Friday, July 30, 2010
Sports Disappointment of the Week: Atlanta Soccer Fans
Posted by Ben Bussard on Fri, Jul 30, 2010 at 2:01 PM
- Alejandro Leal/CL Staff
- The announced attendance for Wednesday night's soccer match was 33,721. But looking around the stadium, there certainly was a lot of red (empty seats)
Two of the world's most recognizable soccer teams.
The city's largest sporting complex.
A bid for the 2018 World Cup hanging in the balance.
The stage was set for Atlanta to make a serious push towards earning a host spot in the world's largest sporting event.
But apparently, Atlanta residents didn't get the memo as 37,000 Georgia Dome seats were left unoccupied on Wednesday night during the Club America vs. Manchester City match—also known as the Aaron's International Soccer Challenge.
So what did the turnout mean for Atlanta's hopes of hosting a World Cup? Probably just a longer wait.
Judging from the comments of some Atlanta residents, the turnout for the Aaron's International Soccer Challenge wasn't quite as bad as one may think when compared to the 50,000-plus that turned out for last summer's match between Club America and A.C. Milan.
Sure, the prices might have been higher and the European opponent not quite as appealing, but there are only four months remaining until FIFA makes its decision on where the 2018 and 2022 World Cups will be held and the roughly 33 percent drop in fan attendance from the 2009 match cannot be a good sign for Atlanta's hopes of hosting.
Even if the U.S. is chosen as a World Cup host country, Atlanta is still on the outside looking in when it comes to being selected as one of the host cities—especially considering the fact that the MLS All-Star Game in Houston was a sell out with an attendance of 70,700.
Despite Atlanta's global appeal, the Dome will be celebrating its 30th birthday when 2022 rolls around and holding matches inside isn't very appealing to the soccer traditionalists—not to mention that hauling in 77,625 square feet of grass sod for every match simply wouldn't work.
Renovating the Dome might be one solution, but as we all know, that isn't likely to happen any time soon.
It's great to hear Mayor Kasim Reed's desire to bring a World Cup to Atlanta, but how attractive of a candidate can we truly be for an international soccer competition if we can't even generate enough interest domestically?
Regardless of the city's immense cultural diversity, Atlanta's sports diversity—outside of football, baseball and basketball—simply isn't up to snuff.
Comments (15)
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So I guess Ben is just going to keep iterating his flawed assessment of what Wednesday night's ever-so-significant barometer of soccer influence means to Atlanta and the US bid for the Cup until everyone agrees with him... despite the availability of several more insightful interpretations offered by the comments section. Fantastic reporting/opining.
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What sport other than the NFL, and possibly NCAA Football, would draw more than 33,000 on a Wednesday night in Atlanta with two visiting teams playing? MLB, NBA, and NHL definitely would not (with the exception of maybe the Yankees or the Red Sox) and these two teams are not soccer's version of the Yankees or the Red Sox. They are quality clubs, but as a reader of the last article pointed out, most soccer fans know that this match was going to be nothing more than a preseason tune-up. Man City subbed out a lot of their good players at the half, anyway.
The ticket prices were too high, the timing was bad, the marketing was poor AND the MLS All Star game that Mr. Bussard referenced was on at the EXACT same time as this match.
It's going to take more than one match per year to get the proper channels of marketing put together in Atlanta and getting fans in the habit of coming out to matches.
The fact that this writer thinks that a 33,000 attendance on a Wednesday night is poor obviously doesn't understand 2 simple things:
Current Economic Environment
Local Atlanta Soccer Environment
It would have been nice if the writer would have mentioned some basic local soccer reasons that Atlanta will likely not host a World Cup anytime soon. First, Atlanta doesn't even have a men's professional team at the moment partly due to the fact that it can't put fans in the 5,000 capacity Atlanta Silverback Park. The Atlanta Beat, Atlanta's Women's professional team chose to build a new stadium with Kennesaw State University with capacity of just over 8,000. However, they are seeing attendance averages of roughly 4,500 and falling.
