Thursday, February 23, 2006

Atlanta Silverbacks building 15,000-seat soccer stadium. Could MLS come calling?

Earlier this week, the Atlanta Silverbacks announced their plan to complete a 15,000-seat soccer stadium. Here is what the Silverbakcs have to say about the plan:

The four-phase construction project will transform the park into the state’s finest soccer facility. The first phase began two years ago when the Silverbacks built two artificial turf fields and one grass field, state-of-the-art lighting and drainage systems, and parking. The rest of the recently unveiled plans call for three additional phases of construction: the second phase (scheduled to open June 3) will include a 3,000-seat stadium and a bar/restaurant; the third phase will include the expansion of the stadium to 7,500 seats, the addition of the health club and all its amenities, along with the relocation of the administrative headquarters for the Atlanta Silverbacks; the fourth phase calls for the addition of an upper deck that will increase the total capacity to 15,000-seats. The Atlanta Silverbacks Men and Women will play all their home games at the new stadium in the upcoming season.


This is a very ambitious plan, but if they complete it, I wonder what management over at MLS would think about it. Could Atlanta become the first USL team invited to play in MLS?

If the league were serious about the Atlanta market, this would make complete sense. You have a team with strong local ties and history, plus they already have a stadium. It is almost too much of a dream come true.

I'm sure there at lots of other issues that would need to be worked out, but it would seem that the biggest one, where will the team play, will already be solved.

Who knows, this might be the starting of a great formal alliance between MLS and USL. It might even result in one of the sanest decisions MLS could make, bringing the Raging Rhinos into the league.

2 Comments:

Blogger Trevor said...

Mike,
You have no way to contact you....Could you include us on your Blogroll: ussoccerblog.com
Thanks...I'll put you on ours if you are interested.

12:57 PM  
Blogger Mike H said...

Sure thing. I guess I should put an email address somewhere on this page. Might be of use.

4:42 PM  

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