MLS awarded its ‘17 club and exec awards Thursday in Philadelphia, with Atlanta United taking home a league-leading five awards. Atlanta United President Darren Eales was named Doug Hamilton Exec of the Year, while AMB Sports & Entertainment VP/Ticket Sales & Services Don Rovak was named Ticket Sales Exec of the Year and Atlanta United Dir of Marketing & Fan Engagement Sarah Kate Noftsinger was named Marketing Exec of the Year. The team also won awards for marketing and team administration. Atlanta set multiple league records in its first season in MLS, including single-season average attendance with 48,200, season ticket holders at more than 36,000 and single-game attendance with 71,874. The team was successful on the field, becoming the first expansion team in MLS to make the playoffs in its first season since the Sounders in ’09.
CREDIT GOES TO THE TOP: Eales credited the staff of Atlanta United and AMB for the club’s impressive success in its first year, as well as team Owner Arthur Blank's vision for what sort of impact the team could have in the city. Eales said that while the club will celebrate the awards and its success in ’17, it is already planning out how to top that in ’18. He noted that its season-ticket renewal rate is over 90%, and it expects to eclipse the level of total season ticket holders it had last year. Atlanta United has already announced it will open the entire 71,000-seat stadium for at least four games next year. That continued success on the attendance side should lead to additional commercial and partnership revenue as well, Eales said, noting that Atlanta United will have more fans watching them in the stadium over the course of the season than the Falcons will. The club is launching a USL-affiliate next season in Lawrenceville, a suburb of Atlanta 30 miles outside of the city center, which Eales said will provide the team with another touchpoint in the state as well as a differently priced option for fans who wish to support the team.
MOTIVATION STILL EXISTS: While Eales spoke of his pride in seeing the team win all of these awards in its first year in MLS, he said it will serve as the same motivation as the trope that Atlanta was not a good sports market that he often heard in the buildup to the team’s launch. “We debunked the myth that Atlanta wasn’t a sports city,” he said. “A few people are saying now that we were just a shiny new object, and that it’ll be different in year two -- we quite like that, it gives us even more motivation.”
