The anticipation is building in Atlanta for their club’s inaugural season in MLS as they’ve now sold more than 40,000 tickets for their home opener against the New York Red Bulls on Sunday, March 5. The match will be televised nationally on FS1 at 7:00 PM ET, and club president Darren Eales says they are on pace for a sell out.
Atlanta United will begin play at Georgia Tech’s 55,000-seat Bobby Dodd Stadium while construction on the Mercedes-Benz Stadium is completed. United are slated to begin play there on July 30 against Orlando City, a match that will be broadcast on FOX.
The team has already sold more than 27,000 season tickets, and they had planned at capping those ticket sales at 30,000, a number which they may be forced to increase over the coming weeks. The Mercedes-Benz Stadium has a capacity of 71,000, but United had planned on setting the attendance for their matches at around 40,000. That number too looks set to be increased, especially for the opening match against Orlando.
The club has generated a massive amount of local support after hiring former Barcelona and Argentina manager Tata Martino, and signing exciting young DPs Josef Martinez, Miguel Almiron and Hector Villalba.
Did someone say upper 90? #SCtop10 | #UniteAndConquer pic.twitter.com/lkcdHmcWIg
— Atlanta United FC (@ATLUTD) February 12, 2017
Atlanta won their first preseason match 4-0 against the NPSL’s Chattanooga FC.