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.
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
197 comments Add your comment
Chieftan
September 1st, 2009
8:30 am
Where there is smoke there is usually fire. Yes, there are passionate college football fans in the Atlanta area. But I would argue that most are bandwagon jumpers as far as the pro teams are concerned.
Take for instance last weeks series against the Marlins. Very big series and most of the noise was from Marlins fans in attendance.
If Atlanta fans want to prove their mettle (most I would think do not) show up at the games.
Bravisie
September 1st, 2009
8:36 am
Please stop all of the transplant BS. I have been hearing that argument for the last 20 years. Do you honestly expect people to believe that there are not enough locals left to support the teams.
Enough is enough. That is the single lamest argument for people not supporting their local teams.
j
September 1st, 2009
8:36 am
GtFan, yeah the Hawks and Thrashers suck … where do you come up with that statement? just b/c neither sport applies to you doesn’t mean both the teams suck … same w/ the Braves … all of them have young talent … THIS is why atlanta sports fans are the worst, they have no passion for their teams (albeit a couple hundred do)
David
September 1st, 2009
8:45 am
University of west Georgia!! wooooooooo go wolves…haha
coachx
September 1st, 2009
8:46 am
Why does Atlanta have as many Vick fans as Falcons fans ?
coachx
September 1st, 2009
8:47 am
Most of the Falcons fans live far from Atlanta………..I don’t know any one in my season ticket section that lives within 35 miles of the city.
Tancred
September 1st, 2009
8:48 am
Enter your comments here
Dr. R
September 1st, 2009
8:48 am
What’s odd is how slowly these things change. As mentioned, most Atlantans are transplants these days from other places. What’s more, I grew up here in the 60s and 70s and my memories are of Braves games and Falcon games, not Tech and the Bulldogs. The pro teams didn’t just land here a few years ago, like in other cities. Most native Atlantans have actually grown up in a pro sports town, yet the allegiances still gravitate toward the amateur teams. Odd. I think if the Braves and Falcons hadn’t been so bad for so long, those allegiances would have changed long ago. Lousy teams don’t have followings. That’s more what this is all about. Anyway, there’s room for everyone.
ann lewis
September 1st, 2009
8:51 am
it’s not atlanta, IT’S GEORGIA
ann lewis
September 1st, 2009
8:52 am
TELL ME IF I’M WRONG GEORGIA IS BROKE. WONDERFUL REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP.
Dr. R
September 1st, 2009
8:54 am
Only a Democrat would think a state is broke because of who got elected. It’s the economy, stupid. I will say this: We’re nowhere near as broke as liberal California. Anyway, this is a sports blog; take the politics over to Jay Bookman.
Tancred
September 1st, 2009
9:01 am
Only a town as insecure as Atlanta would build an area with A T L A N T A spelled out in huge metal letters, as if people need to know where they are. How stoopid. And no, rabidly supporting two college teams filled with failing student athletes does not make The ATL “the best.” At least you have a pro quarterback who went to college in Boston, a REAL sports town. And Athens isn’t Atlanta. Didn’t integrate until 1962, but now you just love your black players. What a joke.
FalconsFan
September 1st, 2009
9:05 am
This subject seems to make the “native” GA folk really whine.. enough with the transient/transplant city garbage, most major cities are transient city. Atlanta may not be the greatest sports city, but it certainly is full of the biggest whiners and excuse makers in the country. Why can’t you all just accept that the Atlanta market is more interested in other activities and attending sporting events ranks low on the priority list of the Atlanta area? A whole whopping~ 2% of the Atlanta area goes to college football games, which means ~98% of community does other things besides sitting in a stadium. Blame the roads and “transients” all you want but there are better things to do in Atlanta besides watching sports and this is coming from a Falcons Season Ticket Holder.
FalconsFan
September 1st, 2009
9:09 am
By the way the excuse that people don’t go to watch the Falcons because of the Georgia Dome is yet another lame cop out. The Dome is far superior than the hole that the Giant/Jets play in and is far superior than past stadiums that were sold out around the NFL year in and year out.
Atlanta sports fans = biggest whiners ever.
