Stadiums, Like Teams, Used to Belong to the Community
Baseball was once America’s game and the Parks showed that. Could the MLS learn from those early Baseball parks?
Yes, this is an article about Baseball…that’s not about the sport. You read that right. What this is really about is my burning desire for what they call here in America a “Soccer Specific Stadium” for my new-found love, the Atlanta United Futbol Club.
When I watch Arsenal (my first love) play matches all over the UK, especially during the F.A. Cup, I admire how most stadiums are nestled in neatly to the community. The team and (and the stadium) are a part of the communities’ identity with the love of both being passed down from generation to generation.
Although the stadiums range in size, they always feel intimate. The seats are close to the pitch and the chants reverberate throughout.
American stadiums…not so much. They seem cold, distant. Built away from the world, protected by moat-like parking lots, they’re almost unapproachable. But that wasn’t always the case. Looking back at old Steel & Concrete Baseball stadiums built between 1910 to 1920 shows something completely different. Baseball was loved as much, if not more, here as Futbol is loved everywhere else in the world and the stadiums reflected that.
So let’s look at those stadiums, that era, and imagine if the recent “Soccer Boom” could inspire teams to study that history as well.
The place where Atlanta United FC started their season surprisingly was the perfect, most British-like stadium.
The skyline of midtown and downtown Atlanta can be seen from every angle, it’s walking distance from the North Avenue train station, and it's incredibly intimate. Shame it’s not built for Futbol.
Nope. Bobby Dodd has been the home of the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets since 1905 which makes it similar to most British stadiums. Instead of razing the stadium once known as Grant Field, Georgia Tech opted to renovate and expand — nine times to be exact — going from a paltry 7,000 seater to a blockbuster-size 55,000 seater.
Atlanta United sold that jawn out nine times.
It was the atmosphere that won me over, a man who was resolved to never follow any MLS team. Walking up North Avenue before the match you can see men, women, and children parading about in Atlanta United Kits and Tees. Vendors hawk souvenirs and excitement is in the air.
Once you get to the tailgate…that’s when you know it’s on. Being a member of the Footie Mob Support group means “We Ready” and “Power Football Atlanta United” chants interspersed with a DJ, beers, and grub. Then there’s the march to the stadium. That’s what gets the attention. Black folk are shocked to see me and my older brother, Ade, in the front, unapologetically Black, dancing and enjoying ourselves. They usually dap us up.
Inside, you can see the place filling up…everyone stands the entire match. The “ATL Clap” and the cross-stadium “Atlanta….United” are carried out by all 44,000+ attendees but that doesn’t mean that the Supporter Section isn’t heard throughout. Watch a match on T.V. and “We are the A…” can be heard clearly.
Now we’ll be moving to the Benz. Who knows what that’s going to be like. What I do know is I wish they were moving to a stadium built in the fashion of the old Steel & Concrete stadiums. Let me explain.
It may be hard to believe now — most people will say that Baseball is boring — but it was once the most exciting sport in America. Football and Basketball were practically amateur sports and didn’t even play second fiddle…maybe they played fifth fiddle to “America’s Pastime.”
Among Black people, going to a Baseball match was a special occasion. We got dressed up for a game. But across the board, everyone loved the sport. And the stadiums that were built, beginning in 1909 with Philadelphia’s Shibe Park, were a testament to that. These were stadiums that were built in the heart of major cities — Forbes Field (Pittsburgh, 1909), Ebbetts Field (Brooklyn, 1913), Wrigley Field (Chicago, 1914), and Yankee Stadium (Bronx, 1922) — parks that could have easily rivaled any designed by Archibald Leitch.
I love to see old pictures of fans watching the game from the rooftops of surrounding homes, the image of the crowds huddled tightly to watch the Philadelphia Athletics take on the Boston Red Sox in the 1914 World Series comes to mind. It’s still done at Wrigley Field…a space called the Wrigleyville Rooftops…albeit in a more orderly, business-like fashion. People who may not even follow baseball, still feel a connection to the team (I had no idea until recently that South-side Chicagoans ain’t truck with the Cubs).
That’s the power of an inner-city club.
Think on how many fans jumped ship to the rival New York Yankees when O’Malley packed up the Dodgers and took ‘em west. If you were a Brooklynite, (like my great uncle who told me that my family was Yankee fans and he wouldn’t have it any other way) you followed the Dodgers…until they were betrayed.
But America’s all about the NEW, tradition be damned. The 1950s, the era of the car and suburbs, meant new stadiums to accomodate the two. Large parking lots were built around the two. The website, This Great Game, calls the period that followed “The Cookie Cutter Monster” period. Multi-purpose parks were all the rage…and wack as fuck which, like all things Western, was realized later. Oriole Park at Camden Yards started the rush back towards tradition…by that time however, Baseball was no longer the most popular sport in the US.
Mercedes-Benz Stadium is a big mothafucka. That jawn seats up to 83,000 people. Sure, it’s advertised as having “a cutting-edge curtaining system creating an intimate, high energy setting for soccer matches,” with seating capacity of 42,500, but I still can’t imagine it feeling like Bobby Dodd. They’ve torn down the world just to build the Stadium and I can’t imagine where we’ll tailgate.
But hey, the owner of the Falcons owns Atlanta United and what better way to receive a return on your investment than having both teams play in the same place.
I get it. I just can’t help thinking that if a Soccer-Specific Stadium was built someplace like my older brother suggests, near Atlantic Station, a 40,000 seater, that it would be a better look. Baseball may not be America’s sport anymore, but if MLS teams moved to build in the community, then perhaps the US could join the rest of the world in their love for the World’s favorite sport — Futbol.
