Interview with Trey Brantley, CEO of Atlanta’s men’s and NWSL team

Soc Takes was able to speak to Trey Brantley about the history, current status and future plans of the Atlanta men’s and NWSL teams. Check out our article last week where we discussed the plausibility of the bid.

Nipun Chopra: Tell me about the role you have within the organization as CEO – with Georgia Soccer and the private investor groups, there are many moving parts here. 

Trey Brantley: My role is very specifically with the team. So, while I certainly have involvement the facility and all the efforts. My primary role is head of the team.

NC: In terms of signing players?

TB: Yeah, that would be me for now. We’ll be hiring a general manager soon, and along with our head coach, we’ll be making those decisions. The fact of the matter is, I will rely heavily on the GM, because in addition to the team itself, there are also financial responsibilities that are involved with the team. I will very deeply be involved with that as well as marketing.

NC: Can you tell me about the thought process of bringing a team back to Atlanta.

TB: Well, it wasn’t the original idea – I wanted a women’s team. I started talking to Cheryl Bailey – who at the time was director of the NWSL. We then started working with Jeff Plush, and he has now stepped down as well. So, who knows what’s going to happen on the women’s side, frankly. That’s what I was originally working on.

At the time as Silverbacks were heading South, Andy Smith, who was the president of Silverbacks at the time, was introduced to me by Greg Griffith (Director of Georgia Soccer). At the time really it was Andy looking for a job, and we talked about places that he might fit in with the women’s side. And the conversation quickly turned to “what about the Silverbacks?”

When I did my research, I didn’t think I could have solved the problems of the Silverbacks. And therefore, I wasn’t interested in taking over the Silverbacks. But, I felt like with a fresh start,  I would be able to do some fixing, so to speak. As we were going through, we were open about what we were doing, talking to Bill Peterson regularly to get an NASL team. Everything that took place in November/December, we took a step back, and started talking to other leagues.

“When I did my research, I didn’t think I could have solved the problems of the Silverbacks. And therefore, I wasn’t interested in taking over the Silverbacks.”

NC: When you say multiple leagues, you’re talking about multiple professional leagues?

TB: Yes, there are very few, so its not hard to figure out who we were talking to, but, as Robert and I have said, we won’t name names.

As we’ve been moving through, we’ve been constantly working on the complex. The guys over there have helped make the complex exactly what it needs to be. The visitor’s bureau of DeKalb County have been phenomenal, helping us set things up along with the city of Stonecrest. So, with that, we have this incredible facility, we’ve been pondering what’s going to be the best league for us to go into and making those choices. There are very specific choices about the structure of the teams, and the corporate aspect of each league structure.

Trey Brantley. Credit: Press Kit from atl2018.com

When you start analyzing that and figure out “what’s the best fit for us, for the facility, and from the financial standpoint.” Those are things we are working through. We feel very confident in the choice we’re making, quite frankly, in this particular atmosphere, you cannot afford a misstep. So, we’ve looking at everything cautiously, and we think we’re very close. We are working on an announcement of something, although we’re going to have to readjust our time clock by a week, strictly because we want our local kids involved in the announcement. And it was missed that the time we selected was Spring Break.

But, we’re confident of our steps. We’re setting up a different experience – we’ll have the traditional aspects as well as the non-traditional ones, so that we don’t alienate anyone. We want to grow the game in the areas we are in – specifically the east side of town where our facility is. We’re looking to see how we can draw new soccer fans and get people excited about this sport.

NC: Let me follow up on something you said earlier. When you said you weren’t sure what would happen with the NWSL bid, can you explain what you meant?

TB: It’s probably just an overstatement. Whenever you have a leadership shift, you don’t know what’s going to happen. We felt we were close to getting things done when Cheryl (Bailey) left, and then Jeff (Plush) came down to see us, saw our entire plan and now with a new commissioner, you just never know what’s going to happen. That’s all I meant. We’re going to sit back and see who the new commissioner is and get re-engaged with them. But, I do believe that with the home we’re building in Atlanta, they’ll be a great addition to a great league.

NC: The other thing which strikes me is your hesitation in naming which league you’re playing in. Are you simply waiting to announce the league you’re playing in, or is it not decided yet? Because, those are two different hings.

TB: We’ve pretty much made a decision. We have a few T’s to cross, but we feel pretty confident with where we are.

NC: And, either way, whichever team you end up in, you’re confident of a 2018 kick off for the men’s team?

TB: Yeah, in fact the only hold up is making sure we had the right facility. We were approached during the turmoil if we could stand up a team for 2017. We thought – if we try really hard – we could get something ready for 2017. It wasn’t something we were excited about, what we really wanted to do is what we have planned right now. To have a facility which will open with a smaller stadium in 2018 and launch, no problem. And in 2019, we’ll move our men’s team a couple of lots over into the larger stadium. I actually like that idea because it gives us two years in brand new stadiums. Our stadium won’t be anything like the cathedral in downtown Atlanta, but it will be a really, really nice soccer stadium.

“We were approached during the turmoil if we could stand up a team for 2017.”