Dr. R
September 1st, 2009
9:13 am
Boston isn’t one to talk about racial problems. Seems your busing riots continued long after ours ended. Anyway, go blog on The Globe site and leave us be.
And as a native Atlantan, I can say that, yes, we are big-time whiners. I think it comes from a natural sense of inferiority bestowed by our friends from the big cities up North. We’ve always been wannabes, never more evident than during our regrettable posturing in the 1996 Olympics. Atlantans are looked down on by the rest of the South as being stuck-up cityfolk, but also by cityfolk from elsewhere as being hayseeds from Tara. We really don’t fit in with either crowd and never have. Which is why we learn on each other and celebrate what we do have in common: The Varsity, Stone Mountain, the Big Chicken and our sports teams.
Jay
September 1st, 2009
9:22 am
Transplant…That’s why Atlanta does not appear to be a sports’ town. Empty seats are the result of the transplants having other team loyalties. Half the people in metro Atlanta are originally from other cities and follow those teams, not the Braves. That’s why when you go to a Braves-Cubs game or a Braves-Red Sox game the stadium is half filled with Cubs’ fans or Red Sox fans.
Atlanta Nole
September 1st, 2009
9:44 am
Hey Bradley, some of us also make the 4 1/2 hour trip to the most beautiful city in Florida on gameday weekends, Tallahassee! Not all of Atlantans who are alumni from a Florida school were jorts and have mullets! Go ‘Noles!
Tancred
September 1st, 2009
9:44 am
“Seems your busing riots continued long after ours ended”
WTF? I didn’t even know you had busing riots. Atlanta did “stealth” integration, with a total of about 10 blacks going to 8 schools. Then after Jackson became mayor…WHITE FLIGHT!
I find it sad that on Braves game day you have all these bug-eyed white folks from OTP come in on MARTA (which they can’t even cough up 1 penny tax to help run)and then run home to their sad McMansions out in Cobb or Gwinnett after it’s over. Yeah, I’m a goddam Yankee transplant, but I’ve lived and worked ITP in Atlanta for over ten years, so I’m part of your city. One thing the ATL has that I like are lots of beautiful black women. ATL is The Best for that. And I do like the Big Chicken. And Turner is a nice place to catch a game (when the Red Sox are in town!) LOL!!
GTFan
September 1st, 2009
9:49 am
I don’t hear anything about the Hawks nor the Thrashers. And, yes I know the Braves are a young team, but they still need to get it together. Especially with some of their veterans, ex. Chipper Jones. I wouldn’t mind seeing them make it all the way, but I have to see it to believe it! Atlanta is best know for college football, and the NFL. No passion, are you kidding me? I am not going to root for teams that get all the way and screw it up.
BehindEnemyLines
September 1st, 2009
9:49 am
Seems to me that this is largely about national pundits speaking in short hand rather than being precise. Atlanta IS a lousy PRO sports town, simple truth is that relatively few people have more than a casual interest, which is what I generally think the talking heads around the country are typically saying, except that they leave out the word “pro” since for most of them that’s the only thing they could possibly be talking about, college sports simply isn’t competitively relevant in most of their markets. Atlanta ISN’T a lousy sports town in general, just as you point out with this column but we’re in the minority of major markets that can make the distinction and include college sports in the mix.
GTFan
September 1st, 2009
9:50 am
I am just ready for college football…thank god it’s 4 days away!!!!
pd
September 1st, 2009
9:51 am
I used to be a huge college football fan. Over the years I gradually cared less and less. This is directly due to the lack of a playoff system. Once a team you are pulling for loses one game, you don’t have to watch the rest of the season.
I now prefer pro events in every sport.
Now, as far as going to the games, I maybe go to two or three Braves games, one falcons game, and three Hawks games a year.
I would do more, but the ticket prices are absolutely ridiculous. Especially for the Hawks. Well over half of the arena is corporate tickets that are given away to people who aren’t fans, but just looking for something to do that given night.
$85 to sit 20 rows from the floor. Garbage!
