This just in: Atlanta, Ga., is NOT a lousy sports city!
We get interested in college football pretty early down here. (AJC photo by Sunny Sung)
For reasons unclear, I’m occasionally called to converse via radio with an audience in some other town. Invariably I’m asked, “Why is Atlanta such a bad sports city?” And invariably I’ll say this:
“Actually, Atlanta isn’t a bad sports city.”
When folks in other places think of Atlanta sports, they see the empty seats at Braves playoff games or they recall the Falcons and their wild mood swings. (Sometimes they even think of the Hawks. Not the Thrashers, though.) But there’s more to Atlanta sports than the teams that carry the word “Atlanta” on their jerseys. We’re about to see it yet again.
Georgia Tech opens its season against Jacksonville State on Saturday. Georgia, which technically isn’t based in Atlanta but which has something of an Atlanta following, plays Oklahoma State in Stillwater that day. And that night Alabama and Virginia Tech, each ensconced in the top 10, meet under the off-white roof of the Georgia Dome.
And that’s my argument: We might be fickle and trendy when it comes to our pro teams, but when it comes to colleges we aren’t the worst sports city in these United States. We’re the best.
Says Gary Stokan, president of the Atlanta Sports Council: “I tell people all the time that our two biggest pro teams are Georgia and Georgia Tech.”
And it’s not just UGA and Tech. We have alums from everywhere. Take a lap around the Perimeter on an autumn weekend, and you’ll see cars bound for Athens, yes, but also farther north to Clemson. And east to Columbia. And west to Tuscaloosa. And north to Knoxville. And south to Gainesville. And southwest to the loveliest village. One lap and you’ll see so many different flags fluttering from vehicles you’d swear you’d happened upon a mobile United Nations.
Only that’s the thing: We’re not united in our collegiate loyalties. We’re split a dozen different ways. That doesn’t mean we care any less about sports. It just means that, unlike hardy New Englanders, we don’t all hang on Papelbon’s next delivery.
What outsiders fail to grasp is that we Atlantans don’t exactly ignore our pro teams. (Even when there were empty seats at Turner Field in October, did anyone among us not follow the games?) But there’s only so much disposable income and so many fan-hours in a week.
“That’s one thing people don’t consider,” says Khalil Johnson, who just retired as general manager of the World Congress Center and the Georgia Dome. “There’s so much money going out of this town on Saturday afternoons.”
Loading ...But plunk a big-time college game under the off-white roof and see how many empty seats you espy. The SEC championship is an automatic sellout. Ditto the Chick-fil-A Bowl. Ditto the new Kickoff Classic, which this year comes on a weekend when the Braves are home and NASCAR is running at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
I’ve been around this nation of ours, and I can tell you there’s no other major city — not New York, not L.A., not Chicago, not Boston, not Dallas — that behaves as we do on autumn Saturdays. Simply put, we care more about college football than we do about anything else, which isn’t to say we don’t care about the other stuff. But our roots to the college game simply run deeper.
Think of it this way: Bobby Dodd and Vince Dooley were coaching against one another when the Braves were still in Milwaukee. Dodd was coaching against Wally Butts when the Braves were based in Boston.
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197 comments Add your comment
Michael
August 31st, 2009
4:44 pm
Your last paragraph is the true answer to the question. We (Atlanta specifically, but the South in a broader general definition) have been playing college football for well over 100 years. The first professional sports franchise didn’t arrive south of the Mason-Dixon line until the Braves came here in 1966. By then college football was already 3 or 4 generations entrenched into life in the South. Professional sports have simply not, and probably will never, catch up.
Mark Bradley
August 31st, 2009
4:46 pm
Why move to a major league city?
Jobs might enter into the equation, might they not?
Mark Bradley
August 31st, 2009
4:54 pm
And sometimes, I should note, it’s tough for outsiders to gauge a city’s interest. I grew up around Cincinnati, and the Reds weren’t just Cincinnati’s team but the eastern half of Kentucky’s even into West Virginia. The Bengals were a different matter. Their support came almost entirely from the metro area.
mtraininjax
August 31st, 2009
4:54 pm
Mark – Fun read, but the picture of 2 ugly creatures is too much for a Monday….
Fried chicken skin is greasy and delicious
August 31st, 2009
4:57 pm
The Washington Redskins used to be the South’s NFL team.
Dejay
August 31st, 2009
4:57 pm
Well, the reason why there isn’t a rail station anywhere near Turner Field is a simple one; the parking down there isn’t free during baseball season, isn’t it? I wonder where that $$$ goes….
