As the World Cup draws global attention and scrutiny around event pricing, Atlanta’s stadium and surrounding cityscape are emerging as a cost-relief option for traveling soccer fans. The venue - home to the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons and MLS side Atlanta United - is located in downtown Atlanta with direct public transport links and a cluster of nearby hotels, enabling a different experience from pricier host cities.
Dietmar Exler, the stadium’s chief operating officer, described the local advantages in blunt terms: "We’re in a very privileged situation," he told Reuters. Exler highlighted concrete assets - "We have 15,000 hotel rooms within 15 minutes walking. We have two subway stations right next to the stadium that connect you to the airport in around 20 minutes."
Those transport links are notable in a U.S. context where similar urban rail infrastructure is less common, Exler said. For fans relying on public transit, the regional rail operator MARTA has not increased fares during the tournament, preserving an affordable link between accommodation, the stadium and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
Inside the air-conditioned stadium, ticket pricing is outside the venue owners' purview, Exler said, since promoters set admission costs. Still, the stadium controls many elements of the on-site experience that influence household spending, notably food and beverage pricing.
"It doesn’t matter who shows up here, whether it’s FIFA or a concert, the promoter decides the price of the ticket," Exler said. "What is under our control is food, for example, or transportation here. That’s the city of Atlanta, that’s all of us together."
Those controls have translated into deliberate, low-price concessions. Management adopted a "street-level pricing" policy intended to keep in-stadium food costs aligned with restaurants outside the gates, avoiding a captive-audience premium. Exler said the stadium maintains a set of about a dozen items at particularly low prices as part of a fan-friendly pledge.
- Bottomless Coke: $2 for a cup with unlimited refills.
- Hot dog: $2.
- Dozen or so additional items: also protected at low prices, Exler said.
Those figures, Exler added, have not risen since the venue opened in 2017, and there was never consideration of taking advantage of an influx of international visitors. "We will always have those prices," he said. "From college football games to the Falcons, from Atlanta United to the World Cup. That’s just our commitment to the fans. In Atlanta, we are committed to fan-friendly pricing. That’s just our attitude here. We call it Southern hospitality."
Exler also referenced the local Fan Fest, which is free to attend and located less than 10 minutes walking from the stadium, offering another low-cost activity for attendees. The combination of proximate hotels, reliable rail connections, stable MARTA fares, affordable concessions and a short walk to Fan Fest has created an environment that, according to stadium management, privileges fan experience over short-term revenue maximization during the tournament.
Stadium owner Arthur Blank's approach in developing the venue, which opened in 2017, emphasized a different set of priorities drawn from research at other NFL grounds and a desire to improve the fan experience. Exler framed the pricing and access decisions as deliberate elements of that strategy: "For us, the North Star is always fan experience. We want to give the fans the best possible experience in whatever we do," he said.
For traveling supporters comparing host cities, Atlanta's combination of downtown location, public transport connectivity and preserved low on-site service prices represents an alternative to critiques elsewhere of event-driven price inflation. Stadium management says those policies are permanent commitments rather than temporary measures tied to the World Cup.
That said, ticket prices themselves remain subject to promoter control and are not set by the stadium. The operating team has emphasized that while admission costs can vary for events, the venue can influence many other cost lines that matter to fans and to the local hospitality and transportation sectors.