Tim Teeball
September 1st, 2009
9:54 am
Yankees are known for being professional, career fan boys and girls. In addition to the transplant/tumbleweed factor, with outsiders coming down here looking for a better life, most Southerners truly have other/better things to do than sit on their butts, feed their faces, and cheer for overpaid boys who play games on fields or courts. If you’ve ever visited most major Northern cities, you can understand I guess. Being a fan is about all they have.
Tancred
September 1st, 2009
10:11 am
“Southerners truly have other/better things to do than sit on their butts, feed their faces…”
You are kidding, right?
Jeff
September 1st, 2009
10:17 am
First, Mark, you are parroting the Gary Stokan “We get big events here in Atlanta and that makes us a great sports city” line. The events we get here have NOTHING to do with support of the teams based here. Second, I love the Southerners like Nativebird’s inane posts about the fact that this is a transient city and that’s why playoff games don’t sell out. I’ve been here for 23 years, and have several friends who are natives: hate to tell you buddy, but it’s the transplants who go to the games here, not you “natives” who could give a damn about any team not named Dawgs or Yellow Jackets. Face it, there are great fans in GA and the ATL of college football, but when it comes to pro teams, the fans here are bad.
same old Falcon and fans
September 1st, 2009
10:29 am
Pro sport team are clue less and bias and not winner!
Tancred
September 1st, 2009
10:35 am
“AtlantaSportsFan” is a homo.”
Was that supposed to be an insult? And that comment makes you a __________
William Casey
September 1st, 2009
11:29 am
I’ve lived in Atlanta for 56 of my 60 years (4 years in NC). I’m a GT fan but respect UGA fans because they love their team. I was once a pro sports fan as well but have lost interest as they have increasingly gone “corporate” and ticket prices have skyrocked. I don’t really care if you (or ESPN) thinks Atlanta is a good sports town or not…. I’m a good sports fan. I welcome “transplants” to Atlanta but if you don’t like it here….. DELTA IS READY WHEN YOU ARE!
Slimpickens
September 1st, 2009
11:35 am
Not a bad sports city just a city full of bad sports writers!
Tancred
September 1st, 2009
11:35 am
You haven’t seen poor attendence until you’ve gone to an Atlanta Dream game. Yikes. Too bad, too, because they can play some good hoops (finally).
Pi$$onaDawg
September 1st, 2009
11:54 am
MARK that is a perfect point. The next dome will have a retractable roof. HAHAHAH. Screw overpaid pro Whores(I mean players) that need my tax money or bonds to help build the place they earn a dollar. I like to watch FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS and for the last 35 years my Saturdays are spent with Dad in Bobby Dodd on The Flats. Falcon games I have attended I could count on both hands. The Braves run in the early 90’s had the town sleep deprived and still doing the Chop while driving down the road. PS you left out the Classic and The Battle of the Bands party that comes to the Dome. Pro sports in the south just don’t matter that much. The College games bring HUGE money into smalltowns all over the south, but Pro teams make money for the BIG CITY. Dad and I don’t give much money to the Athletic Fund, but our money goes to the Academic Fund. Our Future doesn’t get better with an overpaid Pro player, but the next educated student. Most Pros start funds and foundatations to avoid taxes. Some Pros truly care and put their money back into the community for better schools not sports programs.
Steven Dickerhoff
September 1st, 2009
12:12 pm
The problem with Atlanta sports fans is not the ATLANTA sports fan. The problem is with THEM … Transplants, Northerners, Yankees … THEM. As you pointed-out in your column, the Southern sports fans are fanatical about Southern sports. It’s those Yankee sports where Atlanta fans get their “less-than” reputation. In a city of 4 million, I guess half are locals. It’s that other half that is letting us down.
My entire life, I’ve been lectured to about how I am lacking as a fan, especially compared to THEM from UP-THERE. How? The way I see it THEY are terrible fans. THEY live here of their own free-will, but refuse to accept Atlanta as their adopted home town. Maybe these mythological, passionate sports fans I’ve heard about are the ones that stay put. They send us all the bad fans. It’s been common place throughout history for the motherland to dump their less desirables on some place else. We must get their refuse, because I just don’t see how THEY are superior fans.
