Atlanta United Community Fund continues progress on GA 100 project

MABLETON, Ga. - The state of Georgia covers 59,425 miles. For some kind of reference, that’s more than England and Wales combined. Georgia is taking up more space in the world than most people realize. Yet, like most places, not much of that space is readily available for a kid to take a ball and play for a couple of hours. 

The Atlanta United Community Fund and Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) are working to change that with an ambitious, state-wide initiative called the GA 100 campaign. The “100” of the GA 100 campaign stands for the number of communities set to have a space to play. 100 means 100 brand new mini-pitches and futsal courts for Georgia in the near future. 

And they do actually mean Georgia. Sometimes “Georgia” can be shorthand for the Atlanta metro area. The project will work to serve the parts of the state that don’t get the same attention as those close to Mercedes-Benz Stadium. The first new pitch opened in 2022 in Brunswick, the second arrived this year in Gainesville and there are already plans in place to go all the way to Hogansville and Bainbridge. 

To build these pitches, the Atlanta United Community Fund (a subset of the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation) is working in partnership with organizations around the state who have successfully applied for grants. The Community Fund then matches funds raised for the pitch dollar for dollar up to $75,000. The Brunswick pitch arrived through an organization called Coastal Outreach Soccer, a year-round, soccer-based after-school program. The Gainesville pitch came to life through the United Way of Hall County.

On Saturday, in partnership with the SAE School in Mableton, the GA 100 project delivered its third pitch. The pitch, formerly an empty lot behind the school, is set to serve 375 students from pre-k to 8th grade. 

“Before, this was just a huge field with rocks and dirt, and kids couldn't play on it. It was kind of unsafe as well,” SAE School’s Head of Schools Desmond Bobbett said. “And so having this in the community where kids can come out, have a safe place, a safe opportunity to come out and play and also practice their skills when they need to, it's super important. We'll all also use them as well with kids who go to our school. We currently don't have a school-sponsored team and that's what our goal is. To have a school-sponsored team with coaches and volunteer parents, so that way we can keep it in-house and compete with other kids in our community as well.”

More communities will have the same opportunity soon. Including the three already opened, the GA 100 project has begun work on nearly a quarter of the 100 pitches set to come. All of them designed to give kids a safe place to play and connect.

“This court will give children that opportunity to say ‘Let me go out here and be creative,' said Shawn Williams, director of Brunswick’s Coastal Outreach Soccer, in 2021. "'You know, let me fall in love with this game at the level of just me going out and playing with my friends.'” 

“We're going to continue to grow this game and give more access to all children, no matter what their socioeconomic status is. So these many pitches allow for you to do that in urban communities and be able to say, 'Hey, we can drop something like this mini-pitch in and now every neighborhood you go into, there's a place where I can drop a soccer ball and be able to play. And from there, that's a development that not only gives our children the physical activities that we all long for them to have. But it also allows for us to grow our game as a country.”

In addition to providing a space to play, the project also provides a mutual benefit for Atlanta United. The more kids that play soccer and the more kids that have a connection to the sport and the club, the more the game grows. With the 2026 Men’s World Cup on the way, the sport feels like it's at an inflection point in America. Making an impact at a grassroots level will play a role in how effectively everyone involved with growing the game capitalizes on a critical moment.

“Our goal with each of these pitches is to not just grant the dollars to have it funded but also show up for these communities and give the resources that we have available," said Marissa Ahrens, Atlanta United’s Director of Community Engagement. “Arthur Blank always says giving back to others is one of our core values and this is the exemplary of that. Part of my job is getting out into the community and giving them the resources and the means to be able to support their local programming, then it's also getting the kids the opportunity to get into Mercedes-Benz Stadium and watch the first team and tie it back and do a holistic give back to the community. So this is how we show up. This is part of our duty of giving back to others and we want to make sure we give back to every community that we touch.”