And as far as the Georgia Dome is concerned, while I’m not a big fan of it, if it wasn’t for the Dome, the Falcons would be celebrating Year 20 in JACKSONVILLE this season. The Peach, err, Chick Fil-A Bowl would died years ago and you would’ve never seen the Final Four or the Super Bowl played in an open-air stadium down here with our unpredictable weather. That’s a fact.
I totally agree with Atlanta not being a bad sports town. I’ve been preaching this sermon to deaf ears for years now. Over 3/4s of our populace are transplants who brought their lifelong Yankee/Cowboy/Laker/Red Wing/Cub/Red Sox allegiances with them. So that’s over 4 million folks who will never, EVER pay for tickets unless….
Their hometown team shows up. That explains how 25-30,000 Red Sox fans could magically appear when they play at Turner Field, only to disappear once they leave town.
The local team become major contenders (division winners don’t count; just ask the Braves)
A transcendent superstar emerges who everyone has to see (see Vick, Michael).
We haven’t had the history of telling our kids and having them passing on our stories to their kids about Yankee lore. But we tell them about Herschel Walker, Bo, Emmett Smith, Payton Manning, the Bear, Johnny Majors, et al. And we have more ’say’ to run a guy out of town when our college teams have a dry spell just like they do up north with their pro teams. How many seconds did it take the Red Sox to run Grady Little under the bus after he left Pedro in one batter too many? Down here, longtime coaches like Fulmer and Tuberville had down years and were out the door while Bobby Cox continued to skate with all those playoff losses. That would explain the empty seats, folks.
Speaking of those empty seats during the playoffs, what time did the Braves play those games? Oh yeah, they were during the weekday afternoons. Nothing says ditch your job and pack the house like watching them and the Astros get it on (again) as opposed to the Yankees who always played in prime-time and the Red Sox and Cubs who play in stadiums with the capacity of a split-level house in Duluth.
Transplants kill me with that hokie ‘Atlanta doesn’t sell out and have fairweather fans’ BS. I don’t recall old Foxboro Stadium being packed when the Patriots made the Falcons look like the Showtime Lakers 20 years ago. I sure don’t recall the Mets or Phillies selling out their places when their players were setting tee times and vacation cruises for early-October.
A double standard, folks. That’s all it is….
Mark Bradley
August 31st, 2009
4:59 pm
The Redskins sure did, Fried Chicken …. Same way I grew up rooting for the Cleveland Browns. Because, even though I lived six hours away, those were the NFL games we got every Sunday.
Don’t tell the Mayor of Cleveland that, though. I don’t want to give him the wrong impression.
Dink
August 31st, 2009
5:00 pm
Thanks for the picture Mark, brought a smile to my face!
Hillbilly Deluxe
August 31st, 2009
5:01 pm
The first professional sports franchise didn’t arrive south of the Mason-Dixon line until the Braves came here in 1966.
Actually there were professional sports in Atlanta before that. The Atlanta Crackers baseball team was one of the winningest teams in baseball other than the New York Yankees. They were well supported too. People here were used to winning until the Braves and Falcons came to town. Although the Falcons show signs or doing well now, they were quite horrid for a long time. The Braves were never consistent contenders until Schuerholz came to town. A decade or so of consistantly poor results will kill sports interest in most towns.
Of course none of the transplants know anything about what went on pre-66 because they weren’t here.
Nativebird
August 31st, 2009
5:02 pm
…and communities that afford good jobs indeed need their citizens to reinvest back into that community that provided that good job to them; one typical and traditional way of doing that is supporting the communities team. It’s a two way street. (or at least it used to be).
SWhitt
August 31st, 2009
5:03 pm
I love how they continue to forget the major footballplayed in Tallahassee when college football venues on the periphery of GA are discussed – despite the fact that there is a very visible cohort in ATL from FSU.
Michael
August 31st, 2009
5:05 pm
Hillbilly, I was referring to major league level professional sports. The Crackers were minor league ball.
Mark Bradley
August 31st, 2009
5:05 pm
And that’s a key point, Michael. I’m 53. I went to my first major-league game in 1962 at Crosley Field. Had I been living around Atlanta, I couldn’t have gone to a big-league ballgame then because the Braves were still in Milwaukee.
aztec
August 31st, 2009
5:06 pm
hey i just read that uga has tickets for sale to a couple of home games, are they giving free hot dogs and cokes for each ticket???lol
Fried chicken skin is greasy and delicious
August 31st, 2009
5:08 pm
I remember Mike Phipps and Brian Sipe in the day.
