‘Atlanta has always produced:’ Arthur Blank, Jessica Berman detail Atlanta NWSL Expansion

PHOTO: Atlanta NWSL

The National Women’s Soccer League has awarded an Atlanta expansion team which will begin playing in 2028. The new team — the league’s 17th club — will be owned entirely by Home Depot co-founder and sports industry giant Arthur M. Blank.

At a press conference on Monday, Blank said that the changes in ownership groups across the league over the last three years was key to spurring his decision to move forward with his bid. “Now we feel in alignment with the league and with the owners in terms of their aspirations in bringing women’s soccer to the next level,” he said.

Blank’s AMB Sports and Entertainment (AMBSE) will operate the NWSL side. It also operates the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons, MLS’s Atlanta United and Atlanta Drive Golf Club. At the press conference, NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman said that AMBSE “is really best in class and is really the admiration of the entire industry.” She said the company “worked for the last three years with us to bring this to fruition.”

Per The Athletic, the expansion fee for the NWSL side is a record $165 million, significantly higher than fees paid by other recently added clubs Denver ($110 million) and Boston ($53 million). AMBSE will be building new facilities, including training grounds, for the NWSL side. Blank said that he would invest over $20 million for facilities.

Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which is the home of Atlanta United and the Atlanta Falcons, will host the NWSL club. Per the club’s website, “A new curtain system will be deployed, creating a more intimate setting focused on the lower bowl of the stadium. The exact seating configuration is still being determined.”

The modified venue is expected to have a capacity around 28,000. Blank said that he hopes that the capacity would eventually be increased from that point. It won’t be the first NWSL team to share a stadium with an NFL team; the Seattle Reign calls Lumen Field its home, and the Boston Legacy will play its first year at Gillette Stadium.

One of the keys for the NWSL to officially award the expansion club was to ensure that the team would be given adequate priority in the stadium. “We had to make sure that, given the demand on our building here, … that we could do justice, competitively, to an NWSL schedule,” Blank said. “It made sense for our players and so we’re satisfied we can do that. It was not easy.”

Blank said similar concerns were raised before he launched Atlanta United in 2017, and cited the success of that launch as reason to believe in his new NWSL side. He added that the stadium is flipped overnight 40 times a year for back-to-back events.

The league also announced the NWSL Foundation, for which the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation will “provide seed funding.” The foundation will “focus on advancing research and innovation in women’s sports, with an emphasis on female athlete health and performance.”

The field at Mercedes-Benz stadium is artificial turf, which is associated with higher injury for athletes than natural grass. “There’s a ton of work to do to research and analyze the best playing surfaces for soccer and for female soccer players in particular,” Berman said. “And it will be one of the components that we work on as part of the philanthropic grant.”

Blank also donated $50 million to U.S. Soccer to build the first National Training Center and Headquarters in Atlanta. The construction process began in April 2024. Blank said his connection to the federation was key in accelerating his decision to move forward with the NWSL bid.

The NWSL won’t be the first professional women’s soccer team in Atlanta. The city was home to the Atlanta Beat, which played in Women’s Professional Soccer league (WPS) in 2010 and 2011 and in Women’s United Soccer Association (WUSA) from 2001 to 2003. Berman said that even though the NWSL, which played its first season in 2013, has never had a team in Atlanta, the league has had strong viewership there.

Blank said he operates under the adage, If you build it, they will come. He’s confident fans will support the team. “We just have to make sure the facility is done correctly, facilities for our players are done correctly, make sure they’re treated with the right degree of respect and elegance in every way that we can,” he said. “Atlanta has always produced. It’ll produce again. I’m quite certain of that.”

The name and branding of the new club is undecided. “We’re going to spend time with our fans understanding the kind of branding that’s really important to them, what they can identify with, what they feel strongly about supporting,” Blank said.

The league recently had a branding snafu when the name and identity of the new Boston expansion side was widely panned. The team, now the Boston Legacy, eventually launched an entirely new name and brand.

The FAQ page of the organization’s website suggests that the team will lean into the women’s sports marketing trope of inspiring young girls. “Numerous young women in Atlanta will have the opportunity to see the best women’s talent in the world chase their professional dreams and be inspired by them right here in Atlanta,” the site says. However, the club does not commit to looking for “female leadership,” stating, “We will be looking for the best possible talent and culture fit we can find to fill roles from top to bottom in the club. We expect there will be many great leaders and staff that will want to be part of what we are going to build for NWSL.”

As of June 3, 13 NWSL players hailed from Georgia, including Croix Bethune, Emily Sonnett, Ella Stevens, Jane Campbell, Riley Jackson and Macey Hodge. Hal Hershfelt moved to the state in high school. NWSL expansion sides often recruit homegrown players; Christen Press was the first player signed by Angel City, Alex Morgan joined the San Diego Wave for its first season and Ally Watt is slated to join the Denver Summit for its inaugural season.

In September, Berman announced that the NWSL would change its expansion process. It used to set start and end dates for interested groups to submit bids and has shifted to an ongoing, flexible process. The Atlanta club is the first to be revealed since the new rolling process was announced. “It is our intention to admit team 18 and we are targeting a 2028 launch,” Berman said, adding that expansion will likely be “going on in the background” for a while.