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Atlanta United's feeder team will add to crowded field in Gwinnett

Gwinnett County isn't lacking in professional and minor league teams. Now, they'll be adding a new team to that growing list.
Gwinnett professional team logos

They're four logos that not everyone would recognize but they paint an important picture of sports in metro Atlanta.

They are all logos for professional sports teams - all of them based in Gwinnett County.

Now they're getting a minor league soccer team that will serve as a feeder team for the new and massively popular Atlanta United team.

But can the new team survive in an already crowded minor league market? The Atlanta United made the playoffs and sold more than 880,000 tickets in its first season - a major league soccer record.

Now, their early success will extend to a newly announced expansion club in Gwinnett County.

"I think we will be able to benefit them as far as instructional league for their players who will move up to the top team," Stan Hall, executive director for Gwinnett Sports Commission, said. "But we think we will be able to provide a nice fan base out here for the players while they're in the Gwinnett area."

With a name to be unveiled at a later date, the United's feeder team joins a crowded field in Gwinnett. Baseball, lacrosse, and hockey are already represented. And, in 2018, the Havoc - a new arena football team, will kick off.

One challenge for all of the above is competing with bigger-name franchises in Atlanta.

"We are so close that it is sometimes just as easy for a true fan who wants to watch a baseball game or whatever it might be, [to] hop in the car, head up 85 and go to Mercedes-Benz or go to the new SunTrust Park," Hall said.

One way to measure a team's success is by attendance. In Gwinnett, it has been a roller coaster. The soon-to-be-renamed Gwinnett Braves drew nearly 6,000 fans a game in 2009 - the team's first season in the county.

Years fo declining attendance led to only 3,100 a game showing up on average this past season. On the ice, the Atlanta Gladiators have seen their attendance dip but not as significantly. They have also won one conference championship and three at the division level since first dropping the puck in 2005.

And playing only its second season in Georgia this year, the Swarm won the National Lacrosse League Championship. And attendance shot up during the playoffs as a result.

"That is going to bode well for them going into the next season offering that level of competition and that level of players that you can't see anywhere else in the state of Georgia," Hall said.

The United's new club will share Coolray Field with the Gwinnett Braves. Unique to them, they could benefit from soccer's worldwide appeal - and the county's diversity.

"You think about our population, we are right at a million folks and then, demographically - particularly in this case as it applies to soccer - it is the perfect fit," Hall said. "Gwinnett is a very diverse population - international population - and soccer is the perfect fit."

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