Arthur Blank has begun construction for a new sports facility in Marietta. The $100 million facility will be home to his new National Women’s Soccer League team.
Arthur Blank and Marietta city leaders break ground on a 33-acre NWSL training facility/Getty
On Friday April 24, NWSL held a ground breaking ceremony at the new site in Marietta. The facility will be used by the league’s 17th team, as announced last November.
The new team will still be shepherded by Arthur Blank, the owner of Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United.
Blank’s parent company, AMB Sports and Entertainment (AMBSE) inked a deal with the city of Marietta last month for the Franklin Gateway SE property. The new club launches in 2028. The site will serve as both headquarters and training ground for the team.
Blank has expressed enthusiasm for this new milestone. “Today is an exciting milestone in our club’s history.” He says more investments will be made towards building a NWSL Atlanta into a championship-level club.
The facility is projected to cover 38,000-square-foot of space which will include four full fields and two half-pitches.
AMBSE is actively in involved in the design and development of the facility and is planning to debut the new site well ahead of the 2028 launch window. Its current $100 million budget brings the total that AMBSE has put into the Franklin Gateway corridor to $200 million.
Marietta Mayor R. Steve Tumlin is happy with AMBSE’s two projects in the area. “There is an idiom that lightning doesn’t strike twice. It has for us here in Marietta.”
But the road here has not been straightforward. In 2013, Marietta approved a $68 million redevelopment bond, which the city used to buy land and sell plots at great discounts to attract developers.
One of these was IKEA, which bought the new NWSL facility site for $9.25 million. But its plans to build a store never materialized so IKEA sold the land back to the city for $18.5 million.
Then the city sold it to Blank at a staggering discount. While Mayor Steve is happy, the 33-acre property is actually valued at $21 million. Blank paid $10 million in cash for it, and agreed to donate 10 acres of it back to the city for a park.
This deal slightly resembles how Atlanta United first entered the city. It was a $1 a year lease for training grounds. Blank signed a 30 year lease with DeKalb County, with terms that included a $1-per-year rent. On top of that, Blank received full property tax exemptions for his soccer complex.
Arthur Blank’s net worth is a whopping $9.6 billion; the city’s annual budget is a paltry $180 million. It appears that Marietta has and will continue to absorb losses in a play to keep Blank’s investments thriving on Franklin Gateway.
At face value, Blank’s $100 million investment looks like a generous Hail Mary for the city. But if you factor in the discounted land, the $1 annual rent for Atlanta United, and the ongoing tax breaks, it becomes clear who’s getting shortchanged.
Many residents are not happy. The city’s redevelopment plan for Franklin Gateway saw thousands of low-income residents displaced and over 1000 units of affordable housing demolished.
