The World's Game In The Heart of the Sun Belt

Atlanta has been included among the 18 cities that will constitute the U.S. World Cup bid proposal for either 2018 or 2022.

The USA Bid Committee on Tuesday unveiled the venues and cities that will be submitted to FIFA this spring as part of its formal World Cup proposal. FIFA will select the host nations for both events in December.

Should the U.S. receive a bid for either of those World Cups, Atlanta might become the rare city to host most of the major global and North American sporting events. The city has played host to the Super Bowl, several Final Fours, a number of World Series involving the Braves and the 1996 Summer Olympics.

FIFA likely would approve games in no more than 12 of those cities, and the list does not have to be finalized until five years before a World Cup.

The Georgia Dome played host to two crowds in excess of 50,000 for international soccer matches last summer. But the Atlanta bid also stipulates that if a new stadium is built for the Atlanta Falcons, that facility could be the site for World Cup matches.

“The game is on!” said Gary Stokan, president of the Atlanta Sports Council, which spearheaded the Atlanta bid committee.

He said the committee will continue to work with the USA Bid Committee and prepare for a visit later in the year from FIFA representatives, who will be inspecting all 18 cities in the U.S. proposal.

“We’ve been on pins and needles about this, because it means a lot to our community,” said Georgia Soccer executive director Rick Skirvin. “I felt pretty good about our chances because of how hard so many people worked to support this bid. We were doing things right from the beginning.”

Perhaps the biggest signs of support were a petition signing-drive launched by Georgia Soccer and a compansion fundraising effort that netted $75,000. Keeping Atlanta in the World Cup mix also gives the organization, which represents 70,000 youth players and their families around the state, a chance to build further momentum around its events and tournaments.

“All the events we put on will have an extra touch to it,” Skirvin said, referring specifically to the Atlanta Cup, Georgia Soccer’s biggest event, a youth tournament held on the Labor Day weekend that is one of the biggest in the Southeast.

The Atlanta bid also includes an offer for the city, as a major transportation and media hub, to serve as the site for an International Broadcast Center for the World Cup.

There’s a real Sun Belt feel to this selection of cities, which include Miami, Tampa Bay, Houston, Dallas, Phoenix and — perhaps the biggest inclusion — Nashville, which had a crowd of more than 30,000 for a U.S.World Cup qualifying match last year.

The glaring absences: No Chicago, which recently lost its bid to play host to the 2014 Olympics. Not only is it the home of President Barack Obama, but also for the U.S. Soccer Federation.

The San Francisco Bay Area also was excluded after serving, along with Chicago, as a 1994 venue.

Cities that were 1994 World Cup venues and are on the list of 18 include Boston, Dallas, New York, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Also on board are Philadelphia, Baltimore, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Denver, San Diego and Seattle, which quickly has become one of the biggest soccer hotbeds in North America with the inclusion of the Sounders in Major League Soccer.

The USA Bid Committee will announce its final list of World Cup venue cities next Tuesday, Jan. 12, and Atlanta is among the 27 cities vying to make the cut.

The committee has spent the last eight months touring cities and stadiums around the country as part of the U.S. Soccer Federation’s bid to to land the World Cup in either 2018 or 2022. The committee will choose 18 cities as part of a formal proposal to be submitted to FIFA in the spring. FIFA will select the host nations for both World Cups next December.

Live coverage of the event begins at 3:30 p.m. ET on ESPNews.

Georgia Soccer and the Atlanta Sports Council have been spearheading the Atlanta bid, with the former raising $75,000 and generating a petition drive in a show of support that’s one of the major factors being considered by the USA Bid Committee.

A prominent American soccer blogger thinks the city should have no problem making the list:

“Atlanta, the other city in the top five, is a no brainer for any major sporting event after having so successfully hosted the 1996 Summer Olympics. With the Atlanta Silverbacks returning to the professional fold for the 2011 NASL season, the city is  a lock to host World Cup matches.”

Atlanta Sports Council president Gary Stokan said another component of the Atlanta proposal is having the city serve as the venue for the FIFA executive committee meeting that precedes the World Cup and includes the election of the FIFA president.

Here are some previous posts I’ve written on Atlanta’s interest in the World Cup.

The U.S. Soccer Federation announced on Thursday that the warring factions of the United Soccer Leagues and the breakaway North American Soccer League will field a joint Division II league in 2010, under the federation’s auspices.

But there will not be a team on the field from Atlanta.

The 12-team, two-division league will be comprised of six USL teams and six more from the NASL, which had included the Atlanta Silverbacks. The full breakdown is here.

USSF president Sunil Gulati said on a Thursday conference call that both Atlanta and New York are not ready to field teams in the coming season:

“It was pretty clear to us that Atlanta was never going to play this year, and New York it became obvious early on.”