Jmac
August 31st, 2009
5:09 pm
As Diaz from the Braves said so appropriately last year, Atlanta has great pro sports fan but the Georgia Bulldogs fans are all over the place in this state and the UGA football team has the largest fan following in the state, there is no team neither college or pro, I repeat, neither college or pro, that even comes close to those Georgia Bulldogs.
scottbravesfan
August 31st, 2009
5:09 pm
rhynster,
You’ll actually find quite a bit of Braves fans in Chicago and Boston, especially Boston. TBS made the Braves a huge national team. And there are still fans in Boston from when the Braves played there and their grandparents passed the team down to them and they could watch all the games on TBS. I’ve been to a Braves game at Wrigley and there were quite a few Braves fans there the same at Fenway when they play.
And Mark there is no way that Georgia Tech has more fans than the Braves locally. UGA has more fans locally but the Braves by far have more fans locally and obviously nationally than Tech has ever had.
Mark Bradley
August 31st, 2009
5:16 pm
Didn’t say Tech has more fans than the Braves, Scott. Just said the passion runs deeper and has for much longer.
And if you’d like, Fried Chicken, I can tick off the Browns’ 1964 starting lineup from memory: Wooten and Hickerson at guards, Schafrath and Clark at tackle, John Morrow the center, Johnny Brewer the tight end, Collins and Warfield at receiver, Jim Brown and Ernie Green the running backs, Frank Ryan the QB.
On defense, Wiggin and Glass at end, Kanicki and Modzelewski at tackle, Fiss and Houston and Costello at linebacker, Benz and Fitchner at cornerback, Parrish and Beach at safety.
Groza was the kicker. Collins punted. Leroy Kelly returned kicks.
ignition
August 31st, 2009
5:16 pm
THATS NOT TRUE…
This is a prime example of two Atlanta’s and one of them not being properly represented. There is a large majority/minority in this city that does not have the passion for these SEC and ACC schools like Tech and Georgia.. Matter of fact if given a choice of Tenn St vs FAMU tickets or Georgia vs Tenn tickets they going to the dome to see FAMU/Tenn ST play 9 out of 10 times.. Say the same for the Hawks and maybe the Braves, but not the Falcons definitely not the Falcons..
Hillbilly Deluxe
August 31st, 2009
5:16 pm
Actually when I was a kid, the Billy Lothridge-Billy Martin era, Tech had a lot more football fans than Georgia did.
scottbravesfan
August 31st, 2009
5:17 pm
Dejay,
Awesome post man keep it up. ESPN hosts are all from the North east they are biased as hell towards the New York and Boston teams and they talk about the Cowboys because twenty years ago they were supposedly America’s team. They don’t even really talk about the Steelers that much and they have been awesome this decade and have 6 titles but if Tony Romo sneezes it leads off sportscenter.
And as a huge baseball fan I can back you up on the Vet being empty and barely 15,000 fans there way back in the year 2002. Phillie didn’t start supporting the Phillies until they got a new stadium and Howard started hitting all of those home runs. And you know what? Google when the last time the Philadelphia 76ers have sold out a playoff game, it was back in 2001 when they went to the finals. Their arena was half empty last year during the playoffs and ESPN didn’t say a WORD! But lord forbid there be only 42,000 people at Turner Field for a Tuesday afternoon game at 1pm in a stadium that sits 50,000 and it’s the lead freakin story on ESPN. I hate ESPN with a passion.
And the New York Yankees have sold out ONE game this year at their new over priced stadium. They didn’t even sell out opening day. And yet no one mentions it. The Braves have sold out several games this year.
UGA NO NATIONAL TITLE IN 28 YEARS
August 31st, 2009
5:19 pm
Tech grads leave the Atlanta area move to other states.UGA grads stay in Atlanta to operate a Waffle House, Krystal. Also plenty bandwagon fans in Georgia.A couple years ago the Washington Post wrote a article about the all the bandwagon fans in Atlanta.
Mark Bradley
August 31st, 2009
5:19 pm
One thing I’ve learned in the 25 years I’ve been here: You should never underestimate the feeling Tech people have for their team. You can make fun of the unfilled seats if you like, but there are a slew of people who care deeply about this program.
scottbravesfan
August 31st, 2009
5:23 pm
Tech does have a lot of students from out of state that come to Atlanta just to go to school there the same for Emory. Both schools are nationally recognized as being great academic schools.
