OPINION: Atlanta United shouldn't raise season ticket prices

The team has been bad for longer than the team has been good

In the next couple of weeks, Atlanta United will likely send out an email to season ticket holders asking them to renew for 2025. They’ll talk about “17s” being the lifeblood of the club and throw marketing buzzwords around that have been focus-group tested by focus groups who have been focus-group approved. And then, they may ask season-ticket holders to pay more for their tickets in 2025 than they did in 2024. That’s how it’s worked nearly every year since the team’s inaugural season.

Based on the last few weeks: How? Based on this season: How? Based on the last few years: How? Based on what’s now the majority of the team’s existence: How? 

Those aren’t questions of process. The mechanics of it are obvious. They’ll just change a few numbers. It’s a question of rationale. How do you justify it? Yeah, plenty of people are going to pay up. It might be fewer people than ever, but they’ll pay up. They’re attached to the team. The club may even see a short-term increase in revenue if they bump prices high enough. But this isn’t about a bottom line. 

Since the end of the 2019 season, Atlanta United have earned 188 points. Of the 26 teams who were in the league during the 2020 season, Atlanta United has earned the 20th most points. If we’re going by points per game over that span, Atlanta’s 1.28 points per game mark is 23rd out of 29 teams. They’re four and a half years deep into giving fans a product that’s been slightly less than mediocre. 

That being said, things should get better. This summer’s dismissal of Gonzalo Pineda and the transfer of two Designated Players feels like an official endpoint to a version of Atlanta United that’s been a resounding failure. They’re going to spend big and they’re going to find a head coach with the potential to be a long-term solution. It’s a club that’s as close to “too big to fail” as it gets in MLS. And a roster fully made in Garth Lagerwey’s image should be one that’s a contender. 

But that’s not a given. Atlanta United isn’t entitled to success and they aren’t entitled to people’s money. They’ve got to earn it. Since the end of 2019, they haven’t. 

It’s anecdotal, but Atlanta United fans on social media, in the Five Stripe Final Discord and elsewhere are already having open discussions about whether or not to renew. Those discussions will become more regular over the next couple of weeks. If prices jump again, the cost relative to the team’s performance may make those decisions easier for a whole lot of people. 

There is some good news there at least. Garth Lagerwey told 92.9 The Game in early July that the club will be introducing a season-ticket buyback program. For those that can’t make a game, they’ll be able to sell it back to the club. The details there will be announced at a later date. But it does make it far more likely ticket holders will be able to recoup their value. It’s a worthwhile, fan-first program. But it’s also an acknowledgment that resale tickets these days often sell for below their original price or don’t sell at all. 

It’s not just that the goodwill from the team’s first three seasons is fading. It’s that raising ticket prices is antithetical to the messaging from the club. You want to grow the game and your fanbase? Make it easier to be a part of. You want everyone to ride the wave of major international events coming through the city this year and during the 2026 World Cup? Make surfboards affordable. You want more athletes from metro Atlanta to choose soccer? Make it cheaper to get in the building and dream about what it could be like to be on the field. You want to bring back the atmosphere that built the club’s reputation those first three seasons? Well, first, start winning again. But don’t shut out the people most willing to help build it.

Friend of Five Stripe Final Curt Castle brought up a concept called the “Trust Thermocline” recently. Basically, when you descend deeper and deeper into a large body of water, the temperature gets gradually colder until you get a little deeper and it suddenly drops significantly. You can apply the same concept to subscription-based products. Users will tolerate gradual price increases and drops in quality for a while. But as soon as their return on investment isn’t worth it anymore, those users bail. And, typically, you don’t get them back. 

The water is in danger of becoming freezing cold for Atlanta United. The product isn’t good enough. And without significant changes, the irrational level of trust fans put into their team has every possibility of fading away if they’re asked to pay more to stick around. 

Why would they at this point? The team doesn’t win. The technical director in charge of building these rosters, Carlos Bocanegra, is under contract through 2025. Jonathan Spector, the head of international recruiting and development since August of 2019 will also play a role in a critical summer transfer window. That’s not to say they need to lose their jobs. It’s to point out that the team is entering an ultimate “prove-it” moment this summer, and having the same decision-makers who designed the last three and a half seasons-worth of rosters design the next edition doesn’t inspire the kind of confidence that demands fans bet on having a good time at Atlanta United games by spending more of their money. 

The real bottom line is that the club is in debt. They’ve had four and a half seasons where they haven’t been contenders and three seasons where they were. They have to prove their worth to supporters now. Not the other way around.