Q&A with Atlanta United’s Garth Lagerwey: Will club start a women’s team?

Note: This is the second in a five-part series of interviews with Atlanta United President Garth Lagerwey.

Atlanta United President Garth Lagerwey spent almost an hour talking exclusively to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution last weekend before the team’s Decision Day match in Cincinnati.

As hotel staff scurried about preparing for a wedding in an adjacent room, Lagerwey, wearing shorts and an Atlanta United jacket, Lagerwey covered a range of topics, from the MLS rules changes, to if the team is considering starting a women’s franchise, to the futures of key members of the team.

Questions and answers have been paraphrased for clarity and/or brevity.

Q: I’ve been trying to get an answer to this for years now: Is the club going to start a women’s franchise?

A: We are investigating; we are looking into, we are exploring, examining. It’s just a super complicated issue for us.

What I will tell you is that I am super-excited about U.S. Soccer relocating to Atlanta. You and I’ve had broad conversations, but I’m specifically excited about the women’s side. And I would say we are excited about the women’s side of the U.S. team because you have the ability there to influence not one team, I think it’s seven or eight girls teams, and the women’s team.

So if you want to influence your community, and you want to open the sport to a segment of the population that hasn’t had those opportunities, we can now do that. We can lean in heavily into that girls and women’s space. And it’s the right time. All these hugely influential athletes, Megan Rapinoe, etc. have started to age out of that team, right? The next generation is going to take over now. And, obviously, the Alex Morgan’s are still there. And they still have lots of good players, right? The Trinity Rodman’s, that next generation is coming through.

So I think the timing of trying to lean in and support and see what that program can become again, I think that’s something that gets me excited when I think about women’s sport broadly.

Now, could we do a women’s professional team in the NWSL? That’s a very specific question. But I know what we will do is be broadly supportive of that side of the game. We know we’ve talked about (that) we have to reflect our community, and women are half of the community, we have to do that. The manner in which we do that, I think is still TBD in terms of those details.

Q: It’s been TBD for several years now. And I just get the vibe that this is just not something that at this moment, Mr. (Arthur) Blank, or AMBSE, or Steve Cannon, wants to pull the trigger on right now.

A: You know what I would say? Is there are a lot of logistical details that have to have figured out if you’re gonna go forward with something like this, from venue to training.

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Atlanta United’s 2023 MLS schedule

Feb. 25 Atlanta United 2, San Jose Earthquakes 1

March 4 Atlanta United 1, Toronto FC 1

March 11 Atlanta United 3, Charlotte FC 0

March 18 Atlanta United 5, Portland 1

March 25 Columbus 6, Atlanta United 1

April 1 Atlanta United 1, New York Red Bulls 0

April 8 Atlanta United 1, New York City FC 1

April 15 Atlanta United 2, Toronto FC 2

April 23 Atlanta United 2, Chicago 1

April 29 Nashville SC 3, Atlanta United 1

May 6 Inter Miami CF 2, Atlanta United 1