James May June 2024 web - Flipbook - Page 16
The Atlanta Braves and their Battery Atlanta development have become
the envy of the sporting world with
owners across the nation attempting
to emulate the success, both on and
off the field, that the partnership has
produced since opening in 2017. The
Battery hosts more than 10 million visitors a year, many coming from across
“Braves Country.” The development is
anchored by the Omni Hotel, a favorite
for Braves fans visiting from outside the
city with its ballpark views and central
position right next to the stadium. And
in the summer of 2025 Truist Park will
host the MLB All-Star Game, bringing
the sport’s biggest stars to the South for
a makeup of the game that was controversially cancelled in 2021 over the
state’s new voting laws.
When it was announced that Arthur Blank was going to bring a Major
League Soccer franchise to the city in
2017, many were skeptical that soccer
could work in the football-obsessed
South. How wrong they were, as
Atlanta United jumped to the top 10 in
world soccer attendance and brought
home its first title the following
season. The team’s success sparked
a futbol-frenzy, as the city submitted
a successful bid to host some of the
2026 FIFA World Cup and later secured
the new headquarters for the U.S.
Soccer Federation at a site to be built
out in Fayette County south of Atlanta.
The Arthur M. Blank National Training
Center, named after the Home Depot
co-founder thanks to his $50 million donation, will host all 27 National Teams
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at its sprawling Fayette County facility.
That partnership is already paying
dividends. It is in the form of the
SheBelieves Cup hosting U.S. Women’s
National Team matches in Atlanta and
the Men’s National Team planning to
play a series of exhibition matches in
its new hometown in the run up to the
most-watched sporting event in the
world-- the World Cup.
Atlanta will host eight matches
in the 2026 edition of the World Cup,
drawing hundreds of thousands of
tourists and billions of eyeballs to an
event ten times more popular than the
Super Bowl globally. Impact analysis
by Boston Consulting Group projects
$415 million in net economic benefit
for Atlanta, and even more staggering
is that approximately 50 percent of the
entire world watched the 2022 edition
of the tournament. Despite already
securing a massive win in scoring
hosting duties city officials aren’t
resting on their laurels. They continue
to lobby to host the broadcast center
for the tournament, which would bring
thousands of international journalists
