Atlanta Silverbacks Confirm Deal with Traffic Sports to Resurrect Team for 2011 Season
On Wednesday, the Atlanta Silverbacks of the provisionally sanctioned Division II Pro soccer league, NASL, released an official press release. The organization confirmed they will play in that league for the 2011 season. The Silverbacks, who had been primarily owned by Boris Jerkunica, also confirmed previous rumors that the team will be jointly owned by Traffic Sports USA. The statement mentions “a long term joint venture with Traffic USA” but details were not provided.
Traffic USA owns the Miami FC Blues and has been very influential in the NASL’s attempt to sanction Division II pro soccer in the U.S. Traffic USA is owned by Traffic Sports of Brazil who are a large worldwide soccer management company who also deal with soccer talent.
“After working five years to create a league that is team-owner controlled and managed, we are thrilled that USSF has sanctioned the NASL and we are excited to get back to playing soccer again,” said Boris Jerkunica, Chairman of the Atlanta Silverbacks.
Although not confirmed, the deal is believed to be at least a 3-year agreement with Traffic committing cash to the club each year. Team president Michael Oki told IMS that the team will hold a press conference next week when they will release more details involving the agreement and the team’s organizational structure.
The Silverbacks played at the D II level from 1998 to 2008 at which time the organization pulled out because of frustrations with the economy and lack of interest after there had been talk of an MLS team coming to Atlanta. The MLS team never materialized but the team never entered back into the D2 market either. Jerkunica was supportive of the efforts of the NASL to wrangle away the sanctioning rights of D II from the USL. The Silverbacks were originally scheduled to play again in 2010 as a NASL-affiliated team but pulled out and didn’t even look as if they would field a team in the 2011 season until the last several weeks.
The team plays at Atlanta Silverbacks Park which is owned by the team and is a soccer-specific stadium with a seating capacity of 5,000.
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Wait… Traffic from Brazil will now own Atlanta and Miami? What is in this for Traffic?
How many other NASL teams does Traffic own? Didn’t they take over Minnesota too. And Miami FC bleeds money. They are going to be writing some big checks.
I would expect that they will own all the players on these teams. There was a scathing article about Traffic’s handling of a youth national team player recently:
http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/news/_/id/5764564/anguish-gale-agbossoumonde
The Silverbacks stadium does not have seating for 5,000. Closer to 3,000.
Vegas Vic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RE/MAX_Greater_Atlanta_Stadium
This issue is not the seating capacity at the park. It is the condition that it is in. It will cost Traffic a pretty penny to get it back in “game” condition.
I have the same question that Leroy has, all of this is a very pretty penny, especially for a D2 league. What do they think to gain from all this?
The stadium doesn’t hold 5,000, it’s somewhere in the range of 3,200. There was talk of closing in one end after the 1st season to expand capacity to 6,000.
Bart, how do you know what shape the stadium is in? It needs work (I was there a few weeks ago) but mostly the field. I think the issues about the stadium where magnified by a poster on Big Soccer who posted the same thing over and over again. It’s not the best stadium in the world but a great place to watch a game as long as your bladder is bigger than a walnut. I think I’ve missed two men’s games since it opened and have been there dozens of times since the team ceased operations a couple of years ago. Again, not perfect but all these experts who have never been there are annoying.
While everyone criticizes traffic for owning multiple teams in the NASL, did everyone hate on the Hunts for owning as many teams in MLS when they did? They’re doing what they can to sustain this league, just like the Hunts did when MLS was hurting.
Yeah, Traffic is having to front a lot of money to sustain the league, but so what? What’s everyone’s issue with that?
Maybe some of that money can go toward making the seats in the stadium some relevant colors. I’m sorry but the black/yellow/red/blue/purple/gray/orange color scheme there is atrocious.
Brian, did you cite Wikipedia as the source of your “fact” on stadium size? C’mon, you’re better than that. Trust me, I was there for a womens game. And unless they added more seats recently, it doesn’t seat 5,000. That’s not really a big deal in the overall scheme of things, but it does not meet the Division 2 standard as it is at the moment.
Garrett, please don’t compare Traffic to Lamar Hunt and his family on any level. There are exactly zero similiarities. The issue here is that the NASL is trying to demonstrate that they have a viable Division 2 league. How viable is it when one company owns multiple teams and funds the entire league operation? I guess we’ll see. It does beg the question asked before of what’s in it for them? I doubt they are philanthropists.
Mike, I think the seating color scheme at the Silverbacks stadium is genius. It makes the stadium seem less empty when you watch a game. Probably more on tv than in person, but one of the few things those guys got right before they folded.
Not trying to be negative here and you’ll excuse me for being a little cynical. I guess you have to start from somewhere when building something great. The bottom line is having pro soccer back in Atlanta is a good thing at any level if it sticks around for awhile this time.
@Vic
I am not trying to compare Traffic and the Hunt family as individuals. I’m just pointing out the circumstantial similarities between the two situations.
I think capacity at the stadium is realistically in the 4200 range, I think that was the attendance against Cruz Azul in 2007 when it was packed.
I know the field suffered some damage in flooding in 2009, it was put down for the 2006 opening of the stadium so it might be time to replace it.
Parking is always an issue, but once they start packing it out, those things can be sorted out.