Nativebird
August 31st, 2009
5:23 pm
DeeJay is SO right. My father in law is from New York, and if the Yankees don’t win the world series, he says he’s through with them. Doesn’t go to a game, nor watches on TV. Oh but as soon as they’re in the ALCS agin, oh here we go with the Bronx Bombers and playing stick ball in the streets and all that NY blathering BS.
It’s a bunch of made up nastolgia for the TV networks to sell crap to a market of 12 Million people in a single city.
Mark Bradley
August 31st, 2009
5:26 pm
Fun fact: In 1996 the Braves and Yankees played in the Series. The Braves’ attendance that regular season was 2.9 million. The Yankees’ was 2.25 million.
gators81
August 31st, 2009
5:27 pm
there are more gators in atlanta than nole fans in orlando!!
drahcir61
August 31st, 2009
5:30 pm
The Atlanta area has 4 major sports teams although their history & championships can’t compare to the cities mentioned above. There are a lot of transplants here (including myself for 16 years). Many of us are devoted life-long fans of the teams we rooted for growing up as a kid.
The suggestion that “spinless homers” should become Atlanta fans just because we live here is idiotic. To think that I would change my loyalty from Boston sports teams just because I live in Atlanta makes about as much sense as a Dawgs fan becoming a Gators fan just because he/she moved to Florida. Ahhhhh … not gonna happen.
And to suggest that GA Tech & UGA football somehow make Atlanta a great sports city just because fans pack stadiums on an autumn day is absurd. Most UGA fans never even attended the university, they just grew up here & they’re loyal to the local college team. I mean, what else is there to root for? It’s also very unlikely to find Dawgs fans outside of Georgia. That’s not an insult, it’s just how it is.
In contrast, the Boston area has Boston University (same size as UGA), Harvard & Northeastern (both larger than GA Tech), MIT, BC, & UMass-Boston (all greater than 10,000 students). All of those schools are within 10 miles of the downtown area. It’s not all about college football up there … they all have basketball, baseball, soccer, hockey, & lacrosse teams. The annual Beanpot hockey tournament (BU, BC, Harvard, Northeastern) draws more fans than a Thrashers game. On top of that, there is a huge number of division II & division III colleges that most people have never heard of.
Atlanta is not a bad sports city, it’s just different. People love their college football, college basketball, & NASCAR. Just don’t tell me the Atlanta sports scene is so great because of what happens on autumn Saturday afternoons in Athens.
Mark Bradley
August 31st, 2009
5:31 pm
Here’s another fun fact: The University of Kentucky alumni chapter in Atlanta is the second-biggest in the nation, behind only the one in Louisville. I think you’ll find Atlanta is home to almost every Southern school’s second-largest alumni group.
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August 31st, 2009
5:46 pm
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Gator CHOMP Champ
August 31st, 2009
5:46 pm
Athens is NO Gainesville, but the games are well attended. Athens is over an hour from Atlanta and you can’t claim it as part of the city. GT is a perfect mirror of Atlanta-hardly if ever sell out unless the team’s having an excellent season (do they even sellout then?). Typical GT game I see on tv is poorly attended and I’ve tailgated there-yuck. Atlanta is LOUSY sports town. Games only well attended if team is having a winning season. GO GATORS-proud that Atlanta is no Gainesville either.
Go Dawgs
August 31st, 2009
5:51 pm
Gator clown champ is right about one thing-how can Athens be considered as Atlanta?
Jmac
August 31st, 2009
5:52 pm
Greatest Number of Fans in order: Georgia Bulldogs, Braves, Falcons, Hawks, Georgia Southern Eagles, Gwinett Braves , Georgia Tech.
Jmac
August 31st, 2009
5:54 pm
Tech has great Dungeons & Dragons fans, I will give them that
Mr. Obvious
August 31st, 2009
5:56 pm
Atlanta is NOT a lousy sports town.
We just happen to have a LOUSY SPORTS DEPARTMENT in our local, America-hating, Christian-bashing, socialist-praising rag of a “newspaper.”
Hillbilly Deluxe
August 31st, 2009
5:58 pm
You could look at it like Atlanta is a more discerning sports town and won’t buy tickets unless they think they are paying for a quality product. Me, I don’t feel I owe any team, anything. If they want my money, they have to give me a reason to spend it.
