The night before the 2018 MLS All-Star game in Atlanta, commissioner Don Garber asked Atlanta United owner Arthur Blank for a favor.



The two executives were at dinner with other MLS owners and Garber had hoped that Blank, also owner of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons, would share some of the key reasons behind the early success of Atlanta United.



“I said ‘Don, I don’t want to come across as a know-it-all,” Blank told The Athletic in his Atlanta office last week. “It’s just not who I am. I apologized probably five times after dinner, but the commissioner’s asked me to share. The beauty of what we’ve done here, I think you can do it at any place.”



In spite of that moment of self-effacement, the 77-year-old entrepreneur knew that bringing an MLS club to Atlanta in 2017 would be a success. He believed that the world’s game would thrive alongside established NFL, MLB and NBA franchises in the...