Atlanta United
Erica Carleton
Erica Carleton
Atlanta United is the first and only MLS team in Georgia. It was founded in 2014 and the club played their first regular season game on March 5, 2017 with 55,297 fans in attendance. Atlanta United holds many records, one of which is for their amazing attendance at games with a record of 72,000 and an average of 46,318 fans. This is a lot higher than the average attendance at any MLS (21,692 fans) and even very high for any sporting event. This raises the question of why so many people go the Atlanta United games.
Atlanta United holds many other records such as most points ever by defending champion, winning U.S. Open Cup, Cameones Cup Champions, and many others. This is amazing for one club to hold so many records, let alone in the short amount of time that Atlanta United has been playing for. In their second season, Atlanta won the MLS cup beating Portland 2-0. The game had an attendance of 73,019, the largest non-doubleheader crowd in league history. Bailey Baxter, a Hillgrove sophomore and Atlanta United fan, stated, “Atlanta United is like no other team in the MLS. They play so fast and are an amazing team to watch.”
Josef Martinez, Atlanta United’s starting center forward, has a pretty amazing record himself. He broke the all-time MLS goals record. Martinez scored in 15 straight games which is the most in MLS history and second longest in the world behind Lionel Messi. He is an icon for many MLS and Atlanta fans. Ellie Flynn, an Atlanta United fan, stated, “I watch a lot more games because of Josef Martinez, just the way he plays is like no other.” Josef Martinez plays a big part in the high attendance at many games throughout the league.
Another reason for the high attendance at games has to do with family friendly pricing at the stadium and the incredible attendance at games. Aurther Blank, owner of Atlanta United, built and owns Mercedes Benz Stadium and he wanted to bring more families, to games so he made all the prices for foods and drinks lower and family friendly. This allows for bigger families to be able to go to more and more games to support their home team. Baxter states, “At games, you are standing for the full 90 minutes and cheering among like 40,000 other people. Atlanta United games are nothing like any other sporting event in Atlanta.” All of these factors help contribute to Atlanta United’s amazing success.
Atlanta United holds many other records such as most points ever by defending champion, winning U.S. Open Cup, Cameones Cup Champions, and many others. This is amazing for one club to hold so many records, let alone in the short amount of time that Atlanta United has been playing for. In their second season, Atlanta won the MLS cup beating Portland 2-0. The game had an attendance of 73,019, the largest non-doubleheader crowd in league history. Bailey Baxter, a Hillgrove sophomore and Atlanta United fan, stated, “Atlanta United is like no other team in the MLS. They play so fast and are an amazing team to watch.”
Josef Martinez, Atlanta United’s starting center forward, has a pretty amazing record himself. He broke the all-time MLS goals record. Martinez scored in 15 straight games which is the most in MLS history and second longest in the world behind Lionel Messi. He is an icon for many MLS and Atlanta fans. Ellie Flynn, an Atlanta United fan, stated, “I watch a lot more games because of Josef Martinez, just the way he plays is like no other.” Josef Martinez plays a big part in the high attendance at many games throughout the league.
Another reason for the high attendance at games has to do with family friendly pricing at the stadium and the incredible attendance at games. Aurther Blank, owner of Atlanta United, built and owns Mercedes Benz Stadium and he wanted to bring more families, to games so he made all the prices for foods and drinks lower and family friendly. This allows for bigger families to be able to go to more and more games to support their home team. Baxter states, “At games, you are standing for the full 90 minutes and cheering among like 40,000 other people. Atlanta United games are nothing like any other sporting event in Atlanta.” All of these factors help contribute to Atlanta United’s amazing success.
