Tag: Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation

Arthur Blank believed that Atlanta could become a world soccer capital, but not everyone was convinced. Fast-forward and Blank’s pro soccer team, Atlanta United, regularly sets MLS attendance records, and Atlanta will host eight FIFA World Cup 2026™ matches, including a semifinal.

It isn’t just Atlanta that’s welcoming FIFA World Cup 2026™; it’s the entire state of Georgia. Soccer pitches are under construction from Augusta to Moultrie. And watch parties are being planned from the mountains to the coast.

In the 1960s, most decisions in Atlanta could be traced to a dozen or so business leaders who called the shots. All were men. Today, many executives are transplants to Atlanta; CEOs tend to have shorter tenures, and they exert less influence. But that also means business has become more diverse, both in staffing and scope.

On Monday, the Atlanta Opera pitched a big red-and-blue circus tent on the lawn of its new home at the historic Bobby Jones Golf Course Clubhouse. It was the same tent the opera set up in the middle of an Oglethorpe University baseball field during the pandemic in 2020, when it was one of the only active art organizations performing in the country. Executive and artistic director Tomer Zvulun dusted the tent off and out of storage for Monday’s occasion to break ground on a new $72 million campus. A $25 million gift from Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation propelled the project, and the facility will be named after Arthur’s late mother as the Molly Blank Center for Opera and the Arts.

Will artsgoers—who have been through an awful lot since March 2020—venture out again? Leaders of Atlanta’s creative community hope so, but no one sounds sure.

At a time when progressive politicians and some members of the middle class are questioning whether billionaires, however philanthropic, should even exist—and when the country and globe are on the brink of the largest catastrophe in a century or more­—can Blank give away enough of his wealth to satisfy his own desire for tzedakah—let alone society’s unprecedented need for it?

On Wednesday, more testing sites opened, and the fact that Georgia teens can skip their road tests made national news. Here’s your Thursday morning update.

On Tuesday, cornavirus data continued to be an issue and several new grants were distributed. Here’s your Wednesday morning update.

Long neglected by developers and city planners, Grove Park’s turn in the gentrification spotlight is attributable to its proximity not just to downtown but also to some of the most ambitious green-space initiatives in Atlanta’s history. But an effort is underway to ensure Grove Park’s transformation doesn't come at the cost of its longtime residents.

Arthur Blank’s intentions for the dazzlingly complex, $1.6-billion Mercedes-Benz Stadium were to create a similar cultural hive for downtown Atlanta, the heartbeat of an entertainment and parks district that would bolster its neighboring communities. An instant landmark, the stadium’s wing-like exterior sections (an allusion to falcons in flight), 16-story “window to the city,” immense video halo board, and ocular roof of eight translucent petals have certainly made a splash.