Atlanta’s new NWSL team has an MLS playbook to follow
Arthur Blank’s new women’s soccer franchise will follow a similar playbook used when the men’s soccer franchise launched in 2014.
The women’s team, born Tuesday at a cold but exciting launch in west Midtown, will play in the NWSL. Its first season will be in 2028, giving it a three-year run-up that mirrors Atlanta United’s runway to its first MLS season in 2017.
Atlanta United’s success came from smart, grassroots marketing led by Sarah Kate Noftsinger to a city starving for soccer, and spot-on hires for most positions, starting with president Darren Eales and continuing with technical director Carlos Bocanegra and manager Gerardo Martino.
Blank expressed confidence Tuesday that the yet-to-be-named NWSL team will produce similar results.
“We have two common expressions: ‘There is no finish line, (and) the best or nothing,’” he said. “I have other ones as well, but those two will definitely apply to women’s soccer here. So it’s a matter of resources.
“It’s a matter of building a culture, bringing in people early so they can study the market, get in touch with the market, understand what women’s soccer looks like in the greater Atlanta metro area and throughout the state and beyond.”
Blank, as he did in 2014 when Atlanta United was launched at a venue overlooking Centennial Olympic Park, promised the NWSL team will get every resource to win a championship. Atlanta United won its first MLS Cup in 2018, its second season. It has led the league in announced attendance every season since it started.
“Sports Illustrated saluted us as the best launch of a professional sports team in the history of United States, Atlanta United,” he said. “We want to duplicate that in NWSL and have that kind of success.”
An NWSL team owned by Blank in Atlanta has been rumored for eight years. Blank wanted to make sure the league, which started in 2012, was on solid financial footing before he invested in an expansion franchise.
The project has been six years in the making, with Blank on Tuesday formally committing to pay the $165 million expansion fee — the MLS expansion fee was $70 million in 2014 — along with another $165 million in startup costs, which will include the purchase of land, in addition to the construction of a headquarters and training ground. He spent $60 million to build Atlanta United’s training facility on 33 acres in Marietta and $25 million more recently to expand it.
The franchise already is pursuing front-office personnel. Eales, the club’s first hire, was brought on in September 2014, five months after the franchise was launched in April.
NWSL matches are broadcast by CBS Sports, ESPN and Amazon Prime, among others. They paid a reported $240 million for the rights before the 2024 season. The contract is through the 2027 season.
It seems the league is on solid financial ground.
“When we think about expansion, we know it’s an opportunity to raise the bar for all of our clubs, and Atlanta, in particular, with this ownership group, we know is going to set records and is going to challenge everyone to be their best,” said NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman, who was hired in 2022. “We know that these sports teams are community assets, and that the way to build them is from the ground up, and this community has demonstrated that they will show up when it’s built in that way.”
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