Here are some previous posts on the dispute, which was triggered late last summer when the USL was sold to Atlanta-based Nu Rock Soccer Holdings. That organization fielded a USL-sponsored Professional Development League team in Atlanta last summer while the Silverbacks went on hiatus.

Silverbacks president Boris Jerkunica had balked at USL leadership for several years before withdrawing, but he has not publicly commented on his plans for returning to the second division level. The Silverbacks will continue to field a team in the USL-run amateur W-League.

I have a request in to Jerkunica once again asking him to address these issues and others.

More information will be posted here as the story develops.

While Seattle is the clear fan favorite to play host to World Cup matches — should the event return to America in the next decade or so — a poll on the USA Bid Committee’s Web site reveals that Atlanta is in second place.

Of the top 10 vote-getting cities, only Dallas was a venue for the 1994 World Cup.

Georgia Soccer has raised $75,000 in a show of financial support that is one of many factors taken into consideration by the committee, which is expected this month to pare down its final list of cities to be submitted to FIFA for the 2018 or 2022 World Cup.

Here’s an argument from an Atlantan who says poor fan support for pro teams should rule Atlanta out as a World Cup host.

I think that rationale is all wet, and here’s why: Atlanta soccer fans haven’t been given much to cheer from a litany of badly-run franchises. I know, because I’ve covered most of them since 1995.

Some, like Johnny Imerman and Vincent Lu, ultimately left the old A-League Ruckus by the side of the road.

The various parties involved in the Silverbacks have been more committed, and have enjoyed some occasional success. But last summer, while more than 50,000 people gathered at the Georgia Dome not once, but twice, to watch soccer played there for the first time, the Silverbacks lay dormant.

The ongoing dispute involving the United Soccer Leagues doesn’t appear to be any closer to a resolution, and there’s the possibility that there won’t be pro men’s soccer in Atlanta again next summer.

I know some loyal Silverbacks fans who have spent a lot of money for tickets, T-shirts, souvenirs and road trips over the years and who ultimately have soured on the idea of ever spending another dime on that team if it is resurrected.

The bottom line is that for most of the last decade and a half — since the last World Cup — there hasn’t been a good enough product on the field that’s been worth anyone’s patronage.

You can’t blame the fans for any of that.

If you were hoping the end of the year would bring with it a resolution to the feuding between the United Soccer Leagues and the breakaway North American Soccer League, think again.

The U.S. Soccer Federation on Wednesday said it was refusing to sanction either second division league for the 2010 season, and ordered both to work something out in the next week.

Some instant reaction to the news is here, here and here, with the opinions mixed.

And in the strongest rebuke the USSF is accused of preferring the status quo, feeling that Major League Soccer would be threatened by the NASL, which includes the Atlanta Silverbacks.

The USL, purchased this summer by Atlanta-based NuRock Soccer Holdings, issued a release that doesn’t say much at all.

The NASL is “disappointed” by the decision but promises to co-operate.

Of course, if it and the USL had been as conciliatory as they’re both trying to sound now, there wouldn’t be the bitter impasse that may last a good while longer.

The Women’s Professional Soccer league rolled out its slate of home openers for the 2010 season earlier this week, with a couple of glaring exceptions.

One of them, of course, is the Atlanta Beat, which just recently announced plans to play in a yet-to-be-built facility near the Kennesaw State University campus. No timeline was put on completion, but according to The Equalizer, the Atlanta home opener will take place on an unspecified date in mid-May.

The Beat will play its inaugural game on April 10 in Philadelphia, the other expansion team coming online this spring. Here’s a diagram of the stadium seating chart, and other ticket information. The prices shown are for the entire home schedule.

Team and league officials have not indicated when they will announce more information on the Beat home opener, except that it will be after the first of the year.

• In another item of interest to women’s soccer fans, former U.S. great Michelle Akers is having to sell off some of her soccer memorabilia to repair a horse farm she operates in Cobb County. The property was waterlogged in recent flooding in the Atlanta area, and the WPS and her former national team coach, Tony DiCicco, are asking fans to lend her a helping hand.

The estimated costs are $50,000, and Akers did not have flood insurance, like many victims of the heavy rains. Here’s more on Akers’ farm, which is aimed at horse rescue.

Here’s an update on the United Soccer Leagues/North American Soccer League dispute that is reportedly being refereed shortly by the U.S. Soccer Federation. It runs down the teams involved in the breakaway NASL alliance that is seeking sanctioning authority. However, the Atlanta Silverbacks, who helped strike the match that led to this point, do not appear to be fielding a team next season:

“The Silverbacks ownership were the first to show their unhappiness with USL by dropping out of the league in the fall of 2008 after other teams had also threatened. The TOA are claiming that Atlanta is a team scheduled to play in 2010 but word on the street is they will not be ready to play until 2011.”

