MLS

Atlanta United set season ticket record for MLS expansion team

Published Nov. 15, 2016 2:43 p.m. ET

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Ryan Rosenblatt

Atlanta United have already sold more than 22,000 season tickets for their expansion year in 2017. That's a record for any MLS expansion team, and would put them second in the entire league this year, behind just the Seattle Sounders.

The 22,000 season ticket holders come from 31,000 deposits that were placed after Atlanta announced that they had received a team. Now that they've gone through the deposits Atlanta will open season ticket sales to the general public.

Atlanta will play at the brand new Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which will open next year. The 71,000-seat venue will have curtains to block off the upper decks for MLS games, artificially limiting capacity to 29,000. It's very possible that United will sell out that 29,000 just about every match, and the club will also consider opening up the entire stadium for select matches in their expansion season.

Atlanta United will be MLS's second team in the south, joining Orlando City. The league has made expanding the footprint and getting into all regions of the country a priority. With Atlanta being the biggest city in the south, Atlanta United is a major step for MLS.

The team will join MLS in 2017 along with fellow expansion team Minnesota United. That will bring the league to 22 teams, with Los Angeles FC expected to follow in 2018, making it 23. Miami has been awarded an expansion team too, but they still have stadium issues to sort out.

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