Just think of the town Atlanta could be, and not just as a sports town, if THEY would choose to support their adopted home town. Maybe not as their number one team, but second or third, hell some level of routing interest. The ones I know take a special glee when the Braves and Falcons (I’ve heard there might be two more teams) fall short. Why do these so-called great fans refuse to support Atlanta?
I’ll tell you why. It goes back to their designation as THEM. It is not US who consider THEM, THEM. It is THEM who cling to their identity as THEM. A subconscious conflict creates confusion and guilt. Guilt over choosing to live HERE as they wax poetically about their idyllic home town UP-THERE. Often, on a January Sunday afternoon, as I’m lining up a par putt, my Northern buddy will be berating Atlanta, and not just as a sports town, everything. “You can’t get a good bagel anywhere,” he says as he tees it up on the 9th hole. Walking down the fairway on grass to our balls, he continues about the infrequent use of turn signals down HERE, as he holds a 7 iron in his hands instead of a snow shovel.
He won’t admit it, but he likes it HERE. And he ain’t going back. But the since of guilt he has over abandoning his how town causes him to reject his new adopted home town, at least on the surface. THEY need to get over their insecurity and guilt and accept Atlanta as home, well at least until they get transferred to Seattle. Doesn’t the stew and que make up for the pizza? I know it’s reversed, buy aren’t adoptive parents supposed to love their kids more because they choose them?
stacks
September 1st, 2009
12:32 pm
Yes Tech has a smaller stadium and does not routinely sell out, some of which can be attributed to the town. In order to fill Bobby Dodd one out of two graduates must attend, considering we just eclipsed the 100,000 graduate mark. So if a town of 5 million won’t embrace it you get similar results as the professionals do.
Pi$$onaDawg
September 1st, 2009
1:21 pm
CUZ where are U? I know you have something to say. Is Baylie doing well? You know as soon as Dad and I walk from Bobby Dodd we will go to the VARSITY and watch the UGA game. CUZ I need my fill of your funny posts. CUZ CUZ CUZ say something funny. Kiss Baylie and prayers with her recovery. Be safe this weekend. I Still Hope OSU wins.
Jeff
September 1st, 2009
1:37 pm
Steve, you have it completely wrong: the first thing any person from the South says ANY time an Atlanta or southern sports fan (or for any reason for that matter) is criticized is to utter the “transplant”, “Yankee” or “Northern” label in a derogatory way. It’s not “us” who define ourselves as northerners first; I have been here for over 20 years, and root for Atlanta sports teams first, other than my college alma mater, it’s more like “you” who immediately start talking about the Mason-Dixon line and using Civil War labels. Get over it already.
Pi$$onaDawg
September 1st, 2009
1:40 pm
That PIC is GREAT. A fat female child pushing away a fat UGLY dog. TOO funny that it don’t happen all around Athens after a football game.
MJ
September 1st, 2009
1:58 pm
Sorry but you cant be a good sports town just because you’re passionate about one sport. The college craze in the south doesnt make up for the lack caring for everything else. And Atlanta is also terrible when it comes to college basketball too, so you cant even say they’re passionate about college sports in general….just college football. So you have 1 thing Atlanta (or GA in general) is passionate about. That’s pathetic.
blazerdawg
September 1st, 2009
2:02 pm
Right on SD @ 12:12 PM.
Love ATL or leave ATL!
dan
September 1st, 2009
2:44 pm
Interesting article,
I think you make some good points Mark. I can see the argument either way. I think Atlanta fans can be fickle. But I also think Atlanta fans will get behind their sports teams when it’s warranted( the Braves in the early 1990’s had a great following). The thing about Atlanta’s pro teams is that they have lacked consistent success as opposed to other places like Pittsburgh or Boston. And the way I feel; if Braves players get paid millions of dollars to go out there and half ass, then they deserve a band wagon following, you know? I think Atlanta fans are just tired of being let down. A team like the Falcons will give us something to believe in one year and then mail it in the next. Or our teams will be good for a period of time( Braves and Hawks), but then choke in the playoffs when it counts. If Players play hard and have success, fans will support them. It’s a two way street.
