You’d be forgiven for thinking the announcement of the Atlanta Major League Soccer team came out of nowhere. After all, what’s soccer in the south but an afterthought, something for the locals to get irritated about every four years when the World Cup comes around?
Every soccer pundit and writer in the country talked for months ahead of the announcement how bad of an idea it was for MLS to come to the city. Besides the usual talk of “nobody will support it” and “Atlanta is a terrible sports town,” there was the question of history. How does anyone know if soccer will make it, much less thrive?