The FIFA World Cup is set to kick off in Atlanta in 10 days.

Nine teams will play group-stage matches at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, but the U.S. men’s national team is not one of them. The USMNT’s group stage takes place in Los Angeles and Seattle, but that doesn’t mean Atlanta has no chance of seeing the national team in person.

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Paths that could see the Stars and Stripes in Atlanta

Round of 16

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Semifinals

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AUGUSTA, Ga. — Augusta may not have an ice rink right now, but that hasn’t stopped local hockey fans from finding a way to play — and building a community in the process.

Nearly every Saturday morning, a group of players meets up for ball hockey on a repurposed tennis court, squeezing in extra games on Wednesdays while summer daylight lasts. Without working lights on the court, their schedule depends on the sun — not a roster.

“Ball hockey is really mainly community,” said Ty Mercer, founder of the Ball Hockey Group. “People come out of curiosity, but then they stay for the community.”

A “rink” built on a tennis court

The surface isn’t a traditional rink — because there isn’t one. Mercer said the group doesn’t have access to a full-size hockey facility, so they found an old tennis court and got creative.

They use the center line as a red line, eyeball a neutral zone and face-off circles, and even paint goalie creases. To make the square court play more like a rink, Mercer said they tracked down old pieces of fencing to create makeshift corner boards, helping the ball move around instead of getting stuck.

Hockey fans left without ice

Mercer said the drive to keep playing started with what Augusta has lost over the years.

“We desperately missed hockey in the area,” Mercer said. “We lost two hockey teams. We lost the ice rink. This was the only hockey we had.”

The group began in April 2018 and eventually moved to the tennis court location in 2019. Mercer said early games were held in a blocked-off parking lot near the Eisenhower Baseball Fields before they found a space the county and neighbors didn’t mind them using.

Growing through word-of-mouth — and Fort Gordon

Players say one of the biggest reasons the group has grown is simple: people talk.

Commissioner Brian Buchanan, a Fort Gordon transplant who discovered the group in the early 2020s, joked that the “number one rule of ball hockey is to talk about ball hockey.” Buchanan said he first found the league through a chance encounter with someone fixing his air conditioner — after the worker noticed hockey items on his wall.

Buchanan, originally from Tampa, said he fell in love with the sport as a kid when the Tampa Bay Lightning made a big push in the community. He’s been chasing hockey wherever he’s lived — and now he’s at the court in Belvedere almost every Saturday.

With Fort Gordon nearby, Mercer and Buchanan say the group draws people who come from hockey-heavy areas and are looking for a way to keep playing while stationed in the CSRA.

“All it takes is for one person who’s stationed at Fort Gordon to tell his other hockey friends,” