MLS Expansion - NFL owner wants to bring MLS to Atlanta

Arthur Blank, owner of the NFL's Atlanta Falcons, wants his sports operation to expand outside of American football and Major League Soccer is high on his list. Blank said 'he is "actively looking at" bringing a Major League Soccer expansion team to Atlanta. He described it as "in the exploratory stage" and said the team would need a soccer-specific stadium. "We're out looking at stadium sites right now ... in a variety of places," he said.'

Blank brings a lot of what league officials want to the table. He is rich (worth about $1.3 billion), has strong sports connections to the local community (owns the Falcons and came close to owning baseball's Atlanta Braves) and has a good business history (he was co-founder of Home Depot). In addition, the Deep South is the one region of the country where MLS is completely absent. Since Atlanta is the largest market in the region and ninth-largest metro area in the nation, it has the size needed to make the team a success.

Obviously this is still in the early stages, but if Blank can find a solid stadium site and come up with a way to deal with the hot summer weather (perhaps ask Dallas about this), he might be in the running sooner rather then later.