It’s been incredible.“And for me personally as a father, to see Joshua and Drew so heavily involved in the sport and involved in the team, to see them putting in the time and the hours and the effort they are, to see the smiles on their faces, it’s wonderful. So there was definitely that culture here, but it was a matter of when was the right time to have it. “Given the quality of the organization that we’ve built, the opportunity to be trained and mentored and spend time with folks that he is – not his father, necessarily, but these folks that really know the game! Josh Blank, son of Arthur Blank, holds a Black Lives Matter sign during the Buckhead for Black Lives protest event to the Governor's mansion in Atlanta, Georgia, on Sunday June 7, 2020. But the seed of an idea was planted, and it would germinate as Blank roamed the sidelines of Josh’s youth games over the years.“Joshua, he was always very athletic,” remembers his father. “We just couldn’t get him going.”Kenny found his passions elsewhere, as an Emmy-winning journalist and patron of the arts. In fact, it’s quite possible that without Josh’s influence, this year’s biggest expansion story might never have even happened.The co-founder of The Home Depot and owner of the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons along with a suite of other sports properties, Blank says he and MLS Commissioner Don Garber first discussed the idea of a team for Atlanta more than a decade ago.The economics didn’t quite line up at that juncture. “He loved football, was a huge baseball fan, played a little bit of basketball, but he seemed to have an affinity for soccer.“He used to go out and practice til whatever time, and then he’d come back in the house, take the cars out of the garage and just hit soccer balls against the wall for an hour, an hour and a half, until he was dripping wet, sopping wet. I knew then that he was committed to the sport.”Josh noticed that as his own soccer sophistication grew, his father followed.“From coming to a lot of my games, he started picking up on how the game was played and would ask me questions,” Josh told MLSsoccer.com this week. It’s just wonderful. So I hope that he has an interest long-term; I think he does.”And in the meantime, father continues to lean on son for understanding of the sport’s finer points.“He’s very knowledgeable,” says Arthur of Josh. I love sharing those moments with him.”© 2020 MLS. Yet he sees a focus and commitment to Josh’s work in soccer that hints at a bright future in the game.“There’s nothing more important than hands-on experience, particularly if it’s close to the right people,” says Blank. She’s just like I am. “That was the sport I loved to play and he grew up watching me play, and that was the team that we both had a passion for … and I love answering his questions, because I’m furthering his knowledge and sharing my own.“I remember I was actually sitting next to him when Yamil [Asad] scored the [club’s inaugural MLS goal] goal against the Red Bulls, and that was one of the coolest moments of my life that’s happened so far, for sure. His new team is the toast of MLS, but Arthur Blank’s first experience with soccer was not particularly fruitful.
All Major League Soccer trademarks and copyrights used by permission. “When you work for a team, you have such a strong connection to the team. He is a signatory of On February 9, 2016, Blank disclosed that he had treatable prostate cancer. “She wouldn’t miss a practice or a game for either her son or her daughter. In early 2006, he temporarily withdrew from contention as a potential buyer of the Blank has been married three times and divorced twice, with a third divorce pending. But it’s an incredible family sport.“When I go to our home games now, to see 45-50,000 people – including kids – standing up, rooting as hard as they can, away from their electronics and focused on the field and the celebration. But that was the way he practiced. So it’s neat for me as a father to be learning from my son.”“It’s something that, from when the club was announced, that we’ve kind of shared together and it was a bond that we had when I was a kid,” he says. “And he always loves watching the US national team play too, so we always watch those games together and I would kind of be his teacher in terms of how everything works.”The elder Blank picked up a soccer photography habit, snapping action shots of Josh and his teammates in action. All rights reserved. Today, Blank is the Chairman of AMB Group LLC, parent company of the Blank has expressed serious interest in purchasing other franchises. It’s a great sense of community – it’s a great sense of family, it really is.”That sense extends to the Atlanta United front office. “If you look in the dictionary under ‘soccer mom,’ you’ll see a picture of my wife Angie. And to see these young folks who had come, in many cases, from all over the world, bringing their sport here, was really wonderful for me.”And from that came a serious interest in creating a top-flight professional team in the city. It’s great.”His father emphasizes that he’s always sought to give his six children and three stepchildren space to decide on their own life and career paths. And when the chance to invest in the sport returned, he was ready.“Basically we were told by existing [MLS] owners that this is a long-haul building franchise, and you have to get into the sport because you love it, and you have to have patience to build a franchise,” says Blank.“We certainly love the sport and not only the playing of it – the part I was very attracted to was, how the game in Atlanta, with over 35,000 young folks playing club soccer … was key to the diversity of Atlanta – the diversity of America, for that matter. • Took three shots on the season. • Played 75 total minutes on I don’t bug him a lot, because I know he’s making notes and doing his evaluations, etc. She loves it. “I enjoy watching a match with him and getting his analysis about our matches. We go to all the home games, some of the away games depending on where they are and what’s going on with the other children.
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