Loserville by Clayton Tutor

Loserville by Clayton Tutor is a deep dive into the complex relationship between Atlanta and its professional sports teams. The book chronicles the city’s often tumultuous journey with pro sports, beginning in the 1960s when it became the first Southern city to host major league franchises in all three major American sports: basketball, football, and baseball.

Trutor explores how Atlanta’s pursuit of professional sports was part of a broader strategy to redefine itself as a “New South” metropolis, shedding its image of a sleepy, segregated city to become a hub of commerce and progressive attitudes. The city’s leaders saw sports as a way to achieve this transformation, believing that franchises would put Atlanta on the map and help to attract business and tourism.

However, the reality was more complicated. The book reveals how these teams often struggled both on the field and at the box office, earning Atlanta the nickname “Loserville.” Trutor delves into the factors behind the teams’ lackluster performances and the city’s lukewarm support, including poor management, the transient nature of Atlanta’s population, and the lingering effects of racial tensions.

Despite these challenges, Trutor argues that professional sports have had a profound impact on Atlanta’s identity and growth. Big sporting events like the Olympics have helped to globalize the city’s image, while the presence of pro teams has spurred development and fostered a sense of community pride.

What I Liked

Most sports fans know about the Stadium Wars. It’s everywhere and happens all the time. And most sports fans know about relocation. What I did not realize was that Atlanta sort of pioneered the whole process. They weren’t the first (LA and SF were), but unlike Los Angeles and San Francisco, Atlanta was not an established, top tier US city…so they were the ones who did the whole bribing, building, and poaching teams.

Just like White Flight, I loved the whole approach of using Atlanta for a microcosm for a larger trend that was happening all across America. The approach allowed the author to really get into the details and day to day of what this cultural transition was like.

I live in Atlanta, so of course, I was fascinated by the background and details on why things are the way they are.

What I Did Not Like

Not a whole lot. I think an editor for general readership would have cut a lot of sections. But the book was also the author’s foray into academic history, so it is long and detailed for a reason. The book is also a bit repetitive. But otherwise, it’s a good read for an Atlantan or sports fan.

Takeaways

• Professional sports can be a double-edged sword for cities, offering the potential for economic growth and global recognition but also risking financial and social challenges. Sports franchises are a consumer good. The time when they were a social institution was a unique time and place. We will likely never see an urban social structure that can generate a Green Bay Packers or Chicago Cubs or Boston Celtics again.
• Successful sports franchises require more than just a city’s desire for recognition; they need effective management, strong community ties, and a winning culture. The Atlanta Braves were the first franchise to finally start this in the 1990s. The Hawks and the Falcons didn’t really start until the 2010s.
• The history of Atlanta’s sports teams is a microcosm of the broader social and economic shifts in modern American cities. Civic leaders around the world want to be able to purchase and install social identity, trust, and respect (just look at the Qatar World Cup). But those are things that you can only earn from all the people in your city / state / country doing their thing.
• Big events like the Olympics can serve as catalysts for urban development and can redefine a city’s international image among a small slice of elites. But that image is often fleeting.

Quotes

On a weeknight to see Koufax, but not in any similar fashion for a typical Braves home game, exemplified the relationship that many area residents developed with the city’s professional sports teams. Tens of thousands of metropolitan-area residents went to great expense and trouble to be spectators at events they regarded as novel or prestigious, but few chose to become regular patrons of the area’s professional teams. Atlanta consumers’ response to the Braves in 1966 anticipated the fickleness that area residents would display towards all of the city’s franchises over the next decade.