Atlanta City FC will be the name of Atlanta’s forthcoming NWSL expansion team that will begin play in 2028.
The team announced its name and identity — a red phoenix surrounded by a dogwood shape, laid inside a circular crest — on Monday.
An ‘A’ forms in the middle of the phoenix.
The team will wear red and Georgia peach, giving it a connection to — with some distinction from — the black, gold and red-wearing Atlanta United FC, the MLS team also owned by Arthur Blank’s AMB Sports and Entertainment.
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“We think it really hits the mark on what we want this club to be, and it really defines Atlanta and pulls in a lot of the elements that make Atlanta special,” Deandra Duggans, the team’s chief business officer, told ESPN.
“One being Atlanta City. We wanted to make sure that was first and foremost as prominent as it can be, because people are proud to be from Atlanta and live in Atlanta. It’s a prideful place. And that ‘A’ is so prominent and recognizable. We just know that people are going to wear that.”
The NWSL will expand by two teams in 2028. A team in Columbus, Ohio, will join Atlanta that year to bring the NWSL to 18 teams.
Atlanta’s brand unveiling comes after what Duggans said was a five-to-six-month process. An agency helped with research and development before Atlanta’s in-house creative team designed the identity and the launch merchandise.
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Atlanta has been home to a team in the two previous women’s professional soccer leagues. The Atlanta Beat played in the Women’s United Soccer Association (WUSA) from 2001-2003 and in Women’s Professional Soccer (WPS) from 2010-11.
Duggans said that the team did not entertain the idea of bringing back the “Beat” nickname for a third time, but that they plan to recognize the team’s history. Former Beat players and United States internationals Cindy Parlow Cone and Cat Reddick Whitehill will be at Atlanta City FC’s brand launch on Sunday. Parlow Cone is the current president of U.S. Soccer.
Duggans said fan feedback was considered from the start when shaping both the brand identity, and how the club interacts with the community.
“Making sure that some of the assumptions that we had were affirmed, and maybe some of the assumptions that we had were not,” she said. “We just wanted to make sure that they were included in the process, and it wasn’t something that was created in a vacuum.”
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The Atlanta City FC name forms the same ACFC acronym as a current NWSL team, Angel City FC. Duggans said that they will not encroach on Angel City’s use of “ACFC,” the NWSL’s Los Angeles-based team: “They own that equity.” The tertiary wordmark for Atlanta City FC is “ATL CTY.”
Red is a common color in the NWSL, but peach will be a unique color in the league. Duggans said “peach was just inevitable” based on input from all parties, which included city officials like Mayor Andre Dickens.
Duggans said she and her colleagues spoke with other NWSL teams to obtain lessons from their launch, and ordering enough merchandise to meet demand was a common trend. Atlanta City FC ordered “a sizeable inventory for launch.”
“What we know is, women’s sports fans, they want the merch,” Duggans said.
Atlanta City FC hopes it can match the initial success that Atlanta United had when it launched in MLS in 2017. Atlanta United immediately set MLS attendance records and won a championship in its second season.
Duggans declined to share specifics around current Atlanta City FC season ticket deposits or expectations for 2028, but she was willing to set one benchmark: “We have some high expectations. I can tell you for first kick, we want to sell out Mercedes-Benz Stadium. That’s the goal, to have that stadium rocking and celebrating this team coming to Atlanta.”
Mercedes-Benz Stadium holds 71,000 fans. The NWSL attendance record is currently 63,004, set by expansion team Denver Summit FC in March.
