Minnesota joins MLS

Excellent points, Batman. You old enough to remember WTCG? Braves, Hawks, Flames, Chiefs, preseason Falcons. I still remember someone, Bob Neal I think, doing his opening stand-up for a Chiefs game from atop a press box in Rochester, New York.

 

Not quite that old. I'm a child of the 80s and from a different part of the country. Old enough to remember 7:05 reruns of Andy Griffith on TBS followed by the Braves game at 7:35, though.

 

As Batman perfectly stated, this isn't the issue with Atlanta. The issue is that Atlanta is not a ravenous sports town. I've lived in it long enough to know this. Unless you are an established part of the city - Braves, Falcons, Hawks - you aren't going to do well. The Atlanta Flames, the Atlanta Thrashers, the Atlanta Attack (an indoor soccer team), the Atlanta Silverbacks (a pro women's soccer team) all failed.

Atlanta has one of the better WNBA teams, yet no one cares. Try to convince me there are more soccer fans in Atlanta than basketball fans.

Sure, the Atlanta MLS team will be the closest team for a large region, but that doesn't mean EVERY soccer fan is going to fill that stadium regularly enough to keep the team afloat.

 

I'm old enough to remember Manfred Kammerer, Phil Woosnam (as a player) and Emment Kapengwe.

I can't remember the announcer's name, but when the Chiefs had a decent buildup going, he'd say, "Oh... It's a good one! IT'S A GOOD ONE!" And I used to love hearing him say "Emment ka-PENG-wee!"

Full disclosure: I had to look up how to spell Kapengwe's name.

 

I would bet you there are more soccer fans in Atlanta than WNBA fans

 

Not to mention the Banana Splits and Bill Tush.

 

Point conceded.

 

There's probably more jai alai fans in Atlanta than WNBA fans.
But then again, that's true everywhere.

 

I'm surprised St. Louis hasn't gotten a sniff from MLS. I've heard since the 80s how St. Louis was such a soccer hotbed. Too much divided government perhaps, or going head-to-head against the Cardinals?

 

You're right that soccer is growing in popularity and that there are thousands of fans in those states. But there's a snow ball's chance in hell that thousands of North Carolinians will be traveling to Atlanta for games. I suspect the same is true for our cousins to the south.

People here unequivocally do not identify with Atlanta sports, with the sole exception of the Atlanta Braves, and bitch and moan about travelling there for events such as the ACC Tournament or a neutral-site football game in the Georgia Dome. The Braves eroding stronghold here is a vestige of the days when they were the only team readily available on radio or T.V. in the region.

I suspect an MLS team in the Triangle could do well and I would like to see the Railhawks get to the point where they might seriously be considered as an expansion franchise. But people ain't traveling for some Atlanta team. For Triangle soccer fans who are hellbent on seeing an MLS game, D.C. is easier.

 

St Louis will get one, hoping North Carolina gets one too.

That could be possible in Atlanta, that will be up to the owners to build a true and loyal fan base, they need to bring some marketing players to get started, after thats its all about building that relationship with the average sport fan because soccer fans will be there religiously.

 

I have lived in Columbia SC for the past 6 years, people from South Carolina will go to those games more often than what you think, unless North Carolina gets a team, soccer fans in the Palmetto State will be fully involved with MLS Atlanta.