Atlanta United at Mercedes-Benz Stadium
Atlanta United has gone from being one of the newest teams in Major League Soccer to its most supported and one of the best, winning MLS Cup in 2018 and both U.S. Open Cup and Campeones Cup in 2019. Since it joined the league in 2017, the club has led MLS in attendance each year and owns over half of the Top 10 most attended matches in MLS history.
Atlanta United plays at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which opened in 2017 and is one of the premier sports and entertainment facilities in the world. MBS hosted Super Bowl LIII in 2019, the 2018 College Football Playoff National Championship game, the 2018 MLS Cup, the 2018 MLS All-Star Game and is the home stadium of the NFL's Atlanta Falcons, SEC Football Championship, Peach Bowl and Celebration Bowl.
Mercedes-Benz Stadium has retractable seating in order to accommodate an MLS pitch as well as a retractable roof. The stadium can seat 42,500 fans for most MLS matches and can expand to 72,000 for playoff matches and other important games.
Mercedes-Benz Stadium is a mobile ticket-only facility so fans should make sure to download their tickets and place them into their mobile wallet prior to arriving at the stadium.
Mercedes-Benz Stadium is the first professional sports stadium in North America to achieve LEED Platinum Certification by the United States Green Building Council. Mercedes-Benz Stadium is proud to be collaborating with naming rights partner Mercedes-Benz and 11 founding partners, including AT&T, Coca-Cola, Equifax, The Home Depot, Novelis, SCANA Energy, Truist, IBM, Georgia Power, American Family Insurance and Global Payments.
Atlanta United History
Awarded a franchise on April 16, 2014, Atlanta United is owned by Arthur M. Blank and led by club President Darren Eales. The club's opening season in 2017 coincided with the opening of Mercedes-Benz Stadium, although the team played its first nine home games at nearby Bobby Dodd Stadium on the Georgia Tech campus while the finishing touches were being put on its new home.
Atlanta United broke the record for the highest-attended single game in MLS history seven times in its first two seasons and currently owns 9 out of 10 of the Top 10 most attended matches in MLS Regular Season history. During the 2021 season, Atlanta United finished 10th worldwide in average attendance at 43,965. A standing-room-only crowd of 73,019 packed Mercedes-Benz Stadium on December 8, 2018, when Atlanta beat the Portland Timbers 2-0 to win the MLS Cup, giving Atlanta its first major sports championship since the Atlanta Braves won the 1995 World Series.
Originally managed by Gerardo "Tata" Martino, who led the national teams of Paraguay and Argentina as well as FC Barcelona before joining Atlanta in 2016, Atlanta United made the postseason in each of its first two seasons, culminating by winning the 2018 MLS Cup. After winning the title, Martino took the Mexico National Team job, but left MLS with the highest winning percentage (.647) by a head coach in league history. The club then hired Frank de Boer, who previously played and managed for Ajax before making coaching stops at Inter Milan and Crystal Palace, to serve as the second head coach in club history. During his tenure, de Boer led the club to two trophies - the 2019 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup and the 2019 Campeones Cup, which Atlanta United became the first MLS club to win after it defeated Mexico's Club América.
In August 2021, Atlanta United announced Gonzalo Pineda as its new head coach. Pineda came from Seattle Sounders FC where he was a member of the coaching staff for five seasons, helping to lead the team to three appearances in the MLS Cup. In his professional playing career, Pineda played 11 seasons in Liga MX, two in MLS and represented Mexico at the FIFA World Cup in 2006.
