Kennesaw State’s Fifth Third Bank Stadium will be the new home of the USL’s Atlanta United 2, as the team will shift the home pitch from Gwinnett County’s Coolray Field.
Coolray Field is home to the Gwinnett Stripers, the Triple-A affiliate of the Atlanta Braves. It’s a facility built for baseball, and while attendance was decent, the opportunity to move to a soccer-friendly stadium was too great for Atlanta United 2 officials to ignore.
“Coolray Field was an excellent home during our first season,” Atlanta United Vice President of Business Operations Catie Griggs said. “We are extremely grateful to everyone at Coolray Field, the Gwinnett Stripers and Atlanta Braves organizations, Gwinnett County Sports Commission and all of our Gwinnett-based fans who made our inaugural campaign memorable. Lawrenceville will forever be the first home of ATL UTD 2, and for that, Coolray Field will always hold a special place in our club’s history.”
The Atlanta United organization has a history at Atlanta United 2. Atlanta United played a pair of U.S. Open Cup matches at Fifth Third Bank Stadium in 2017 and 2018. ATL United 2 also hosted a rescheduled match there on Aug. 7 after a previous game was suspended due to weather, according to a press release issued by the team. Fifth Third Bank Stadium is home to KSU’s women’s soccer and lacrosse teams and the Kennesaw State University Owls football team. Originally named KSU Stadium, the venue opened in 2010 as a soccer-specific stadium with the former Women’s Professional Soccer team Atlanta Beat hosting the first athletics event.
“We are excited to make Kennesaw our new home next year,” Griggs said. “Fifth Third Bank Stadium features an award-winning, top-class playing surface and is a venue designed for professional soccer. In addition to its convenient proximity to the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Training Ground, hosting our home matches in Kennesaw provides ATL UTD 2 the best environment to develop while also strengthening the Atlanta United brand close to home.”
Photo courtesy Atlanta United 2.