To trace AUFC fandom’s present roots we have to rewind to 1967. Concurrent with the Vietnam War, Black Freedom Struggle, and segregationist Lestor Maddox’s election as governor, the Atlanta Chiefs became the city’s first modern professional soccer team. The Chiefs joined the budding National Professional Soccer League which would later become the North American Soccer League (NASL). Playing at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium with the Falcons and Braves, the Chiefs put forth an excellent team on the field —beating the English champions Manchester City twice in 1968 and winning the inaugural NASL championship. It was off the professional pitch, however, where the Chiefs provided a lasting contribution to Atlantan society.

Today’s soccer fandom is in part due to the work of the Chiefs’ first coach, Welshman Phil Woosnam. Woosnam realized that for a new franchise and a new league, the players and team were themselves responsible for drumming up fan engagement. He argued: “The whole problem of soccer in this country goes deeper than playing a few professional games. You don’t start with pro soccer and wind up with eight-year-olds playing soccer in grammar school. You start with the eight-year-olds and end with highly competent professional teams” (Wangerin, 2006, p. 143). Woosnam did just this for Georgian soccer by using the Chiefs’ players as soccer instructors across the city and state.

Even though the franchise shuttered in 1984, the Chiefs were the catalyst for youth soccer in Georgia. Starting from scratch in the 1960s, Georgia now has roughly 86,000 youth and 5,000 amateur adult players with the majority of these players concentrated in Atlanta (Brett, 2018). We have every reason to believe the Chiefs were large contributors to this development.

Woosnam’s vision of a soccer future came to fruition on the youth level. But after 1984, the now-grown youth of the 1960s and their children didn’t have a top-level team to support. AUFC filled this void. AUFC management didn’t have to start from scratch when marketing their new team. Soccer was already an established part of the grassroots Atlanta community, thanks to the earlier efforts on the part of the Chiefs’ franchise.

The brief rise and fall of the Atlanta Chiefs was as much about the level of support for professional soccer and the inability to run a profitable franchise as it was a changing historical context. While Atlanta experienced a major population boom during the 1950s, by 1970 the tides began to change — largely because of race relations. In 1970, there were about 240,000 whites in the city’s boundaries (US Census, 1970). In 1980, there were 137,000 (US Census, 1980). During this same period, the black population grew slowly, from 240,000 to 280,000 (US Census, 1970, 1980). According to Kevin Kruse (2005) and other Atlantan historians (Hobson, 2017), the cause for the white population change was linked to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and the desegregation of the city. Facing social change, white Atlantans sought to physically move away from an integrated city rather than co-exist with black Atlantans. This migration was termed white flight.

Over the past decade or so, the outward flow of Atlantans has been reversed. Now, more than ever, the city’s urban core is home to new and transplanted residents. Metropolitan Atlanta had the fourth fastest population growth in the United States from 2017 to 2018 (Atlanta Regional Commission, 2019). Since 2010, Fulton County (the team’s home) has added 90,000 residents, pushing its population over one million (US Census, 2010; American Community Survey, 2017). Many of these new residents are non-native Atlantans. Of the county’s population, 40% were born out of state and 12.7% were born internationally (American Community Survey, 2017).

AUFC imagery in a local bar

After winning the rights to their franchise in 2014, Atlanta’s management set out to appeal to newcomers seeking a connection to the city. AUFC imagines an Atlanta where fans with diverse racial, economic, sexual orientations and backgrounds are accepted within the confines of the stadium and AUFC fandom (the realities of this unity are another story). According to Nicholas D. Theodorakis and colleagues (2012), the team is onto something. They argue city transplants have a need to belong in their new city and “sport fandom is a social activity” which presumably provides such connection (p. 27). In some cases, supporting a nascent soccer team is seemingly easier than trying to back Atlanta’s other long-established sports. Many transplants have sporting affiliations from their previous locales. Soccer, though, lacks a hegemonic history in the United States. New Atlantans are more likely to carry over their Yankees or Bucs affiliations than their Red Bulls or Rowdies. Supporting AUFC is thus a vector for transplants trying to make their new city home.

As Atlanta United sets out to win their second MLS title, fans will continue to be a key component of its narrative. From tailgating in the Gulch to the flags of the supporters section, the team’s audience is built on more than novel fandom. Atlanta United has connected to a history of soccer in the city and harnesses the support of new, transplanted Atlantans. In the process, Atlanta has emerged as Major League Soccer’s model expansion city, one which sets the standard for the ever growing league.

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References:

Bogert, Tom (2019, April 16). Atlanta United attendance ranked Top 10 in world, MLS is 8th among league. https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2019/04/16/atlanta-united-attendance-ranked-top-10-world-mls-8th-among-leagues.

Brett, Jennifer. (2019, May 6). Soccer Soars as a Spectator Sport, but What about Youth Play? The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. https://www.ajc.com/news/atlantans-love-watching-soccer-but-are-their-kids-playing/wmGbZ82O9Db75vLEY31UNO/.

Kruse, Kevin (2005). White Flight: Atlanta and the Making of Modern Conservatism. Princeton University Press.

Hobson, Maurice J. (2017). The Legend of the Black Mecca: Politics and Class in the Making of Modern Atlanta. The University of North Carolina Press.

Social Explorer (2017). SE: A0001. Total Population (American Community Survey 2017 5-Year Estimates).

Social Explorer. (2017). SE: A14006. Median Household Income (In 2017 Inflation-Adjusted Dollars) (American Community Survey 2017 5-Year Estimates).

Social Explorer. (N.d.) SE:T11. Race (US Census 1970). Retrieved September 27, 2019.

Theodorakis, N. D., Wann, D. L., Nassis, P., & Luellen, T.B. (2012). The relationship between sport team identification and the need to belong. International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing 12, (no. 1/2), 25–38. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJSMM.2012.051249

Wangerin, David. (2006). Soccer in a Football World. Temple University Press.