By RYAN TOLMICH
Major League Soccer’s Atlanta franchise may remain a few years away from taking the field, but the club is already moving towards announcing its official name.
The Atlanta Journal‑Constitution reported Monday that team owner Arthur Blank expects to unveil the team’s name before the Gold Cup semifinals are played at the Georgia Dome on July 22.
MLS announced the league’s expansion into Atlanta in April 2014. The team is set to play at the yet-to-be-named Atlanta Stadium, which the club will share with Blank’s NFL team, the Atlanta Falcons.
As of now, the Atlanta franchise, which hired former U.S. Men’s National Team captain Carlos Bocanegra as technical director in March, is expected to begin play in 2017.
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What would you name the Atlanta expansion team? What do you expect to hear from the team in 2015?
Share your thoughts below.
I know! Real Atlanta. Or Atlanta UniteD. Or Atlanta FC. Or AC Atlanta. Or Sporting Atlanta. Or just find a european name and copy it!! Isn’t that what they always do??
Real Salt Lake hahaha OK! Sporting KC lol
Atlanta Athletic FC or Delta Atlanta United
Atlanta Legion
Atlanta Empire
MLS Atlanta wanna be Silverbacks
But they can’t and never will be. We have a 20 year tradition already.
Look up the book “Guerrilla Soccer” on Amazon to learn all about the history of ATL’s real club.
1837 Atlanta
Frankly, I don’t give a damn.
I was literally two seconds from suggesting Atlanta Falcons FC and Atlanta Falcons SC. And i was going to preface it by stating i doubt anyone would agree. But scrolled down one last post,and it was the same suggestion. So at least 2 of us see same mascot name colors etc as a VERY GOOD marketing strategy. On a few levels this can be positive. Remember the 60’s and 70’s? St. Louis Cardinals baseball and football? Same colors. Blank can bring a TRUE AND REAL sense of attention to the FC and SC debate. Why not,since this is America and MLS wants to enlarge its foot print here and become a true MAJOR LEAGUE IN WORLD CLUB SOCCER? As a sign of respect acknowledge NFL as home of American football and MLS home of American soccer. Emphasize the distinction. Talk about soccer in NFL circles and areas of influence,(Arhur Blank) and force the Football snobs to hear about the intense skill fitness grit etc of Major League Soccer. Try to win some converts. Heck i love NFL games. The Texans. But Dynamo will always be and MLS soccer will always be first with me. BUT…. WHATS wrong with several thousand possible new converts per game for every MLS city with an NFL team also. Great platform for Blank to promote his new product. Press conference with reps from both teams. Blank unveils New Logo for NFL Falcons with Atlanta Falcons F.C. And Blank becomes first American Football team in modern times to own both in one country with two Major League franchises and designate and explain the reasons WHY every NFL fan SHOULD also be an MLS fan. Then unveil new MLS team with Atlanta Falcons S.C. In same killer color scheme as NFL Falcons. And sell a heck a,bunch of merch for both??? Just sayin.
Intreging idea, its like the idea that someone can be a fan of all of a college or club’s teams . pretty sure that they found that there is less crossover fans in NE and Seattle than expected but its a great path to explore , going to have to fill those seats anyways!
European teams use the club for multiple sports, so why not in the US? The odd thing though is that the basketball team for Barcelona is…FC Barcelona. Atlanta Falcons SC makes sense to me. #OneClub
OUTKAST FC
Yes!
I know MLS and Atlanta will let us down with the team name,logo and uniform colors but hopefully they have learn from mistakes of MLS 1.0
Possible names that I have seen around online are firebirds,black hearts,terminus, legion,empire and phoenix.
What do I think, I say Atlanta legion or Atlanta colony.
By naming the team legion or colony, you can add the mascot in the logo, like a firebird or black heart. There is no need to name the team Atlanta firebirds or blackhearts, just put the mascot in the logo and that would be perfect. Many MLS teams have done it wrong, just name the team nicely and add the mascot in the logo, what’s so hard about that.
I would love Atlanta empire but MLS is keeping that one for New York once red bull rebrand, and I would be surprised if MLS let’s Atlanta get the empire name.
But I say go for Atlanta legion or Atlanta colony, with a firebird, phoenix bird or blackheart in the logo. Just don’t F-up and keep it simple and smooth. Don’t give us, Columbus crew or red bull type of names and don’t make an ugly logo like sounders or earthquakes. We know, everything is not perfect 🙂 but it could be.
I forgot to mention, for all new expansion teams and MLS 1.0 teams, they should take a look at Diego guevera Miami, and M.Willis New England revolution.
MLS should hire those 2 to make all MLS teams unis and logos.
An announcement about a POSSIBLE announcement! I can’t wait till the announcement of the actual announcement.
So we’re going to do this routine again?
NFL owner, NFL stadium. and a turf field.
All the success the league has had in Seattle made them think that this was okay again.
You’re more likely to end up with a Bob Kraft than a Roth/Hanauer/Allen
Sherman SC
I am going to have an announcement coming January 18th, 2019.
Blank should go ALL IN with the club feel. Change the name of both teams to be Atlanta Falcons FC (AFFC). For the NFL mostly FC would be dropped, but could be used appropriately.
They he could cross promote – ambiguously promote etc.
Atlanta Flyers. Kakaw!!!!
Atlanta Athletic SC
Please don’t go with Atlanta FC.
Atlanta Falconers
All I can think of is that SNL sketch! Pair that with “Miami Vice” for Beckham’s team and we have a new, low-brow paradigm in MLS naming.
Peach Tree SC
Since we are talking about Arthur Blank’s team, how about Altanta Depot FC
Nah this is MLS. It’ll be more blatant.
Home Depot FC or The Atlanta Home Depots.
Dopey orange uniforms and “sister clubs” all over the world
Yep. And biased refs helping them out in Open Cup showdowns with NASL clubs.
But we’ll overcome that and humiliate them anyways.
I assume that’s a joke since the NASL Atlanta team will cease to exist once Atlanta has a team in MLS.
The joke, my slow armed friend, will be on you. Wait, see, and feel stupid while we survive and thrive.
Atlanta Battalion FC
Olympic Atlanta FC. Done.
Chupacabra.
Atlanta Peaches FC
Since Fire is taken… Atlanta Burn?
Too soon?
It didn’t work for Dallas… but it could in Atlanta.
Recent expansions are staying away from mascot type names cica 1990’s. So Atlanta FC, Atlanta United, or something similar may be more likely.
Crap FC