Atlanta United opens multimillion expansion to training ground

Atlanta United unveiled its $25 million expansion of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Training Ground in a special ceremony on Tuesday. The expansion increases the facility’s size to 50,000 square feet and adds dedicated spaces for Atlanta United 2, the Academy, and content creation.

“Today is a celebration of our continued growth and dedication to the sport of soccer, and what Atlanta United represents,” said Arthur M. Blank, Owner and Chairman, Blank Family of Businesses. “From the very beginning, our vision was to build something extraordinary. None of this would be possible without the City of Marietta for being exceptional partners and the home of our training ground since day one, and now with these updates, we take another step forward together. This expansion reflects our commitment to the game, the city, and in creating a best-in-class environment for our players, associates, fans, and community partners.”

The first floor features a professional gym dedicated to Atlanta United 2 and the Academy that is completely separate from the first team. The space is complete with exercise equipment, physiotherapy beds, and an ice bath/hot tub. Directly across the hall are the player development offices for the second team and academy staff. These will be the parts of the facility that are rented out to national teams and other clubs when they are in town for events such as the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup.

“It wasn’t the reason that we did this, but it definitely was thought about,” said Chief Business Officer Sarah Kate “Skate” Noftsinger. “Because what makes this so special is our business operations can continue through the World Cup, even when you have a country here or federation here using this as their home base.”

The expansion also added a state-of-the-art creative hub for all of the club’s digital content production. The crown jewel, Studio 17, is a large broadcast/television studio equipped with a large LED screen and three smaller rotating screens. In addition, there is a photography studio, a soundproofed podcast studio, and a control room.

Noftsinger called it “Absolutely one of the best content studios in MLS.”

Speaking with several club staff involved with content creation, there is abounding excitement for the potential of these modern spaces. Now they say the next steps are planning how they want to use it to step up their content production as part of what Noftsinger referred to as a “fan first approach.”

“It’s going to take a bit of time,” Noftsinger said. “You want to ramp up, you want to make sure that the lights turn on, that you understand what all capabilities are, and then we also need to make sure we understand what our fans want and our fans need well before they know it, so over the next few months, it’ll be a lot of ideation.”

The expansion also includes a press conference room, where future post-training media availabilities will take place.

More changes will be coming in the offseason as well, with areas being repurposed into space for first team recovery, environmental adaptation, and video review. Furthermore, there are plans to convert office space into classrooms for its young players.

“It is essential for our high school-age players,” said Senior Vice President of Strategy Dimitrios Efstathiou. “We have a strong partnership with Atlanta International School, where we make sure that all of our high school-age players are getting GEDs while they’re training with us. Having to train here in the morning, get in a car, get in a bus, and drive to school is not easy, so they can step out, rinse off from their training in the morning, and go straight into the classroom at our facility.”