I’ve also heard this on the grapevine, as well as that the Silverbacks amateur women’s team in the USL-run W-League is a go for next season. However, Silverbacks chairman Boris Jerkunica has not commented publicly on any of this, despite repeated requests from Atlanta Soccer News.

Hoping to have some confirmation soon.

I’ve refrained from posting here on the continuing battle between the United Soccer Leagues and the newly-formed North American Soccer League until the frantic, twisted scenario sorted itself out a little bit.

Instead, the scrap over the future of minor league soccer in North America reached full boil on Wednesday, with the news that the USL has filed suit against three teams in the breakaway league that includes the Atlanta Silverbacks.

The Silverbacks are not one of those teams, but the Rochester Rhinos, Crystal Palace FC (Baltimore) and Tampa Bay Rowdies are the subjects of allegations that they are in breach of contracts binding them to the USL for the 2010 season.

The USL didn’t make a lot of the lawsuit news on its own site, issuing a statement accusing The Owners Association, the consortium of owners who formed the new league, of “tortuous interference.”

If it reads like it was written by a roomful of lawyers, get used to it. Reportedly both leagues met with the U.S. Soccer Federation at the behest of the latter on Monday, but the “productive meeting” Sunil Gulati described apparently wasn’t so productive after all. There may even have been additional legal threats made against other breakaway owners.

The Silverbacks have been generally silent about their involvement in the move to the NASL (not to be confused with the pro league that went by the same name from 1968 to 1984). That was the case well before the lawsuit filing on Wednesday. Silverbacks president Boris Jerkunica notified Atlanta Soccer News that he was traveling out of the country and could not comment until next week at the earliest.

That response is similar to previous requests for comment by ASN. Jerkunica did say in early November that “we are putting plans together as we speak” about preparing to compete in 2010.

The current franchise holder for a USL First Division team in Atlanta belongs to the same NuRock organization that sponsored a team in the USL’s Professional Development Soccer League last summer.

The Silverbacks also have not clarified the status of their women’s team, which has been competing in the USL’s amateur W-League and last summer reached that league’s playoffs.

The Silverbacks joined the NASL breakaway league after several years of being disenchanted with the way the Tampa-based USL conducted its operations. Jerkunica’s longest statement to date on the fiasco was issued in early November:

“For ten years, the Atlanta Silverbacks played under the umbrella of a third-party owned league.  To put it simply, it just didn’t work. The long-term view of the team owners did not align with the short term view of the third-party league owners. Because of this, the Atlanta Silverbacks decided to drop out from USL-1 in 2009. We are pleased to be part of a new league that will be owned and operated by the team owners as required by FIFA.”

For the moment, there doesn’t appear to be any expedient manner of resolving a growing legal fight that could threaten the start of the North American soccer season next spring. The fate of both leagues could very well be on the line.

The news is now official, and it’s been the worst kept secret on the Atlanta soccer scene for about the last six months.

The Atlanta Beat has announced that it will play its home games at the new soccer complex being built at Kennesaw State University.

Beat owner T. Fitz Johnson proclaims the 8,300-seat facility will be the first women’s soccer-specific stadium in the world.

All team officials previously had said since the new Women’s Professional Soccer League expansion franchise was unveiled in June is that it was looking for a base in Cobb County. Even after Cobb commissioners gave the green light to KSU for the $16.5 million complex.

More here and here.

Three people I know are luxuriating right now in the all-soccer waters in Seattle, site of Sunday’s MLS Cup between the Los Angeles Galaxy and Real Salt Lake, thanks to an all-expenses-paid promotion courtesy of various league sponsors.

Jason Longshore of Soccer in the Streets and Colin and Chris Martz, former colleagues at the Atlanta J-C and big-time soccerheads, have been Tweeting from the Supporters’ Summit, the Commissioners’ Gala and elsewhere.

If you want to keep up with their Tweets, here goes: @longshoe, @thrashboy, @thechrismartz, with the latter posting this a few euphoric hours ago:

“I want to come to #MLS Cup every year”

• The Atlantan who will be competing at Qwest Field — Conyers native Clint Mathis — will be vying for his first MLS championship. The RSL veteran played in this game exactly 10 years ago for the Galaxy, who fell to D.C. United.

• The current Galaxy feature Becks and Landon, whose mid-season rift appears to have healed rather nicely.

• More than 40,000 tickets have been sold in what’s quickly become North America’s spectator soccer hotbed. MLS gave the hosting nod to Seattle barely halfway into the Sounders’ inaugural season and likely will be coming back to the Pacific Northwest again and again.

• Here’s the hometown Seattle Times page devoted totally to MLS Cup.

• And for the first time, MLS Cup is on cable and in prime time, shifting from ABC to ESPN with an 8:30 p.m. EDT start.