As ticket sales surpassed 46,500 for Saturday’s SheBelieves Cup at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, U.S. women’s national team players Abby Dahlkemper and Sam Coffey said Thursday that they think it’s just a matter of time before Atlanta has a professional women’s soccer team.
Atlanta is the largest market in the country without a women’s team in either the NWSL or USL, whose women’s league will start its inaugural season in August. Roswell is being targeted as a future home by the USL.
“I think it’ll happen soon,” Dahlkemper, who plays for San Diego in the NWSL, said Thursday.
Dahlkemper and Coffey, who plays for Portland in the NWSL, said they think that a combination of factors show that the city could support a team. Those include the ticket sales for Saturday’s doubleheader, which features the U.S. women’s team playing Japan, followed by Canada playing Brazil, as well as U.S. Soccer’s decision to move its headquarters from Chicago to Fayette County and to build a new national training center.
Ticket sales for the SheBelieves Cup are on pace to set a record for a friendly played by the U.S. women’s national team. The most tickets sold and distributed in the history of the U.S. women’s soccer team for a non-Olympic, non-World Cup match is 49,504, set Aug. 29, 2019, for a match against Portugal in Philadelphia.
“I think it would be a great market for one, obviously with Atlanta United here,” Coffey said. “And now with U.S. Soccer starting to plant some roots here, I think it would be a great place to bring a team. It’s an amazing city.
Atlanta United has led MLS in attendance each of the past seven seasons and is on top again this season, with an average of 50,961 tickets sold and distributed. Atlanta United, owned by Arthur Blank, would seem the natural business to start an NWSL team. The franchise has committed to helping the U.S. Soccer Federation grow girls’ women’s soccer, but not to starting its own franchise in the NWSL or USL.
The owners of MLS teams Portland, Houston and Orlando own NWSL teams. In addition to San Diego, other NWSL teams are the KC Current, Chicago Red Stars, North Carolina Courage (Raleigh), Washington Spirit, Gotham (New York/New Jersey), Racing Louisville, Bay FC (San Francisco), Utah Royals and Angel City (Los Angeles).
USL Super League teams scheduled to begin play in 2024 are in the following markets: Brooklyn, New York; Charlotte, North Carolina; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Dallas-Fort Worth; Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Indianapolis; Jacksonville, Florida; Lexington, Kentucky; Madison, Wisconsin; Oakland, California; Palm Beach, Florida; Phoenix; Spokane, Washington; the Tampa Bay area; Tucson, Arizona; and Washington, D.C.
“Having 45,000 tickets sold for this game speaks volumes to the amount of interest in women’s soccer here in Atlanta,” Dahlkemper said. “Hopefully, in the future, we’ll begin to see the, it continue to grow.”
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