UGASlobberknocker
August 31st, 2009
6:02 pm
Well explained, Mark. The other point is this: in places like Philadelphia, Detroit and Boston, those pro teams have multiple generation followings which explains a lot of the loyalty. Fan’s fathers, their fathers and grandfathers all were, e.g. Eagles fans.Here in the South, all of our sports teams are just now hitting the second generation, and a large part of the population is from other areas, so the Atlanta pro team isnt even the top pro team…just like if I moved to St.L. Id pull for the Cards..until they played the Braves. With those factors, the depth of feeling isnt there for the pro teams here. That same dynamic, though, enhances the college fan base with the variety of alums in the area.
The multi generational loyalty IS there for college teams since they have been around for over a century.
Big Boy
August 31st, 2009
6:03 pm
Atlanta is a city of losers, plain and simple.
Bat Masterson
August 31st, 2009
6:19 pm
Sounds like Big Boy needs his dipper changed, he’s a little cranky.
Ken Stallings
August 31st, 2009
6:22 pm
The Atlanta criticisms are among the worst fictions in sports journalism. It also reflects the New York bias in journalism. Not only was Shea often poor in attendance, but back in the early 1990’s when Fulton County stadium was rocking, Yankees Stadium had a lot of empty seats in an area with ten times the population of the metro Atlanta area.
Fenway also has 50% of the seating of Turner Field and old Fulton County stadium. It’s a whole lot easier to sell out Fenway, and again, compare the population in the area.
Further, why do such comparisons always center upon the baseball teams? Anyone had a look at Foxboro before the Patriots started doing well again? Their attendance then was poor. The New York Giants and Jets both have experienced poor fan draws compared to the Georgia Dome also, and yes again, despite the vastly larger population base.
The points made about the university sports programs is excellent and there’s nothing more to add to what Bradley already documented.
blazerdawg
August 31st, 2009
6:23 pm
Thanks for at least bringing up the topic Mark. Other towns columnists boast about their attendance at every opportunity, and the AJC seems to take a different view, so this is a welcome change.
Statistics will show that the Braves and Falcons draw exceptionally well when the teams are doing well, and I have been to a number of stadiums and have yet to hear a crowd as loud as the Falcons crowd can get. (Otis Nixon’s catch in AFC was the loudest crowd I have ever heard in any venue)
My perspective is that, for professional sports, Atlanta supports visible effort and passion and that if the pros are not putting out their all, then we are smart enough to find something else to do. I am proud of that. Let those idiots in Cleveland and Chicago root for a shirt; I’ll spend my time on a team that reciprocates the effort to go to the park/stadium.
MiltonDawg
August 31st, 2009
7:15 pm
MB- you also need to factor in GA ST when they start their football season next year. That will create a whole new fan base as well.
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drahcir61
August 31st, 2009
7:21 pm
Dobearsbare: The Boston MSA has 12-13 million people??? Obviously you’ve never been to Boston or New England. The entire state of Massachusetts has only 6.5M.
The Atlanta MSA is #8 with 5.3M, Boston is #10 at 4.5M people.
blazerdawg
August 31st, 2009
7:21 pm
Gator – Athens is NO Gainesville. Really? C’mon.
brad
August 31st, 2009
7:23 pm
I’ve been to many football games in Athens and Tallahassee, even been to the Swamp. The loudest stadium I ever heard without a doubt was at the Falcons home playoff game against the Rams a few years ago. Absolutely deafing!!
brad
August 31st, 2009
7:24 pm
Oh yeah…game 6 againt the Celtics was just as loud!!
Not Disappointed
August 31st, 2009
7:27 pm
Mark, are you more ready for college football or NFL? Be honest to yourself, or do you just a sports writer that is misunderstood?
Cant wait for college football. Sorry, it’s off subject, but I feel better now.
Ramblin Wreck!
Michigan State
August 31st, 2009
7:31 pm
Most of you have never been to a Big Ten football game. That will show you a thing or two about being a true fan. When you stand in snow up to your knees and the wind is blowing so hard it knocks you off your feet. To think, all of this begins at LEAST 6 hours before the game starts. And even if your team doesn’t win and your fingers are frozen you still had the time of your life!!!!!!!!!
GO BIG GREEN
Nativebird
August 31st, 2009
7:40 pm
and oh yes, don’t forget about the Atlanta resident Boston / New York fans who ditched their gear in 1995, donned their Cursive A hat’s and Tomahawk jersey’s and chopped their little yankee bu++’s all the way to the World Championship, and there were MANY. But alas, like most carpetbagger band wagonner’s, once the bright lights faded, they were back to the “oh yes, I’ve been Sawx fan since my grandfatha packed caa’s down by the Rivaa” crap. All blather.