Mes: enero 2022

Can Atlanta support an MLS franchise? That’s the question that Arthur Blank has asked Dick Sullivan, a former Home Depot executive who previously had been the Falcons’ Executive Vice President of Marketing.

Mr. Sullivan is on leave from that post to help Mr. Blank with some of his other special projects. One such project is a due diligence effort to discover what it will take to bring the MLS to Atlanta.

Atlanta, on the surface, would seem to be a logical market for expansion. The city is home to professional teams in American football, baseball, basketball, and hockey. Atlanta is home to tens of thousands of soccer players of all ages scattered across the Metro area playing in scores of youth and amateur leagues – making for a large and lucrative soccer literate population. Not too mention, at least anecdotally, soccer parents have money. So will Atlanta be able to capitalize on the biggest growth sport in the nation?

Let’s first have a look at the Silverbacks, Atlanta’s professional USL team. The Backs are relatively well supported by the local Atlanta soccer scene. They have a slowly evolving soccer specific stadium at REMAX Greater Atlanta Stadium. By the time the fourth phase of construction is complete, the stadium will have 15,000 seats. About 10,000 shy of MLS’s target, but still not a bad venue at all. But unless MLS and USL adopt a promotion / relegation system, despite what the US Open Cup teaches us, the USL will always play second fiddle.

The real challenge in my view: the Atlanta sports fan.

Atlanta sports fans are a notoriously fickle bunch.

Whether it’s the Falcons, the Braves, or the Hawks; unless they’re winning, Atlanta’s sports fans just don’t seem to show up. The effort is too great – the hassle outweighs the benefit.

In defense of Atlanta sports fans, part of the challenge is the fact that the «city» is actually a metro area spread over 28 counties. Arthur Blank knows that taking the time to find the right stadium location; a location that will provide enough convenience to make the trip worthwhile, is paramount to success.

Put a club in Gwinnett, and you probably lose Cobb. Put it in Cobb and you most likely lose Gwinnett. Put it in either and you probably lose all of the Southside. And the tradeoffs continue with just about every scenario.

So exactly what is the right mix? Can Atlanta support an MLS franchise? I think the answer is not as easy as it seems.

I have a crazy idea. I know it’s crazy and that I probably lose credibility based on my delusion; but…

Atlanta needs two teams. Yes, I said two teams. I told you it was crazy, but hear me out.

I see no reason why a metro area that’s roughly the size (in population) of Denmark, can’t support more than one professional football club. Two teams would not dilute Atlanta’s soccer population and in fact, my hypothesis is that two teams would actually strengthen fan commitment to their respective team! I have a theory that one of the two keys to true spectator success for soccer in America, is more teams in closer proximity (the other is promotion and relegation…but that’s a subject for another beer).

Stadiums, true Soccer Specific Stadiums (SSSs), are meant to be intimate. Atlanta will not be supporting a Wembley or Stamford Bridge anytime soon, but a couple of Craven Cottages are absolutely within reason! And without the benefit of a storied history, fan/player intimacy is a critical ingredient for fostering the kind of fan support and energy you find in football all over the world.

Two clubs in stadiums central to Northside vs. Southside or Eastside vs. Westside population centers could easily see Atlanta playing host to the first true derby series in American soccer. I know Texas claims a derby between F.C. Dallas and Houston Dynamo – but come on, New York City and Washington D.C. are closer than those two Texas giants.

My idea is auspicious sure. But not completely beyond reality. London supports 13 football clubs; five of which are in the Premiership! Most true fans I know, the guys who woke up at 2:00AM to watch the National Team in Korea, would love to kit up with scarves and paint, and head out to support THEIR team – a team with some local talent – with some home grown players who got picked up through THEIR local club systems, a team with players they might see on the weekend at a movie or at a restaurant somewhere. Atlanta’s sports fans – indeed most American sports fans, simply haven’t had access to this type of scenario.

Many Americans on the fringe, whose exposure to football is the occasional European Championship or World Cup match, just don’t understand the atmosphere – the commitment – the songs – the scarves – the standing – the unity – the fact that a hundred thousand people are at a match, to watch the match, with minimal distractions.

What many Americans may not realize is this same drama takes place every Saturday and Sunday in club leagues all over Europe, Africa, South America, and Asia.

Atlanta is missing this, and Atlantans are missing out on this. Now is the time to create this atmosphere in Atlanta. To destroy our collective apathy as sports fans…to create true clubs with the kind of atmosphere surrounding them that builds a deep fan base behind a true local team. Your team.

Get your scarves ready!

FIFA is the acronym for Federation Internationale de Football association. It was founded on 21st May 1904 in the rear headquarters of the Union Francaise de sports athletiques at the rue saint Honore 229 in Paris.

The act authorizing the foundation was signed by representatives of the following Associations:

Spain-MFC Belgium-UBSSA France-USFSA Denmark-DBU Netherlands-NVB Sweden-SBF Switzerland-ASF

Uruguay was the favorite nation for hosting the first world Cup tournament for FIFA, for various reasons including the fact that they were the Gold Medal winners in Olympics in the years 1924& 1928.The first FIFA World Cup tournament was held on 18th July, 1930 at Estadio Centenario in Montevideo in Uruguay. Only teams from four European countries i.e. France, Belgium, Romania and Yugoslavia participated. The reasons ascribed were multiform, including the economic crisis faced by Europe.