Manchester City averages 40,000 fans at home in Manchester in games that count. I don't know why an exhibition between two teams who haven't won anything lately on a neutral site that draws 33,000 fans is a bad omen. The large capacity stadium with lots of empty seats doesn't have a great ambiance but that's a fair turnout for a Wednesday night friendly on a neutral site. Check out the attendance figures for the UEFA Europa League, a tournament that has some actual rewards. 33K fans is more than AS Roma, Fulham or Juventus averaged at home so don't be so negative. The Atlanta Braves only average 30,400 fans a game so lighten up.
um, ben, are you familiar with the difference between machester united and manchester city?
i know you are.
you wouldn't be considered a professional journalist if you had no idea of the difference between the two teams before writing an article (2, actually) about a manchester city match in atlanta, right?
so you are obviously aware that manchester united is one of the top soccer clubs in the world, whereas manchester city hasn't won a league title since the late sixties.
manchester city in no way can be considered "one of the world's most recognizable soccer teams", though manchester united is.
2 different teams. only one played in atlanta last week.
just wanted to make that distinction before anyone else pointed out how horribly uneducated you seem to be on the subject of your article.
again.
so a little known, lightly regarded team from northern england played a match against a mexican team in atlanta on a week night and drew 30,000+ with little advertising, and someone at CL allows you to write TWO articles about it?
hard to figure.
and speaking of not up to snuff, the word you are looking for in the last line is probably "simply", not "cimply".
Not to pile on but the story here is that the real soccer fans stayed away to watch the MLS vs. Man U match and because the stars of these teams didn't even show up to play. The match in Houston was meaningful and was full of US stars. Of course it would sell 77k. This match was poorly marketed, meaningless and bush league. That's the story. Give us Donovan and US national team vs. Anyone and it will sell out guaranteed. Poor reporting.
You can dispute me all you want, guys.
BOTTOM LINE: the city of Atlanta says they want to host a World Cup--that isn't going to happen anytime soon after a turnout (insert excuses here) like the one at the Dome last week.
Poor marketing? Yes. High ticket prices? Maybe. Not the most attractive teams? Sure. DOESN'T MATTER
I had heard that when the Dome was built a paranoid NFL put in a lot of money on condition that the design would make it unsuitable for soccer.
The field is far too small for professional soccer in the first place.
Your tears about Atlanta never getting a World Cup game should have been shed 20 years ago when this limited purpose stadium was dropped on us.
The game was poor because of this and most soccer fans and knowledgeable journalists know that and expect a lame performance.
Visiting teams always phone it in and use the trip as a training exercise for their B squad. So a lot of people like me are disappointed with the game and the organization of the event, but you expect us to pay up anyway?
If that is the best that Atlanta can do then we do not deserve the World Cup.
Remember the farce of the Olympics? It will be a long time before the IOC do business with Atlanta again so why should FIFA be tempted?
Ben, we get it, you don't like soccer. That's fine, but a lot of people in this city/country do. You, as a journalist, SHOULD be better than this. I don't think you are, but you should be.
Mr. Bussard, the committee that is in charge of selecting venues for the World Cup matches WOULD take that criteria (poor marketing, high ticket prices, bad timing) into account when selecting sites. Do you think that the selection committee is going to look at a piece of paper with the number 33,000 on it and simply pass? It's not that simple, and that's why it takes more than two days for them to select sites. That match was a relative success, and all you're trying to do is perpetuate the idea that people in Atlanta are completely apathetic to soccer, which is really not the case.
And one last thing, the fact that we have Hartsfield-Jackson International airport is going to be the biggest factor in the selection committee's decision regarding Atlanta as a hosting city. You do realize that most people that go to World Cup matches don't live in that hosting city, right?
ben, there's a difference in "disputing" and pointing out how flawed your article is.
i mean, u clearly don't even understand the difference between manchester city and manchester united, yet u expect your opinion on soccer to matter?
you are evidently as ignorant about soccer as you have demonstrated yourself to be about basketball.
i don't follow the braves anymore, so i have no idea how far off base your braves articles are, but i can guess!
for anyone seeking a useful article on this game, you'll have to look elsewhere: http://www.ajc.com/sports/manchester-city-…
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