Once the $1.5 billion Mercedes-Benz Stadium opened, the players had spacious facilities and anything else they needed on site. Before nearly every home match, Atlanta United players eat a pregame meal inside the stadium and then change into matching gray suits with white shirts and red ties. Raised near Atlanta, he has seen every other hometown team play. But nothing, he said, matches the communality and energy of an Atlanta United game. “There’s no better 72,000 people to spend an afternoon with than psychotic Atlanta fans,” he said, his voice hoarse well before kickoff.

Source: New York Times May 17, 2018 15:11 UTC