing the team’s connection to the community.

“You’ve got to have a product that local people feel connected to. You can’t ask them to be part of us if they don’t feel like we’re part of them.”

Van Tassell says the potential impact of the World Cup on soccer growth can’t be overestimated.

“I think the United States public can’t fully appreciate what’s about to happen next summer in terms of how much attention and viewership that we’ll be having,” he says. “It’s a rocket ship moment, to be sure, for those of us that are in this industry.”

Growing the Sport

Growing the Game: Kaseem Ladipo, executive director, Soccer in the Streets. Photo credit: Mitch Martin/Atlanta United

“The growth of soccer in the United States really starts with young people,” says Van Tassell.

Soccer is the second fastest-growing youth sport in the country, and Georgia Soccer estimates statewide youth and adult participation at about 100,000.

“We’re starting to see soccer-first families in our market,” says McNab of parents choosing soccer over other sports for their kids. McNab is also executive director of Rush Union Soccer, which provides all levels of play to 4- to 18-year-old boys and girls in Georgia.

“That’s great to see,” he says. “I think the next decade of soccer in the United States is going to be a huge opportunity and huge growth. Our biggest hurdle is making sure we are ready for this increase. That’s going to mean more coaches, more referees, more fields. There’s a lot for us to do to plan for this growth.”

U.S. Soccer sees the World Cup as an opportunity to create a generational legacy. Through their Soccer Forward Foundation, they’re looking to grow the game by expanding access in schools and developing more places to play.

Transforming Communities: StationSoccer is a network of mini fields around MARTA stations, where kids can gather to play the game. Photo credit: Soccer in the Streets

“One of our ambitions as U.S. Soccer is soccer everywhere,” says Adams. “We want to be able to provide everyone everywhere the opportunity to really experience soccer and the joy that it can bring. Sports changes lives.”

It’s the same belief that’s propelled Soccer in the Streets for the past 35 years. The Atlanta organization says it has served thousands of kids since its founding in 1989, providing soccer-based youth development programs in low-income neighborhoods. Ladipo says they’re currently serving about 3,000 kids a year with the hopes of expanding to 5,000. They’ve also created StationSoccer, a network of mini fields around MARTA stations – currently at six with a goal of 10.

“We just play a unique role in this narrative around growing the game,” says Executive Director Kaseem Ladipo. “And we don’t shy away from that.”

Transforming Lives: Soccer in the Streets has served thousands of kids since 1989. Photo credit: Soccer in the Streets

Ladipo says his biggest challenge is converting one-off funders into believers in the power of sport to change and transform lives and communities.

“The reality is we start at the micro level, supporting the kid, then the team,” he says. “But on a macro level, you can hit a tipping point where you’re now inspiring whole communities to come to the table to do some special things that support broader community development efforts. And that’s the story that we’re trying to elevate.”

Georgia’s Pitch

As Atlanta prepares for the World Cup and the arrival of U.S. Soccer, Georgia Soccer’s McNab believes the state could serve as an example for national expansion of the sport.

“What a privilege and honor that is,” he says. “But also, what a responsibility that is to do it right. We all need to be running in the same direction.”

The formula for success, says U.S. Soccer’s Sharp, will be inspiration, opportunity and funding. “I truly think that will make a difference and lead us to this audacious goal that we become one of the biggest, if not the biggest sport in America and in the future.”