Why are Atlanta United fans called 17s?

Atlanta United FC kicks off their inaugural season on Sunday at Bobby Dodd Stadium against the New York Red Bulls.

The MLS expansion team has generated a ton of excitement around the city. To celebrate, here are 10 things you need to know about Atlanta's newest professional team.

1. First game is SOLD OUT.

Thought there was no interest in a professional soccer team in Atlanta? Wrong. The first game is officially sold out, which means there will be more than 55,000 raucous fans cheering on Atlanta United in their first game.

2. Atlanta United season tickets sales explode

Atlanta United sold more than 30,000 season tickets for their first season. To put that in perspective, the average attendance in the league last year was 21,600.

3. They had a great preseason

Atlanta United went 3-1-0 in their first preseason games. It's impressive considering the team has only been together for about 40 days.

4. The head coach is Tata Martino

Gerardo "Tata" Martino is the head coach. Before coming to Atlanta, he managed the Argentina national team and lead them to the Copa América final twice. He's also coached at Barcelona, Newell's Old Boys and Paraguay in addition to several other clubs. The 54-year-old is from Argentina.

5. You won't see No. 17 on the field because it's you

No. 17 is reserved for Atlanta Supporters as a nod to the fans in the inaugural season. Forward Josef Martinez actually wore No. 17 with his previous clubs. When the team approached him about giving up the number, he was hesitant. But once he found out it was for the fans, he was more than happy to give it up. He now wears No. 7.

6. Atlanta United will play first games at Bobby Dodd Stadium

Mercedes-Benz Stadium will be the official home of Atlanta United. However, the stadium will not open until this summer. So, Atlanta United will play their first eight home games at Bobby Dodd Stadium at Georgia Tech. Atlanta United's true home opener will be the first event at the new $1.5 billion stadium on July 30.

7. They are NOT Atlanta's first professional soccer team

Martino said in a comical press conference on Friday that he didn't know anything about Atlanta before taking the head coaching job because there had never been soccer in Atlanta. That's actually not true. The Atlanta Chiefs were a professional soccer team in Atlanta from 1967 to roughly 1981. In their second season, they were the NASL Champions. Atlanta also had a Women's Professional Soccer team, the Atlanta Beat, from 2001-03 and 2009-11. However, the leagues folded each time. Atlanta also has lower tier soccer teams: Atlanta Silverbacks and Atlanta Silverbacks Women.

8. Nickname is still being decided

Looking for a team name? Atlanta United officially does not have one. The unofficial nickname of the team is The Five Stripes. The team's home kits (or jerseys) have five stripes on them that represent the pillars of character: Unity, Determination, Community, Excellence and Innovation. The black stripes are a nod to Atlanta's history as a railroad town.

However, the team said on Friday that it still does not officially have a nickname, and Atlanta United hope one is created by the fans.

9. There are plenty of support groups to choose from

Atlanta United have a few different support groups who will be leading the charge from the stands. They include Footie Mob ATL, Resurgence, Terminus Legion and Faction. According to their bios, Footie Mob is made up of members from the Atlanta area, Resurgence members pride themselves on the love of the game and city, Terminus Legion stresses positivity and inclusiveness on and off the field, and finally The Faction is made up of coaches, players and parents of soccer players.

10. Atlanta United FC is one of two MLS expansion teams this season

MLS continues to grow. Atlanta is one of two new teams. The other is Minnesota United FC. Their nickname is unofficially The Loons. There are two more teams coming to MLS in the years to come in Los Angeles and Miami.

Atlanta United FC unveils home kit

magic city

Atlanta’s most famous strip club and a destination for at least some of the Atlanta United team after winning the MLS Cup. (And yes, they brought the cup, into which, presumably, it was made to rain.)

Photography by Fernando Decillis

march to the match

A game-day ritual that currently originates in the Gulch after several hours of pregame lubrication. Commencing around 90 minutes before game time, the march features several hundred fans making their way to Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

MARTÍNEZ, JOSEf

Valencia, the fourth-largest city in Venezuela, is known for producing baseball players, not soccer players. Josef Martínez was born there 26 years ago and took up soccer because it was the only sport his grandfather, who raised him, watched. In an essay he wrote for the Players’ Tribune last November, Martínez recalled as a child debating whether to spend his money on dinner or on bus fare home from soccer practice. If he chose dinner, he’d face a three-hour walk home. “This environment,” he wrote, “raises fighters.” When Darren Eales and Tata Martino were building Atlanta United from the ground up and they called Martínez, the young man didn’t even know where Atlanta was. But he knew of Martino. And he knew he wanted out of Italy, where he’d been playing and where he’d been increasingly maligned by a fickle fan base. In Atlanta, Martínez has found familia. He has also, not coincidentally, found preposterous success. Going into the playoffs last year, he’d already scored 31 goals, more in one season than any MLS player before him. Martínez is a striker, so he doesn’t clock the same mileage in a game that, say, a wide-ranging midfielder does. Even still, Martínez can seem almost laconic when the ball is not around him, like a daydreaming outfielder in sandlot baseball. On July 4 in Dallas last year, as teammate Tito Villalba (see also Villalba, Tito) was serpentining toward the Dallas keeper, Martínez was standing 30 feet outside the penalty box, bending down, appearing to adjust his socks. That was one second. Three seconds later he was sliding into Villalba’s cross for his 16th goal of the season. In the MLS Cup against Portland, with no score in the 41st minute, Martínez found himself with the ball, one-on-one against the goalkeeper. In the span of two seconds, he modulated his footspeed at least four times, throwing the keeper into hopeless confusion before the ball skidded into the net. When he accepted the league MVP award last December, before signing a contract extension that will keep him here through 2023, Martínez said, “I hope to bring joy to this city that needs and dreams of it.”

MARTÍNEZ, pity

A player signed primarily because of the vast potential his name provides to tifo-makers (see also Tifos). To wit: I pity the fool. More’s the pity. For pity’s sake. Okay, also because last year he was named the best soccer player in South America and helped lead his team at the time, Argentina’s River Plate, to the Copa Libertadores championship. Pity’s real first name is Gonzalo, but he’ll answer to that only if you’re his mother, who gave him the nickname Pity (pronounced PEE-tee) when he was a child, thanks to his energetic resemblance to the pititorra, a flitting sparrow. Pity’s arrival has given Atlanta United an embarrassment of riches, talent-wise, and evoked the kind of jealousy from other MLS cities once reserved for every Major League Baseball franchise that wasn’t the Yankees. Sorry, Orlando. (See Rivalry, Orlando.)

Photograph courtesy Men in Blazers

MEN IN BLAZERS

A popular soccer podcast hosted by Michael Davies and Roger Bennett, authoritative yet sardonic ambassadors for the game. Their book, Encyclopedia Blazertannica, inspired the Atlanta United homage you’re reading now. When Atlanta hosted last year’s MLS All-Star game, the podcast was broadcast from a sold-out Tabernacle, where Davies described Atlanta as “American soccer’s new Jerusalem.”

miggy

Nickname for Miguel Almirón, the ever-smiling midfielder acquired by Newcastle after its coach threatened to quit if they didn’t sign him.

“MUCHA PLATA, Y’ALL”

Sign-off of Soccer Down Here, a daily two-hour podcast. In Spanish, plata means gold or riches. The podcast is cohosted by Jason Longshore, Atlanta’s resident soccer expert and evangelizer. Longshore possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of the game’s history in Atlanta, and provides color commentary for 92.9 The Game’s match coverage. Longshore is identifiable by his newsboy cap, which he wears since suffering a concussion that left him sensitive to bright light.

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