NC: Speaking on the stadium, I have to ask, why 15,000? Silverbacks reported an average attendance of around 4500. And, based on what we know about attendances, that’s probably an overestimate. So, i’m curious why not aim for a smaller number to ensure a sellout?

TB: It’s actually pretty simple; when you look at that stadium, we believe we’ll do better than the number you gave. If you spend that much money on a stadium, and you have both these leagues, we’re going to tie up the stadium for 30 days a year out of 365, we want to do other stuff with the facility.

We want to be able to bring international games and make it appealing so that there can be an easy draw. Obviously not an Argentina v Portugal game, which would be played downtown and fill it up, but a smaller international game that would be a great fit. If it winds up being the men’s or women’s national team, we wanted to make sure we got it to be able to host something like that. It’s being engineered right now to accommodate the maximum specifications to meet FIFA requirements. It’s not so much that we think we’ll draw 15,000 game, it’s about us figuring out what we can do with it the other 330 days a year.

NC: Do you worry about the optics of having a half-filled stadium?

TB: Well, the fact of the matter is, if you look at The Cathedral, it’s only going to be half-filled, because they’re going to cover up the upstairs. If it winds up being a problem, we can move to the smaller stadium. I don’t think it will be a problem, I think we’ll do better than people think we’re goon to do. The fact that we have so much involvement with so many community leaders from that part of town, they don’t have all the activities that other people have around Atlanta.

So, with us biding this thing to have people come out, and spend the day – pro game, youth game, shopping – you know, whatever it is. There’s a mall right there, there’s heavy retail along with all that we’re doing, and all the people we’re talking to, I think it will be an absolute incredible facility. So, when you talk about the optics, we overcome the optics with a great scenario. Maybe when we open the first year, maybe it’s only half full. But, if you can take a high school football stadium and get 15000 people to show up, I think we can get great numbers for a professional soccer game.

NC: I hope you’re right. You’ve managed to secure funding and support for the stadium rapidly and under the radar. Can you tell me about the ownership group involved?

TB: Of the team itself, it’s myself and a group of owners called First Team SC, LLC. I guess I’m the leader of that group. The company does a lot of stuff – primarily real estate deals. It’s private investors; the teams are funded privately by myself and partners. The stadium is funded by private bonds and private equity investments and this will be paid by revenue generated by the stadium.

NC: Tickets, merchandise, and what else falls under that category?

TB: Rent on the stadium, rent on the facility itself, some of the merchants in there that are going to be owned by the facility, and some will be rented by the facility. So, when you talk about the team itself, the team will generate money off of sponsorship or merchandising and tickets and sponsorship. There will be a sponsor that will cover a lot of things that are over there. Who we’re talking to I’m not going to go into that. But, there will be a lot of money that will be generated from that.

NC: Finally, about the name. It’s something that rather unanimously has disapproved off on – the name Chiefs. Yet, that name keeps coming up and hasn’t been shot down. Is it still a possibility, and if so, why?

TB: It is a possibility. The reason why is history. The first professional championship in Atlanta wasn’t the ’95 Braves, it was the ’68 Chiefs. They famously beat Man City twice despite being called 4th division team. I’m not saying that’s the name because, quite frankly, we haven’t settled on a name yet. We haven’t eliminated any names either. But, that’s the reason that name keeps coming up – we haven’t eliminated it because we think it’s a great name that has so much history here.

NC: Yeah, but not all history has a positive connotation, there’s definitely some negative connotations with that name. Do you worry about the impact that name would have on PR for the team?

TB: Again, we haven’t settled on a name. It’s a topic of conversation of what would be the perception in different communities. We’ve had many conversations with people that are out and have talked about that name, and it seems that since we are referring to a specific position, it’s not as enraging as other names. We’ve considered many other names. One that I like because of its funny nature – but, we’re not going to go with it because we don’t want to seem like the team is a joke – was the Atlanta Traffic. We have ridiculous stupid traffic down here. If you’re from here, the traffic is a bit of a joke, so, we stayed away from it because we are serious about what we’re doing.

NC: You talked about the turmoil of last season. What were some of the things NASL needed to do to convince you they are worth joining the league.

TB:  But, convincing me to come back and convincing me to not eliminate them from consideration were two different things. In order to convince me to at least stay in talks with them, they had to stay in existence. I wasn’t overly concerned about division II/III, even though I would prefer DII. But that wasn’t the deciding factor. But, I remember reading your work that there was a good chance that if they went DIII, the NASL would have dissolved. So, that was a definite concern.

At the same time, they did survive, and came out at a similar level as USL did with provisional DII status. It didn’t really bother me about DII or DIII.

” I wasn’t overly concerned about division II/III”

NC: So, why were you interested in the NASL in the first place then?

TB: Ownership structure.

NC: Can you expand on that in our last couple of minutes?

TB: I’ll say it this way – In the NASL, the teams own the league. In the USL, the teams have franchises that are responsible unto the league. I like the idea of owning the league vs franchise. That’s the simplest way I can put it.

NC: I appreciate your time.

TB: I appreciate it.

Follow Nipun on Twitter @NipunChopra7.