Catching up with… Dan Corso

Dan Corso will be front and center for the FIFA World Cup games this month. It may be the biggest sporting event he’s recruited to Georgia, but it won’t be the last: The city will host its fourth Super Bowl in 2028.

Dan Corso, President, Atlanta Sports Council. Photo credit: Daemon Baizan

How long ago did the sports council make the pitch for the World Cup?

The Atlanta Sports Council exists to recruit and organize the biggest sporting events in the world here. We’ve had a pretty good track record with a lot of partners that we work with in fulfilling that purpose. The World Cup began for us back in July of 2017, believe it or not, when I received an email [about the bid] for North America to host the event. It was very short and to the point, and I was like, “Wow, is this real?” They were looking for cities in all three countries to jump in and say that they wanted to be a part of it. And so of course our natural reaction is, yes, we would love to host the world’s biggest sporting event in Atlanta…. I still have that email, and here we are nine years later seeing it happen.

What kind of exposure will Atlanta get on the world stage?

It’s a good opportunity to show not just Metro Atlanta but the state of Georgia. A College Football Playoff National Championship game, that’s one night and you’ve got about a four-day event period. The NCAA Men’s Final Four is three games within a four- or five-day event period. A Super Bowl is one game within a 10-day event period. Now we’ve got eight matches over 30 days. We’re going to have different teams and fan bases coming in, but certainly different media coming in for periods of time. What do we show to those folks coming in when they have some downtime? What can they see and discover about our city, our region and our state?

What should Atlantans expect from the World Cup? During the Olympic Games, they told everyone to stay home.

That’s not the message here. The message is get out of your home and come down and experience the world’s biggest sporting event. … You don’t need to be a soccer fan to enjoy the World Cup. It’s a lifestyle cultural event that happens to have soccer matches taking place during the time.

We have a Fan Fest in Centennial Olympic Park, which is open to the public. It’s no charge for general admission and everybody in Georgia and the Southeast is welcome. … You don’t have to have a match ticket to enjoy this. You don’t even have to be a sports fan. You can celebrate the different nationalities and cultures coming into an already international city and just be a part of it. Whether it’s downtown or in your local community or at a local watch party, we want people to experience this and really appreciate what’s coming in.

Atlanta is known as a college football town, but it’s a big soccer town, too. Why has soccer taken root so deeply?

What Atlanta United has done to raise the profile of our soccer image across not just the U.S., but the world, catapulted that. U.S. Soccer selecting Atlanta as their national headquarters and training center site [elevates] our status. This is a soccer state, it’s a soccer region, and it’s a soccer city. By the time World Cup concludes, there will be more fans that have attended events in Mercedes-Benz Stadium for soccer than there will have been for football.

Soccer is just a way of life for a lot of folks. … It’s a participatory sport and a spectator sport at the same time.

What made you decide to have a career in recruiting, going after these big sports events?

I am a byproduct of volunteerism. My wife and I moved here [from Florida] in 1995 just before the Olympic Games. I realized that if we’re going to make this our place, then I better start getting connected within the Atlanta community. So I started volunteering for the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. … and hit it off with the staff of the Peach Bowl and the Atlanta Sports Council. They had an opening on the Atlanta Sports Council staff … in 1999 and I’ve been with the organization ever since.

It’s also why it’s special to me, when we have volunteer drives for our big sporting events, to see them come and give their time.

After FIFA, when are you going on vacation?

I have heard the same question from my wife. Once [the games are] done, there will be several weeks of finishing and tying things up. So sometime in late August, I think we’ll look to get away.