As vice president of business operations for Atlanta United FC, Ann Rodriguez has played a key role in helping set several Major League Soccer expansion club business records, including the more than 22,000 season tickets that have been sold for the team’s inaugural 2017 season. Last month, the club unveiled its first kit in front of 2,500 fans in downtown Atlanta. Rodriguez joined the club in June 2015 after working at Under Armour, where she focused on business development and brand marketing for soccer.
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People have questioned if soccer would work in the Southeast, almost forgetting that Atlanta is a top-10 media market. A lot of people questioned Orlando, too, and now everyone sees what a great job they’ve done. But we’re hot on their heels in terms of momentum coming into the league, and we’re going to stake another flag in the ground here in the Southeast.”
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Photo by: ATLANTA UNITED FC
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On launching the club’s first jersey in November: Coming from working on Under Armour’s kit development business, it’s been a passion project of mine, as well as a critical moment for the club. It’s obviously a historic milestone for us, but if you take a step back — to have our players there, our coach, a uniform — it’s becoming more real and more tangible for our supporters. I think it also says a lot about [owner] Arthur [Blank]’s commitment to the community to create a moment to come together and celebrate at a party like this.
On building momentum: This is a huge moment for us from a sales standpoint, and now we’re working to make sure we can push that through the holiday and into next year. It’s important for us to continue to sustain this level of fan engagement, and we’re working doing things around the schedule release next year as well as on a merchandise store that will be co-branded with the Falcons. We want to make sure everything is crescendoing towards that moment when we take the field.
On the evolution of MLS expansion clubs: It’s not my first expansion rodeo — I was with San Jose [as vice president, sales and marketing] when it came back in as an expansion team [in 2008]. Eight years have passed, but the sport and the league has grown exponentially since. Soccer has become so culturally relevant, and speaks to the multicultural, digital-first millennial — many of whom are MLS’s core fans. That’s certainly who we’ve connected with in Atlanta, as well as with many others.
