Atlanta United: Money helps, but sensible spending more significant

Atlanta United are changing the MLS game. The amount of money they have invested is helpful. But the quality of their spending is so much more significant.

The rise and rise of Atlanta United is remarkable. When Arthur Blank, longtime Atlanta Falcons owner, announced that he was going to invest heavily in an MLS franchise in the city of Atlanta, building a fully-fledged stadium that the Falcons and soccer team would share, there was a certain degree of trepidation.

This was a completely new venture. It had never been seen before and no one really knew how it would play out.

Now, four years later, Atlanta are the elite franchise in MLS, won the MLS Cup in only their second season, and are very much looking to build on their early success, not rest on their laurels. The rest of MLS must now play catch up.

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What has been crucial to Atlanta’s sensational birth and blossoming has been the investment of Blank as owner. Being able to build a crafted stadium that can house 70,000 fans. Being able to attract Darren Eales and Tata Martino, two world-class individuals that are highly regarded in global football. Being able to immediately spend $13 million on two stars to build the team around. This is the freedom that Blank’s wallet afforded Atlanta.

It has often been thrown at the Five Stripes that they have bought their success. Often likened to Manchester City, they are the best team in the league because they are also the most expensive — in terms of wages, that’s not true whatsoever, but Atlanta, like Toronto FC before them, can sign players for fees that other organisations could only dream of.

But that is selling short their organisational greatness. The Bank of Blank is integral to their sensational growth, but they have also spent phenomenally smartly as well, executing a business plan and process that, while demanding significant up-front funds, has a long-term sustainability element to it.

Signing Miguel Almiron for a reported $8 million, for instance, is a major outlay for many MLS teams. But Atlanta will make that back and then some when they sell him this offseason — a fee as high as $30 million has been reported, although that figure is very much in the air. The same will go for the likes of Josef Martinez and even Ezequiel Barco, if he can sort out his attitude and play well enough to attract European suitors.

And the success that Atlanta have enjoyed early on has put bums on seats and increased ticket revenue far beyond any other MLS team. Atlanta are working in a different financial stratosphere to their rivals, partly because they started with more but primarily because what they did have, they spent sensibly and constructively. They may have had a lot to invest, but very little of it was wasted nonetheless.

Atlanta United are the model franchise that others are beginning to copy. They have set the standard for their rivals. The money they have helped them get to this point. But the way they have spent it is so much more significant.