Steven, I too had heard that the field was in tough condition but didn’t have a source down there to back that up. It’s a fill-turf artificial surface, correct?
By owning /partially owning some of the Div 2 teams Traffic now has a place to show off their young players. Their main business is to sell players and though they may not make any money with Miami FC they make it up in other ways. Now they are set to sell Paulo Jr to Real Salt Lake. They might be in the red with the team but they make money in the end.
Why should anyone care how much a franchisee fee is, who’s paying it, or who is investing in whom? Seriously, I’d love to hear a solid reason why it should be anyone’s business (and please spare me the ultruistic “good of the game” babble when the odds are the criticism is coming from someone who’s “team” is in another league than who the comments were directed at).
I hope USL-Pro is successful.
I hope NASL is successful.
I hope MSL is successful.
I hope PDL is successful.
A rising tide raises all boats and the more high level soccer success here in the US will only raise the “water level”. Sometimes I get the impression a few folks wish some of the boats not raising their flag would sink.
@ Tom. I agree. Who cares that Traffic Sports is involved with 3 teams. USA has a 2nd division league. And Traffic Sports need to be applauded for being a risk taker. Without Traffic Sports, 2nd division would fold.
Agree with Tom and Taly! The long term should be the focus, and you have to start somewhere. Traffic should be supported because of their vision for American Soccer, not shunned. Let The USSF worry about the details and make the proper decisions…oh wait…they already did. As fans, we should hope that we could be lucky enough to live in a region one day that has teams at multiple levels, all thriving because of each other. Why cant The USL AND Traffic etch their names along side The Hunt family as some of soccer’s founding fathers in this country? I guess its a good thing that these details remain under the microscope… nowadays, anyway. Imagine if MLS had all these blogs, articles, tweeters, and commentors shining light on its dirty underbelly back in the mid 90′s? The comments probably would’ve looked much the same.
Brian, I’ve been on that field a couple of times in the last 6 months and the turf’s not in great shape.
BQ, yes, it is a fill-turf artificial surface. That is one expensive piece of material and is very difficult to do patch work on. It will cost a pretty penny to get it back in shape.
Grant Stephens, I would state that USL has in its 25 year history etched it’s own place in the soccer annuals. Like him or hate him, Marcos, through USL, led the charge for soccer in the US when no one else did so. USL was here long before MLS and continued after the original NASL died.
I would state that the motives between Lamar Hunt and Traffic are apples and oranges. Mr. Hunt envisioned the sport to be elevated and invested his funds into soccer so that the game could be better enjoyed by Americans.
Traffic’s ambition is somewhat less noble. It is about player contracts, not elevating the sport of soccer. The US is one of the few places in the world where Traffic, through capital expenditures of a somewhat minor nature on a global scheme, can control a league, thereby controlling teams and allowing them to have a platform to park players they bought on the cheap and can sell at a multiple level to make some cash, all at the expense of the player.
Another way to look at this is simple: USSF, through it’s provisional sanctioning of Traffic (oops, I meant NASL), has allowed slave labor to become legal in the United States again.
Lincoln will be turning in his grave.
What does slave labor have to do with the NASL.
Traffic puts a player under contract. They own that player, they tell them when and where they are to play and they work to ensure that the contract is at least through the player’s prime career.
Their prime hit is taking that young, immature player and getting them on the cheap. The player has little to do with its career at this point. If the player becomes valuable, Traffic wins, if the player is not valuable, they cancel the contract and the player languishes.
Yes, this is done globally with soccer, but not in the US. Who should control the destiny of a player, a sports marketing firm or the player.
“Their prime hit is taking that young, immature player and getting them on the cheap. The player has little to do with its career at this point. If the player becomes valuable, Traffic wins, if the player is not valuable, they cancel the contract and the player languishes”.
And what pro sport league does not have a “Traffic” under another name? It’s how pro sports work.
They have a lot of young up and coming athletes willing to take risk, and many of them don’t make it, again how is this so unlike other pro sports? They are a group working to facilitate a chance to make it.
A new D2 league in america has, at this time, the best chance of any countries second league to expand and thrive into a larger great second league. It gives more second level players around the world a chance to play at a pro level. Traffic is a great source for international D2 players to come in and improve the NASL D2 leagues playing style. The US based D2 players will be playing against developing players from Brazil, and the rest of the world.
It’s a win-win for everybody, except Bart!
couldnt be any worse then what corporate America has done to the middle class.
jw7 – There will be a restriction as to how many foreign players can be on each D2 team. And I don’t think you understand the Traffic program. The foreign players they need to place under contract are newly recognized, unseasoned players that have promise. The skill level may not be as good as a seasoned D2 player, and in fact they will be much younger players. The skill sets will be inequitable. Current markets that are being tapped are countries in Africa, not necessarily Brazil.
Further, pro team sports in the US do not operate in this manner. The player controls who they want to play for contractually, and they have far more control in transfers, etc. It is pretty institutional at this point.
Dan, your comment is somewhat incredulous as it has nothing to do with soccer and its structure. Further, corporate America has no obligation at all towards the middle class. It has one obligation and one obligation only, to reap the highest profits for its shareholders. Corporate America hires employees for only one reason, and that is because they have a problem that needs to be solved, and they believe that middle class person has the skill set to solve that problem so that their business can be more profitable.
Yes their finally back, but it figures they come out of their “break” once I move to seattle