macrotech
September 1st, 2009
4:18 pm
Jmac, AND uga has the best cow tipping program EVER!!!
macrotech
September 1st, 2009
4:26 pm
Hammer22, I’ll meet you over at the gstu blog….
southern sports fan
September 1st, 2009
5:30 pm
Mark and others, Atlanta-area has FIVE professional sports teams ! You haven’t mentioned the WNBA Atlanta Dream – which has a very good base of support in only its second year and a very good chance to make the playoffs. All you folks who prefer college sports should go to a game – its very much like good college basketball, and affordable, family friendly, and fun. The athletes are the cream of the crop, great role models, and supportive of their community.
dunwoodybrave
September 1st, 2009
5:56 pm
Mark,
There’s another side of this issue that your column didn’t address: Atlanta’s great weather makes it a great sports town FOR RECREATIONAL SPORTS, not just spectator sports.
Think about it: If you’re a golfer and live in Boston or NY, you’ve either got to have $100k or more to join a country club–or be willing to hoof it as much as an hour into the suburbs to play at a muni (and wait 2-3 hours for a tee time, and that’s if you’re lucky). The general lack of green space forces sports fans to be spectators, rather than players.
Consider my life in Atlanta: My nine-year-old son plays baseball alongside probably 600 other boys at Murphey-Candler, and you’ll find similar turnouts at Buckhead Baseball, Shaw Park, and East Cobb. We play golf together on weekends at Legacy and Foxcreek, and yes, we still take in Hawks, Falcons and Braves games together (and with friends). I help judges my kids’ dive meets (Georgia State Class C Certified judge, that’s me), and attend my daughter’s ALTA matches (did I mention that Atlanta has the largest tennis league in the country?) My wife played ALTA until her knees gave in, but she’s still trying to get me out on the courts. Oh, and my son plays flag football, and both kids played soccer.
And we’re probably just an average Atlanta family.
I hear the criticisms that Atlanta is a bad sports city, mostly by the transplanted Yankees on the AM sports talk stations. But if Louie from Younkers is more of a sports fan because he forks out $110 for bleacher seats at Citi Field off StubHub, where he quaffs six beers and 3 brats while cursing and throwing batteries at the right fielder for the other team (or for his own team, mind you)…then by that standard, I guess I’m not much of a sports fan. And Atlanta isn’t much of a sports town.
west is best?
September 4th, 2009
9:35 am
I know I’m very late to this “party” but just noticed this piece and wanted to get (mostly Mark Bradley’s) comments. The Denver, Colorado metro area is maybe half the size of the Atlanta metro area, however, the area supports 6 major league franchises (NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, major league soccer, and major league lacrosse). Additionally, the Broncos have been sold out for decades, and the Rockies initially set attendance records, this in an area where there are more than ample recreational opportunities. Comments?
FalconsFan
September 4th, 2009
9:58 am
Keep blaming the “transplants”… if some of you bothered to leave the state of Georgia you’d notice the entire country is based on people moving from city to city for their jobs, to be closer to family, etc. It’s easy to blame this mysterious crowd of people… typical of today’s culture though.. blame someone else for the problem.
Bradley's Buzz: Sporting News says we're No. 13! Yes! | Mark Bradley
October 7th, 2009
1:44 pm
[...] though, I feel affirmed. I’ve been making the Atlanta-is-not-a-crummy-sports-town argument for years now, and I’d begun to wonder if I was flying Han Solo on this. Now I know I’m [...]
ATLGuy77
April 14th, 2010
12:19 pm
Yeah, factor this, factor that. We are not talking about College football. We are talking about Pro-Sports. Also, last time I checked the Bulldogs played in Athens, nowhere close to Atlanta!? Stop trying to defend this town. I just moved to Chicago 1 year ago and this town IS a sports town. No doubt about it. The Cubs suck yet you can’t get a ticket less than $50 and they are always sold out. The Bears also sucked in 09 and I paid $90 for nose bleeds. The people up there love their sports team. Arthure Blank needs to tear down the Dome and build a smaller capacity open air stadium. Turner Field needs to build more nightlife, bars, etc around it….ala Wrigley.