Italian Soccer was chosen as the venue country for hosting the second FIFA World Cup. A qualifying round was held to select the 16 finalists. This time too the host country lifted the cup. For the first time the final match was transmitted on radio.The third FIFA World Cup was hosted by the founder nation of FIFA. Due to Austria not participating in the tournament Sweden was left without an opponent in the opening round, Uruguay showed its dissent by not participating & Argentina too had withdrawn from the championship, for this reason teams from Cuba & the Dutch East Indies were invited. This time the cup was lifted by Italy. The subsequent FIFA World Cup was canceled due to World War II, Finally they were hosted in 1950 in Brazil & Switzerland was chosen as the option for the year 1954.

The last 25 years have seen the status of football enhanced to a leading game globally. It has reached into different branches of society, commerce & politics. The game now has some 200 million active players. FIFA now has some 208 member associations; this fact makes it one of the world’s biggest & most popular sports federations.

The days are being counted as are approaching the Euro 2008 which is definitely going be the blockbuster tournament of the year. The UEFA Euro 2008 will be hosted by Switzerland and Austria. The opening match will be held on Saturday 7th June 2008 at St. Jakob-Park in Basel. Sixteen teams will battle it out in the ultimate tournament with only one goal in mind, the Euro 2008 Cup. The teams are from Switzerland, Czech Republic, Portugal. Turkey, Austria, Croatia, Germany, Poland, Netherlands, Italy. Romania, France, Greece. Sweden, Spain and Russia.

The teams qualified for the Euro 2008 tournament went through tough qualifying matches to reach to the top spots in their standings. The teams divided into seven groups, with the top two in each section going straight into the finals. The qualifying system was simple enough, but still very few sides found it to be plain sailing. Greece being the team with 31 points had to face the most humiliating defeats in their history. After Germany’s Otto Rehhagel failed to make it in the FIFA World Cup in his home country, he was then determined to make a statement in the UEFA Euro 2008 qualifiers but his team had to face a terrible defeat in his own home against Turkey in the most memorable Group C Euro 2008 qualifiers game. Even though Germany made an early goal but Turkey’s play tempo did not let Germany keep up with them.

Turkey managed to achieve the runner’s up place in the Euro 2008 qualifiers table after their final struggling match. England faced many defeats in the qualifying matches but with much struggle managed to steal one victory from Israel putting England last position in Group E of Euro 2008 qualifiers. England did recover from the early defeats in the tournament when they followed a 0-0 draw at home against F.Y.R. Macedonia with 2-0 defeat in Croatia. However, two second-half Roman Pavlyuchenko goals saw Russia make a comeback after the 2-1 defeat in Moscow which then let them only to win their remaining games against the already eliminated Israel and Andorra. Omer Golan’s late goal saw Israel beat Russia 2-1, and then handed the initiative back to Steve McClaren’s England to face Croatia for a spot at the Euro 2008 but unfortunately faced a tie against group winners Croatia. At Wembley a qualification was expected only if the match drew but they lost 3-2 making big errors during the game and let Russia move on 1-0 win against Andorra. Russia’s coach did not expect it to end this way. Other worthy matches of the Euro 2008 qualifying tournament included Denmark-Sweden tie which was finally called off when a pitch invader attacked referee Herbert Fandel for dismissing a Denmark player and awarding the away side a penalty.Don’t forget to catch live UEFA Euro 2008 tournament matches on your PCs. It isn’t worth missing it.

When it comes to school soccer programs, Portland University – a private catholic university found in Portland, Oregon – has one of the best. Founded in 1901, Portland University is the sister school to the better-known University of Notre Dame, and has been actively promoting its soccer program for 21 years.

In the time the soccer program has been in operation it has produced some notable players. One of the Alumni, 37-year-old Kasey Keller – the USA national team’s all-time leader for the position of goalkeeper – is currently active within the English Premier League, playing for fashionable London club Fulham. Another former Pilot, 22-year-old Heath Pearce signed for German Bundesliga team Hansa Rostock before the start of the 2007 season; following in the footsteps of two other former Pilots Conor Casey and Steve Cherundolo who also played in Germany. Other players have made their mark in professional teams in the USA, Denmark and Greece.

But it’s not just the Portland players who have made an impact; Clive Charles was appointed Pilots head coach in 1986, and after ten years of leading the team and earning the respect of the soccer world became the US Olympic team coach in 1996.

Prior to the start of the current season, the Pilots men’s team was polled to finish tied-fourth in the season in the West Coast Conference in the 2007 WCC preseason coaches poll, and their performances during the season so far suggest that they will at least achieve that position.

There is also an active women’s soccer program at Portland, which was established in 1989, when men’s coach Clive Charles was appointed to run the women’s team. In 1992 Charles pulled off a rare feat when he got both his men’s and women’s teams to the NCAA play-offs. His teams finished the season as number one ranked men’s team and number three ranked women’s team, helping to cement Charles reputation as a top-class coach. The women’s team were winners of the NCAA Women’s soccer championship in 2005 and are currently ranked third in the four major soccer polls; The National Soccer Coaches Association of America (NSSAA), Soccer America, Soccer Buzz and SoccerTimes all place the Pilots behind Santa Clara and Stanford.

If you are a soccer fan and you are tempted to come to watch either of the Pilots soccer teams in action, look to secure a room at a hotel in Portland well in advance as around game days they tend to get full of family, friends and fans!