The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
LOEFFLER ENDS TENURE WITH ATLANTA DREAM
Former U.S. senator sells WNBA franchise to investor group.
Kelly Loeffler’s ownership tenure — tumultuous in the past year — of the Atlanta Dream is over.
The sale of the team was completed with the announcement the WNBA franchise has been sold to majority owner Larry Gottesdiener, chairman of the national real estate firm Northland, on Friday. He is joined in a three-member investor group with former Dream player Renee Montgomery and Northland President and Chief Operating Officer Suzanne Abair. The owners and the league declined to disclose the ownership percentages.
The sale of the WNBA franchise was described as “imminent” to The Atlanta Journal-constitution last month by a league representative. The AJC first reported that the sale could be announced Friday.
Co-owned by former U.S. Sen. Loeffler, the team has been embroiled in
conflict over her remarks about the Black Lives Matter movement. Dream players were open in their support of the Rev. Raphael Warnock, who defeated Loeffler in a runoff election for her Senate seat last month.
Despite remarks that she did not plan to sell the WNBA franchise, co-owned with Mary Brock since 2011, the sale was completed Friday with the league announcement that it has been approved by the WNBA and NBA Boards of Governors.
“Last year, 2020, the players of the Dream refused to just shut up and dribble,” Gottesdiener said. “They found their collective voice and the world listened. We are inspired by these brave women who navigated sports and activism in the midst of a pandemic, and we want to celebrate and honor them. We are particularly proud to be stewards of this team, in this city, at this time.”
Gottesdiener said there are no plans to relocate the franchise.
Montgomery, a two-time WNBA champion, will be the first former player to become both an owner and executive of a WNBA team. Montgomery sat out the 2020 season to focus on social justice issues and recently announced her retirement from the league after 11 seasons. Montgomery has been working on broadcasts of Hawks games this season.
“Hearing what Larry and Suzanne envision for the Dream, I’m excited because
that’s exactly what I would want to do with the Dream as well,” Montgomery said. “For me, that was important because as you all know, I believe in standing for something. I’m happy to be standing with Suzanne and Larry and trying to connect Atlanta to the Atlanta Dream because that is the next step.”
Dream players protested Loeffler’s comments about the Black Lives Matter movement last year by wearing T-shirts and with social media posts. They wore the T-shirts before a nationally televised game against Phoenix. Several players were active in the process leading to the runoff election, including taking part in videos encouraging participation in the election.
The issues between owner and team began in the summer amid the nationwide protests over social justice issues and the Black Lives Matter movement.
The players union called for Loeffler to be removed from ownership, but WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert
said Loeffler would not be forced to sell, noting she was not involved in the day-to-day operations of the team.
Following the announcement of the sale, the Women’s National Basketball Players Association issued a statement that, in part, read: “May it send a strong reminder that the players of the W are bigger than basketball and that together they stand for equity, justice, diversity, inclusion, fairness and respect. … It is time for the women of the Atlanta Dream and their fans to have an opportunity to heal and move forward. It is our fervent wish that we shall never see again such an abuse of power and arrogant display of privilege. It is our hope that no one will ever again attempt to use the players for individual gain or favor. Those actions were unbelievably selfish, reckless and dangerous. And those who would conduct themselves in that manner have absolutely no place in our sport.”
Loeffler and Brock commented
on the sale in a statement issued through the WNBA.
“Ten years ago we stepped up to keep the Dream in Atlanta, as an important asset for a vibrant and diverse city. It was also important to us to help level the playing field for women’s professional sports. We are proud of what we accomplished and wish the team well in their next chapter. We will always value the hard work and dedication, and the memories, fans and friendships that sustained our commitment to the Atlanta Dream over the last decade.”
Gottesdiener is the founder and chairman of Northland Investment Corporation, described as a $10 billion real estate private equity firm. Gottesdiener said he had interest in purchasing a professional sports franchise for several years, including the NHL’S Pittsburgh Penguins. He said at one time he looked into buying the Atlanta Thrashers, who were sold and moved to Winnipeg nearly 10 years ago.
