Atlanta United has the best team intro in sports

Anyone who has had the opportunity to attend an Atlanta United game at the beautiful new sports palace known as Mercedes-Benz Stadium can hardly have failed to notice the staggering halo board hanging high overhead. But if you were late to your seat, then you missed one of the coolest things shown on the board.

Well, several cool things, in fact. The spoofing of the Games of Thrones opening credit sequence (complete with its theme music), for example. Although I don’t quite understand the ever-changing colors in that video; for some reason it reminds me of the color selection board in the paint department at a Home Depot. Oh, maybe that is why.

Anyway, after my first visit to the Benz for the FC Dallas game, I resolved to do one thing at the next opportunity: I was going to record the team intro. I got to do that last night. Atlanta’s team introductions are, obviously, displayed on the halo board. But the graphics team went to town on this one. Here, if you haven’t seen it, is how the starting XI is introduced in all its CGI glory:

As you can see, the 5-story banner drop is one of the coolest ideas ever.