Atlanta doesn’t feel ‘World Cuppy’ enough

The World Cup is a high-level cultural play for Atlanta. The mechanics of the World Cup — the black-and-white details of operating it here — are being handled by the Atlanta Sports Council.

But, as important as it is, I don’t think my peers know about the Atlanta Sports Council and what it does.

Credit: Curtis Compton / Curtis.Compton@

Credit: Curtis Compton / Curtis.Compton@

I found out about the ASC from emails, after somehow ending up on the Los Angeles Sports Council’s email distribution list. LA Sports’ emails have a lot of information on sports and entertainment — and a lot of sponsors.

But seeing LA Sports’ newsletter made me realize I don’t get anything like this from Atlanta.

One reason we’re not feeling “World Cuppy” is because Atlanta is siloed. We have to overcome that because in real life and business, just as in competitive sports, you play how you practice.

There are levels of understanding that have to happen in 700-ish days. And I come from passing out flyers, so I’m a little different, but there has to be communication.

And it’s not the job of just one person. It’s a team effort. So I think the Atlanta Sports Council would appreciate me sharing some free advice.

Credit: Natrice Miller / Natrice.Miller@ajc.com

Credit: Natrice Miller / Natrice.Miller@ajc.com

A friend of mine has a barbershop in Southwest Atlanta. I recently visited him and asked what he’s been doing, and he said “preparing for the World Cup.” Another barber said the same thing, like “I’ve been trying to tell you — we’ve gotta make a play!”

My friend said he wants to make T-shirts, but he doesn’t know which teams to feature. I told him they’ll name the teams toward the end of the year. We don’t know who will end up in the tournament yet, but I told him to pay attention to certain teams, like Argentina, Brazil and France, with Kylian Mbappé.

Whether they come here or not, you’re gonna want to make those shirts. Items related to those teams and players are going to sell, just on GP. And from what we know, those famous teams are sending their same squads back, give or take a few people.

You also need to get familiar with the rules of the game, and I don’t literally mean soccer.

If you were to throw a party during the World Cup but you’re not in the FIFA “Clean Zone” and part of the official activities, you can’t use the term “World Cup” for any commercial marketing, including distributing flyers. But you can use terms like “soccer” and “futbol.”

Credit: Image by FIFA

Credit: Image by FIFA

Also you’re not infringing on a FIFA team’s copyright if you’re just using the colors of their nation’s flag and not their actual logo.

I also told my friend, and the other barber listening, that the city would have a program to become an official vendor. So keep your eyes open.

All of this was a cultural conversation that led to a small-business owner discovering how he could make money on a sporting event.

I also got great information from the Atlanta Convention & Visitors Bureau. It explained the type of person coming to the World Cup, including the age range and a persona of who they are and how they think.

You might have people between the ages of 35 and 65, maybe more retirees, coming from participating countries. In places where soccer is big, instead of saving up vacation days or lying to take off work and calling in sick (like we do after the college football championship), everybody’s just off work.

The actual World Cup tickets are for politicos and C-suite people. But the ones who work the 9-to-5s in Argentina, France and Brazil are our peers. A lot of them aren’t even going to World Cup matches — they’re just trying to follow their team around and watch the game somewhere, because the tickets are so expensive. They’re gonna be here for camaraderie.

Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com

Credit: Jason Getz / Jason.Getz@ajc.com

They’re fans like us, working class with a job and a family. They’ll probably go to a bar, probably a pub, and watch the game.

What if we’re volunteering at the World Cup? We might be able to show them where to go and how to follow the game in ATL. And you can sign up right now at FIFA’s website to be a volunteer during the eight Atlanta semifinal matches, which they say are going to be like eight Super Bowls.

The fans are coming to do what you’re doing. And they might’ve heard we’re all about lemon pepper wings, Magic City and the King Center. But if they don’t want to do that, some of us will be able to say “Here’s where else you can go and drink a cold one and watch your team.”

Can we at least offer that?

Here’s one more idea: Look at Gangstas to Growers, which is run by my homegirl Abiodun Henderson and turns locally farmed produce into hot sauce.

If Abi wants to sell hot sauce at the World Cup that’s great, but how about hot sauce that travels back across the world? If a guy from Ghana wants to take it back home, the hot sauce needs to be 3.4 ounces or smaller for carry-on if it’s gonna get through TSA, and a plastic bottle is probably smart.

Why not add the Ghanaian flag’s colors to the hot sauce label? They’ll take it back home and show friends and family what they got at the World Cup in Atlanta. Now you’re opening up a global market.

And remember, we’re not the only city hosting the World Cup. Miami, L.A. and New York also have games. But through ideas like this, we can say who we are. We didn’t create Philly cheesesteaks. We don’t have a French Quarter. But we made lemon pepper a thing, so why not hot sauce?

This is why right now it needs to be an all-hands-on-deck thing to get ready for 2026. Whatever you do — Airbnb, Turo, any gig economy stuff — step your game up.

People might criticize me, saying I give away too much information. But this is just what’s supposed to happen. I’m giving out free game.

Credit: Olivia Bowdoin

Credit: Olivia Bowdoin

Things like these are the citizens’ responsibility first because we know it’s coming. After that, it’s the responsibility of the system and multiple agencies to communicate with us to make sure everyone’s on the same page.

Atlanta is a great sports city, at least as a sporting events host. We put on a great Super Bowl in 2019. We’ve had the NBA All-Star game. We had the Olympics.

There’s been a steady wave of these events, creating multiple opportunities. They might be different from what a sports win looks like in other cities, but a strength is a strength.

We landed the thing because we’re dope, but folks will want to see what we’re talking about. Lack of understanding and connectivity will make it hard to activate things on the field when the big game comes to town.

Working together, we can make sure the day after the World Cup ends, Atlanta will have won, too. Some Atlantans will win in business from those eight matches. We don’t want others to be back to our day-to-day, complaining to our neighbors that we didn’t really get any money from it, like “Damn, we were trying to figure out the play!”

Winning is winning. And we should appreciate any championship-level event that comes through here because the energy comes back to the Atlanta brand. That’s why we keep hosting.

Let’s be great together. We’re here to win.

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