Just over three months after the City of Marietta purchased a 34-acre plot of land originally set aside for an IKEA store, AMB Sports and Entertainment could be poised to buy it for NWSL Atlanta’s training ground and headquarters.
According to the Marietta Daily Journal, Marietta mayor Steve Tumlin revealed Wednesday morning that the city’s council will hold a vote on an offer from AMB to buy the Franklin Gateway site, just over a half-mile from the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Training Ground.
According to the City of Marietta’s website, a special session is scheduled for 5:15 p.m. Thursday “to approve a Memorandum of Understanding” between AMB and the city for AMB to purchase the lot at 1019 and 1033 Franklin Gateway. As part of the deal, the city would buy 866 and 876 Franklin Gateway, across from the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Training Ground.
“Tomorrow night, (Arthur) Blank and Atlanta United are making an offer to us (and) we’re gonna vote on a contract,” Tumlin said on Wednesday, per the MDJ’s Hunter Riggall. “They’re gonna build the greatest facility that empowers women…It’s going to bring a lot of grace to (Franklin Gateway).”
While AMB said in December that it was in talks with several parties about where the NWSL Atlanta team would train, Marietta’s approach has been the most public of those discussions. With Atlanta United’s existing presence just down the road, the Franklin Gateway site would be a natural location.
“Now we’ll start with the path of asking Atlanta United what we can do, how they can use this piece of property and we’ll work with them. Now that we own the property, it’s full speed ahead,” said Tumlin said back in December.
The vote comes just over three weeks after AMB announced that Aflac would be the team’s inaugural front-of-kit sponsor, part of a wide-ranging seven-year, $28 million agreement that is the largest of its kind in women’s sports.
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