Down the Drive Editor Announces His New Book That Mentions Cincinnati on Two Occasions

My Friends,

It is an exciting day for me personally.

I am proud to announce my first book, which will be published by the University of Nebraska Press.

It is entitled Loserville: How Professional Sports Remade Atlanta—and How Atlanta Remade Professional Sports. The book will be released in February 2022 and is available for pre-order now from many fine retailers.

Loserville is the product of a decade’s worth of work.

It is in essence an origin story for the modern sports business—the world of public stadium financing and franchise relocations.

Atlanta serves as a case study for examining these broader trends in professional sports.

From the book jacket:

“In July 1975 the editors of the Atlanta Constitution ran a two-part series entitled “Loserville, U.S.A.” The provocatively titled series detailed the futility of Atlanta’s four professional sports teams in the decade following the 1966 arrival of its first two major league franchises, Major League Baseball’s Atlanta Braves and the National Football League’s Atlanta Falcons. Two years later, the Atlanta Hawks of the National Basketball Association became the city’s third major professional sports franchise. In 1972 the National Hockey League granted the Flames expansion franchise to the city, making Atlanta the first southern city with teams in all four of the big leagues.

The excitement surrounding the arrival of four professional franchises in Atlanta in a six-year period soon gave way to widespread frustration and, eventually, widespread apathy toward its home teams. All four of Atlanta’s franchises struggled in the standings and struggled to draw fans to their games. Atlantans’ indifference to their new teams took place amid the social and political fracturing that had resulted from a new Black majority in Atlanta and the whites’ exodus to the outer suburbs, and sports could never quite bridge the divergence between the two.

Loserville examines the pursuit, arrival, and response to professional sports in Atlanta during its first decade as a major league city (1966–75). It scrutinizes the origins of what remains the primary model for acquiring professional sports franchises: offers of municipal financing for new stadiums. Other Sunbelt cities like San Diego, Phoenix, and Tampa that aspired to big league stature adopted Atlanta’s approach. Like the teams in Atlanta, the franchises in these cities have had mixed results—both in terms of on-field success and financial stability.”

Thank you for your indulgence and back to Cincinnati sports immediately.