Ryan Johnson made his decision to return to Georgia Tech for his second senior season after thought, prayer and consultations with his parents, coaches and friends. Playing in the NFL is a dream of his, but he came back, he said, because of his love for Tech — the school and the team — his confidence that the Yellow Jackets could be significantly improved and his desire to train for another year with offensive line coach Brent Key to improve his draft stock.
And two months after announcing his return, John- son can report that he feels confirmed in his decision.
“Just watching the guys really grow in the offseason has really given me a lot of confidence, has given me a lot of confirmation that I think that this was great that I came back,” Johnson told the AJC. “Because I can really feel that I’m going to be a part of something special.”
Johnson came to Tech as a grad transfer in January 2020 from Tennessee and went on to anchor the Jackets’ offensive line at right guard. He started all 10 games last season, helped the Jackets’ total offense improve from 286.3 to 389.9 yards per game and earned a spot on the ACC’S all-academic team as well.
For Johnson, his vision of “something special” goes far beyond a winning record, which itself would be an accomplishment after the Jackets have gone a com- bined 6-16 in coach Geoff Collins’ first two seasons.
“I want to win a cham- pionship, and I want to be holding a ring, and I want to be holding a trophy at the end of the season,” he said.
While he acknowledged that a lot of work needs to be done first, Johnson has based his aspirations on more than talk. Voted one of four permanent captains for the 2020 team at the end of the season, Johnson said he has taken confidence not only from the growth and maturity of teammates, but also in the infusion of talent, both incoming freshmen and transfers. Among players who have arrived through the transfer por- tal are defensive end Keion White, who tied for 10th in the FBS in 2019 in tackles for loss at Old Dominion; wide receiver Kyric Mcgowan, who caught 34 passes last season at Northwestern; and cornerback Kenyatta Watson, who was a four-star prospect coming out of Grayson High before transferring to Tech from Texas.
“So that’s also something that I see is just very, very important to this team,” Johnson said, “very, very important to our success in the future of this team. So I think we’ve got a lot of things going for us.”
One of those things is the team culture, includ- ing what Johnson called “a great atmosphere that is very hard to find and that you don’t see everywhere in the country.” He sees it, among other places, in how much players want to be around one another after workouts in the locker room or players lounge.
“They’ll hang out with the coaches and watch film all day long,” Johnson said. “It’s not even that it has to be encouraged. It’s just the players want to.”
Johnson is among them, a daily visitor to Key’s office.
“We talk ball, we talk about life,” Johnson said. “And to limit the lessons that I’ve learned from coach Key to just the game of football or just technique would be sell- ing him short, because I’ve learned a lot about life just by sitting in his office and listening to him, listening to stories that he’s told.”
Returning for the 2021 season also will give Johnson time to finish his master’s degree in analytics, which he can add to the bachelor’s degree in civil engineering and master’s in structural engineering that he earned from Tennessee. The analytics master’s is an interdisciplinary program incorporat- ing Tech’s business, comput- ing and engineering colleges. It is the study of puzzle solving, he said.
“You’re trying to figure out what somebody else is thinking before they ever had the thought,” he said. “You see the ads on Facebook, and they’ll advertise the red bicycle that, you want it, but you never even searched it. You really didn’t even know you wanted it until somebody advertised it and suddenly you want it. The people who are doing that are analytics people.”
He is on track to finish in December, at the end of his fifth season, three at Tennessee and two at Tech. The time at Tech has been amazing, he said, in what he has learned and whom he has met.
“I’ve become a better man by the people I’ve been around here at Georgia Tech, not just in the football offices, not just on the football field but just across campus and across the athletic facility,” Johnson said. “It has been an amazing journey. I’m happy to be able to continue it for the next 11 months.”