Blank Foundation to Help Build 100 Local Soccer Fields

The short-term impact of Atlanta serving as one of the host sites for the 2026 FIFA World Cup was both immense and obvious. Millions poured into local restaurants, bars, small businesses, and retailers while visitors from all corners of the globe filled downtown hotels. Not to be overlooked though, from a long-term perspective, the ’26 World Cup games at Mercedes-Benz Stadium promise to leave their imprint not just on Atlanta, but throughout the entire state, for future generations of soccer players.

Fueled by the recent World Cup-induced soccer craze, the Atlanta United Community Fund, an employee-led group linked to the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation and Atlanta United FC soccer team is in the process of fulfilling its GA-100 campaign to construct 100 soccer fields across underserved Georgia communities so residents have easier access to playing soccer.

Since 2020, the fund has managed an investment of nearly $5 million with more than half of those funds — $3.4 million — being raised since 2023 after Atlanta was named a 2026 FIFA World Cup city.

While there is no hard deadline for reaching the one hundred grand total, the Atlanta United Community Fund has already provided financial support for the development of 53 new fields—or pitches — across the state, some of which have already been up and running. A handful of pitches are slated to have ribbon-cutting ceremonies before November, including one at the Andrew and Walter Young Family YMCA this week. Non-profit organizations, whether they be a town’s parks and recreation department, a public school system, or local chapter of the Boys & Girls Club, interested in installing a mini-pitch or full-size soccer field are eligible to receive a grant up to $100,000 as long as they’ve demonstrated that they have raised up to $100,000 in grant funding from other sources.

Most recently, on July 29, just two weeks after the World Cup and Atlanta parted ways, four mini soccer pitches worth $400,000 came into existence at Toomer Elementary School in Atlanta. It was arguably the watershed moment thus far for the GA-100 program.

“I think we’ve seen a large amount of interest in soccer programming that we’ve supported through our Atlanta United Community Fund. We offer seven-day-a-week soccer programming across the city in multiple locations. Interest for those programs has been through the roof,” said Aidan Mullaney, manager of sports philanthropy at the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation, when speaking to the AJT last week.

“While the U.S. men’s team obviously drove a lot of excitement and attention to soccer in some of these other host cities and across the nation, I think Atlanta kind of stood out as a place where we’ve been investing in soccer.  It’s really our job to use this moment of the World Cup to continue to provide greater access to soccer. The world’s attention was on Atlanta, so it’s our job now to ensure that we are continuing to fulfill that legacy of soccer — and greater access to soccer — well beyond the World Cup and into the future.”

Since initiating the noble mission, Mullaney and his colleagues at the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation have found it particularly rewarding to see amateur soccer players be the instant beneficiaries of vastly improved communal resources. No longer are they navigating playing fields pockmarked by divots, rocks, and shards of glass while nearby plots of land remain barren eyesores in desperate need of occupants.

“A lot of the groups that we supported didn’t previously have a site to play soccer,” Mullaney continued. “Down in Moultrie, we heard stories of the youths there playing in crop fields that farmers had generously allowed them to use that space to play soccer but was a relatively unsafe space to play. While the idea I think initially was to build brand new soccer fields, we also acknowledged that there are existing spaces where kids are playing, [but] it has just no longer become safe.”

The new pitch in Moultrie has become such a hotspot for young soccer players that the local parks and recreation department had to install lights for nighttime practices and games. It’s a scenario that has played out across several communities which the GA-100 program has touched, and it’s a welcome development after many sports, including soccer, have struggled mightily to revert back to their pre-pandemic levels of youth participation.

As previously alluded to, the Atlanta United Community Fund has also homed in on sprawling plots of unused land that are ripe for transformation. Over in McDonough, a pitch was recently developed on the site of a swimming pool that during mid-1900s segregation was designated specifically for Atlanta’s Black community. Eventually, the pool was filled with concrete and turned into a parking lot that would stay mostly vacant for decades. But now the land is a vibrant hub of soccer activity where the beautiful game is enjoyed year-round.

The Atlanta United Community Fund looks forward to having such a profound impact across many other local communities before GA-100 concludes.

“Until we hit 100, we plan to continue to offer this program year after year,” said Mullaney. “While we’re currently reviewing applications now for the program for this year’s round of funding, we fully intend to offer similar opportunities in ’27 and then maybe even up to the Women’s World Cup in 2031.”