The Transient
Atlanta has been awarded the NWSL’s seventeenth franchise, set to start play in 2028 below Arthur Clean’s possession.
The crew will play at Mercedes-Benz Stadium and have its personal world-class coaching facility.
The $165 million enlargement marks the league’s first new crew since Denver Summit FC earlier this 12 months.
ATLANTA – Atlanta is formally becoming a member of the Nationwide Girls’s Soccer League. League Commissioner Jessica Berman introduced the town has been awarded the NWSL’s seventeenth franchise, set to start play in 2028, throughout a celebration hosted by Arthur Clean’s household basis Friday evening at The Interlock.
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SEE ALSO:
NWSL involves Atlanta in 2028
What they’re saying
Berman stated Atlanta’s bid checked each field for a brand new membership: possession, fan base, and services. “You have got a number of the greatest possession in skilled sports activities within the Clean household,” she instructed the group. “You have got an unbelievable sports activities market that is aware of methods to present up week in and week out on your groups. And you’ve got top-notch services in Mercedes-Benz Stadium.”
The brand new membership shall be owned by Clean’s AMB Sports activities + Leisure group, which additionally owns the Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United. Clean stated the crew may have its personal world-class coaching facility and play residence matches at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
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“As we speak marks one other great milestone for our metropolis, for our state, and for the game of soccer in America,” Clean stated. “Atlanta has been awarded Nationwide Girls’s Soccer League membership quantity 17, and that’ll match our 17s.”
Followers cheer as Atlanta is formally introduced because the Nationwide Girls’s Soccer League’s latest franchise throughout an Empower Her, Encourage All occasion at The Interlock on Nov. 11, 2025.
(FOX 5)
Clean stated the brand new crew represents a possibility to encourage the subsequent era. “It’s my hope that this membership will ignite one thing highly effective in everybody who watches, particularly younger folks, and light-weight a spark that claims if they’ll do it, so can I,” he stated. “Our NWSL gamers shall be position fashions who embody excellence, willpower, and unshakable perception that something is feasible.”
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens credited Clean’s management for serving to make Atlanta the “epicenter of soccer on this nation.” He stated the brand new franchise will construct on a rising legacy that features Atlanta United’s record-breaking fan base, the town’s position in internet hosting eight 2026 FIFA World Cup matches, and the soon-to-open U.S. Soccer Nationwide Coaching Heart.
Followers cheer as Atlanta is formally introduced because the Nationwide Girls’s Soccer League’s latest franchise throughout an Empower Her, Encourage All occasion at The Interlock on Nov. 11, 2025.
(FOX 5)
“Someplace in Atlanta proper now may very well be the world’s subsequent nice soccer star who will come of age understanding she will be able to practice right here, play right here, and win proper right here in Atlanta,” Dickens stated. “The arrival of girls’s skilled soccer is about creating alternative for gamers, staffers, and followers.”
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U.S. Soccer Federation President Cindy Parlow Cohn, a former Atlanta Beat participant and two-time Olympic gold medalist, stated the league’s return marks a full-circle second for the town. “Arthur, your perception and daring imaginative and prescient for soccer in Atlanta have taken the game to new heights,” she stated. “This new NWSL crew will cleared the path and proceed to encourage the subsequent era.”
What they’re saying
At Friday’s Empower Her, Encourage All occasion, metropolis leaders and league officers made it official — Atlanta’s soccer story continues to be simply starting.
Speakepeakers on the Empower Her, Encourage All occasion stated Atlanta’s latest Nationwide Girls’s Soccer League franchise cements the town’s place on the middle of American soccer.
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“It is a metropolis that is aware of methods to win,” stated NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman, asserting the league’s seventeenth crew. “It is a metropolis that understands ardour. You perceive methods to present up on your crew. You have got an unbelievable sports activities market that is aware of methods to present up week in, week out on your groups. Go Atlanta.”
Berman stated Atlanta already gives the whole lot a girls’s membership must succeed — possession, market, and infrastructure. “You have got a number of the greatest possession in skilled sports activities within the Clean household. You have got top-notch services in Mercedes-Benz Stadium,” she stated. “And this possession group goes to construct a first-class, purpose-built coaching facility for the perfect girls soccer gamers on the earth.”
Arthur Clean, proprietor of the Falcons and Atlanta United FC, stated the town has turn out to be “the epicenter of soccer on this nation.”
“If there was any doubt earlier than, I consider we are able to confidently say now that Atlanta is the epicenter of soccer on this nation,” Clean instructed the group. “From the unbelievable success of Atlanta United, to the U.S. Soccer Federation’s transfer right here, to our position as a bunch metropolis for the 2026 FIFA World Cup matches, which shall be right here shortly, together with the semifinal match. These milestones replicate the eagerness and dedication of our neighborhood that makes Atlanta a world soccer vacation spot.”
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Clean stated the brand new girls’s crew will proceed that momentum. “We’re becoming a member of an enormous league,” he stated. “And proper right here in Georgia, the participation of girls’s soccer is already excessive and rising with lots of of colleges, dozens of golf equipment, and numerous younger gamers persevering with and committing to play. This tells us it’s the correct place and the correct time.”
Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens stated the announcement proves the town’s funding in soccer has paid off. “The strikes that Arthur Clean and his crew have made to make Atlanta the epicenter of soccer on this nation actually signify a dedication to this whole area’s future,” Dickens stated. “Atlanta United has helped change soccer tradition throughout the nation, persistently setting the MLS attendance information and changing into one of many strongest manufacturers in the entire sport.”
He added, “Metro Atlanta will quickly be residence to the U.S. Nationwide Coaching Heart and a world-class coaching complicated. And naturally, Atlanta is ready to host eight FIFA World Cup matches subsequent 12 months, together with one of many semifinals. Now this new franchise helps fill out Atlanta’s soccer image.”
U.S. Soccer President Cindy Parlow Cone, who as soon as performed for the Atlanta Beat, stated the brand new crew is coming to the proper place. “I do know it is a soccer metropolis and the brand new Atlanta NWSL crew will thrive right here,” she stated. “Arthur, your perception and daring imaginative and prescient for soccer in Atlanta have taken the game to new heights. This new NWSL crew will cleared the path and proceed to encourage the subsequent era. The ladies’s sport on this metropolis shall be higher due to it, and higher due to you.”
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What’s subsequent
The brand new Atlanta franchise revives a convention that started with the unique Atlanta Beat groups that performed within the early 2000s and 2010s. Will probably be the league’s first enlargement since Denver Summit FC joined earlier this 12 months. The enlargement charge was reported to be a file $165 million.
Berman stated followers can now formally begin counting all the way down to kickoff. “Thanks for exhibiting up on day zero,” she stated. “You get to be a fan of the league for the subsequent two and a half years. So watch our video games, assist the league, and prepare for 2028.”
The Supply
This text relies on the Empower Her, Encourage All occasion at The Interlock on Nov. 11, 2025. Jessica Berman, commissioner of the Nationwide Girls’s Soccer League; Arthur Clean, chairman and proprietor of AMB Sports activities + Leisure; Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens; and Cindy Parlow Cohn, president of the U.S. Soccer Federations and former Atlanta Beat participant spoke on the occasion. Earlier FOX 5 Atlanta reporting was additionally used.