"A Day in the Life" is a feature in SBD examining the daily habits of interesting personalities in sports business. This week, Atlanta United President DARREN EALES discusses building the budding MLS franchise.
6:00am: If I'm at home and not in another country trying to acquire players, I’m up by 6:00. I’ll check my Twitter feed as well as The Guardian for soccer news from Europe. I have twin 3-year-old boys, JAMES and EDMUND, so I’ll usually try to spend time with them before I head out. I'll go over to Octane Coffee in Midtown, one of my favorite spots, and order a flat white. I’ll either have an early meeting or attempt to use that hour to catch up with any Europe-based business. After that it’s about a 25-minute commute to our training ground in Marietta, where our soccer offices are located.
7:30am: When I arrive at the office my assistant will give me a rundown of my schedule, which varies widely depending on the day. FIFA two weeks ago came to do a technical site visit of our facility ahead of the joint North American bid for the '26 FIFA World Cup, so I was on hand for that. Before our first team begins their training for the day, I'll usually try to catch up with our coach TATA MARTINO just to see what's up from a team perspective.
10:00am: Our first team usually trains in the morning around 10:00, so I’ll likely base myself around them during that time. My office overlooks the training ground and I have a balcony that I use to watch the players. While training is going on, I’ll also use that time to catch up with our Technical Dir CARLOS BOCANEGRA and VP/Soccer Operations PAUL MCDONOUGH. We’ll usually just have a general chat about everything on technical side of things and possible future acquisitions for the first team.
12:30pm: If I’m still at the training ground and haven’t had to leave due to meetings or other commitments, we have a top-notch chef at our facility that will usually have lunch prepared for us. We’re very spoiled here, so I’ll always try to stop by and catch up with our communications and social media team.
1:00pm: Lately we've had a lot of visitors at the training grounds. We had a group from Greenville, S.C., who's bringing a new team to the USL D-III in '19, to look at our facilities. It's important to be open to as many groups and expansion teams interested in visiting because when we were building Atlanta United, everyone from MLS to other NFL franchises really helped us in terms of sharing their knowledge.
2:00pm: I’ll normally aspire to get a workout in during the afternoons. We've got a world-class gym here that we encourage the staff to use. I always have the great intention of going, but sometimes it doesn’t work out that way. We’ll usually also have a staff pick-up soccer game once every two weeks that I’ll play in, and those are always fun.
3:30pm: I’ll head down to Mercedes-Benz Stadium where all our business and stadium operations are based. We work closely with AMB Sports & Entertainment as well and we have several shared services at the stadium. After every home match, we’ll have an after-action meeting a couple days later with the stadium operations staff. We do a detailed survey of our fans after every game regarding fan experience, so during the meeting we'll talk about things that we learned and make improvements for the next match.
5:30pm: If I’m out of the house early in the mornings before the twins are up, I have strict orders to be back home by 5:30-6:00 for family dinner and to help put the boys to bed, but I don't do it as much as I'd like. We meet with the supporters' group once a month, so I might have a drink with them. I’ll also usually be on hand for ATL UTD 2 home games at Coolray Field in Gwinnett or meet up with an agent for dinner. Increasingly, given Atlanta's United international exposure, I've also been doing interviews in the car or later at night with foreign media for their morning shows.
7:30pm: I try to get the boys in bed around 7:30, but they're usually my most demanding audience all day. As I'm winding down for the night, I'll often hop on the app we use to scout since we're constantly looking for new players. My wife, FAITH, and I also try to do a date night once a week. If we go out, we usually head over to Iberian Pig in Decatur. I’ve just finished “PEAKY BLINDERS,” and Faith and I have gone a little retro now as we've never seen “WEST WING” before, so we're going back in time and watching that.
10:30pm: I’ll generally try to be in bed by 10:30 most nights. I’ll put the phone down a little bit before that and won’t touch it again until the morning just to give myself a chance to relax and get ready for bed.
Eales (l) enjoys taking his twin boys to watch Atlanta United home games when he has the chanceDARREN EALES
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