As if Arthur Blank hadn’t thrown enough money into the infrastructure of Soccer Capital, U.S.A. this week, Atlanta United just announced that the club is nearly doubling the size of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Training Ground thanks to a robust $23 million investment.
The 20,000 square foot, two-story expansion is set to provide a variety of improvements to the club as a whole, elevating an already-model training center further into a state of the art facility. The news comes on the back of the groundbreaking of the Arthur M. Blank U.S. Soccer National Training Center down in Trilith, Georgia on Monday – which was also made possible thanks to a $50 million donation by Uncle Arthur.
The improvements to Atlanta United’s training ground include a dedicated space of 4,000 square feet for the Academy and Atlanta United 2, complete with locker rooms, a new gym, and office space for development personnel. The Academy will also receive a specific classroom for academic studies while the young players work towards their high school diploma. There will also be two new digital content studios and a specific press conference room – with space for working media. The content studios will include a podcasting and esports studio and the ability for the team to create a variety of content, like productions of matches at the training ground.
The upgrade also includes renovations to what’s referred to as the Truist Pavilion, which is typically where visiting teams (like the recent USWNT visit, or last year’s Cruz Azul visit) set up shop. The top floor will be redesigned, while the locker rooms on the bottom floor will be upgraded entirely.
Here is what Arthur Blank had to say about the expansion.
“When we launched Atlanta United, we set out to ensure the club had everything it needed to
be successful, and part of that was to have a state-of-the-art training facility to serve as the
club’s home,” said Arthur M. Blank, Owner and Chairman, Atlanta United. “At its opening,
Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Training Ground was instantly the gold standard of MLS
training facilities and has been routinely emulated by expansion teams that have since joined
the league. Our intention has always been to further develop the campus in Marietta and that
time has arrived. This evolution of the Training Ground is a credit to all our soccer people and
the broader organization that have been part of driving the growth and development of our
soccer assets and our position in the global soccer universe.”
Garth Lagerway also had a few choice words for what this means for Atlanta United as a whole.
“Considering the tremendous momentum behind MLS and soccer in Atlanta, and ahead of
some of the world’s most prestigious international tournaments coming to the United States in the next few years, we have a generational opportunity to create a lasting impact on the sport
of soccer in our region,” Atlanta United President and CEO Garth Lagerwey said. “This
investment will make Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Training Ground one of the premier
soccer facilities in the world, boasting state-of-the-art amenities for our players and the
flexibility to host several teams on campus at once. We consider this another significant step
for Atlanta becoming the epicenter of soccer in North America.”
Ultimately, the entire two story addition is a massive gain for the first team, too. The space that was otherwise filled with various club assets, like the aforementioned Academy and 2’s personnel, will be open for other improvements. The club specifically noted “It will also enable the club to dedicate more
space in the existing structure to First Team player health and well-being, notably converting
areas to aid in recovery, environmental adaptation and cognitive training.”
The expansion brings the total investment into Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Training Ground up to a whopping $85 million dollars, and it’s expected to be completed by summer of 2025.
What’re your thoughts? Be sure to let us know in the comments. Dolla dolla bills, y’all.
Blank has proven he is willing to spend money on the team. I just wish more of that could go towards acquiring better talent, but that’s one area MLSA doesn’t allow him to invest like he would like.
I’d really be interested in how other soccer clubs view our facilities, and where those facilities rank in various relevant measures.
It seems from my spot as a fan that our facilities are top 2 – 3 in the league, but I wonder. Mainly because in the recent poll of NFL players, the Benz facilities did not rate near the top of the league at all. They were squarely in the middle.
Sounds like Uncle Arthur can afford to operate 1-3 potential US Open cup games at the Benz each year, even at a potential loss.
The impact Arthur Blank is having on the sport and city is incredible. Just hope we all appreciate him while we have him.
Bigger news:
MLS clubs voted, and just need the MLSPA to agree to, major roster rule changes.
What this means for Atlanta unless they are modified:
In the summer, Almada (or his replacement) and GG will be our only 2 DPs, and we will be given an extra $2m in GAM, some of which will be used to buy down Gregersen, and some will be left over to use elsewhere. We will also have 4 U22 slots available (Cue Boca cheering). Alternatively (and I don’t think Garth will go this route) we could have 3 DPs still, 3 U22s, and no bonus GAM.
We will also be able to convert more money from sales into GAM (So if we sell Wiley or someone, doesn’t apply to DPs like Almada)
We will also be allowed 2 contract buyouts per year, instead of 1.
we can buyout Etienne and go after U22 winger
At ~600k salary, I bet we could offload him to another team willing to give him a chance. But I wouldn’t hate that. I looked it up, we over tripled his pay when he came here; and signed him through 2025.
I really can’t figure out how he had 9G/6A at Columbus in 2022. It just doesn’t match anything we’ve seen from him. Did he get the “big” contract and just switch off?
He played over 1000 minutes in 2023 and got 1 whole assist. It feels like a winger could get more assists by accident…
I actually think he might go for the alternate route, at least in the longterm. He’s stated before that Saba (now Gregersen) were set as the 3rd DP to provide an option to allow Almada to stay as our main DP, until we could get down to 1 U22. We’ve also already seen progress towards getting rid of U22s with Mosquera becoming the main U22, and all of E Lopez, Ibarra, and Sosa being moved out. I think the idea was that once we were completely down to 1 U22 (since Ibarra and Sosa aren’t technically off the books yet), a 3rd full DP would be brought in. Now that we don’t have to do that and can have 3 U22s, I think that 3rd DP happens sooner, perhaps even this summer. The only reason I think he doesn’t do that is if he thinks the 2m GAM is more useful, because he’s already shown he’s more interested in bringing in prime age players and not young ones.
We’ll have to wait and see, but I think he views max TAM players as generally on par with DPs, so being able to get 2 high-xAM players will probably be more attractive to him, but who knows?
I don’t think he’s had the opportunity to show us one way or the other, given that he hasn’t ever had the room from the roster rules to buy a full DP other than Giakoumakis. I mean yes technically he does but at least from what he said last July he’s trying to avoid putting us in a situation where Almada aging out of the young DP spot but staying doesn’t screw us over. But that’s fair, maybe 2 max TAMs would be more appealing than one big DP.
Just dropped by to note this. Great news for ambitious clubs.
W owners, as always
really awesome to hear of the continued investment. we’ve gone from “atlanta will never be a soccer town” to thriving youth programs, mls, state of the art facilities, copa america, world cup, she believes, us national team hq…just really cool to see!