Nick Tre. Smith-USA TODAY Sports
NWSL logo
Naming a new professional sports team should probably involve more research than naming a fantasy football team, and Atlanta City FC apparently took that responsibility extremely seriously. The new NWSL franchise talked to thousands of people—including Atlanta’s mayor—before revealing its identity, which makes considerably more sense when two recent expansion teams had to throw their original names in the trash before playing a game.
Atlanta unveiled its name, phoenix crest and red-and-peach color scheme Monday ahead of a 2028 debut at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. Chief business officer Deandra Duggans told Front Office Sports that the club specifically studied recent expansion launches and consulted season-ticket deposit holders, women’s sports fans, Atlanta sports fans, influencers, and Mayor Andre Dickens because it wanted to avoid those same “shortcomings.”
Atlanta Apparently Decided Focus Groups Were Cheaper Than A Rebrand
The caution has some pretty obvious historical precedent.
Louisville initially planned to enter the league as Proof Louisville FC, a bourbon reference that immediately generated enough negative reaction for ownership to reconsider. By the time the franchise actually reached the field in 2021, Sports Illustrated was introducing it as Racing Louisville FC.
Boston somehow managed an even more spectacular version.
Its 2024 launch unveiled BOS Nation FC, an anagram of “Bostonian,” alongside a marketing campaign built around the slogan “Too Many Balls.”
People did not love that.
The organization apologized almost immediately and eventually scrapped the entire name. Reuters reported that the franchise emerged five months later as Boston Legacy FC following another giant round of surveys, listening sessions, and community research.
Atlanta understandably decided asking a few extra questions beforehand might be useful.
Even The Logo Got The Committee Treatment
The resulting name is intentionally straightforward.
“Atlanta City FC” gave the organization room to incorporate the different themes people said they wanted represented, while the crest does most of the storytelling. The club’s reveal features a phoenix tied to Atlanta’s history of rebuilding, a dogwood blossom, and colors officially called Atlanta Red and Georgia Peach.
There are worse strategies than making sure the people who might eventually buy your merchandise do not hate the thing printed across it.
Arthur Blank paid a $165 million expansion fee to bring the NWSL to Atlanta, and the organization is also building a dedicated training facility before the club’s 2028 launch. Spending that kind of money only to discover Twitter despises the name would be a fairly avoidable own goal.
Atlanta could still learn that thousands of opinions do not guarantee everyone loves the final result. Sports fans are uniquely gifted at complaining about logos.
But at least Atlanta City FC has attempted something recent NWSL history suggests is surprisingly important.
Ask people whether the name is terrible before printing it on everything.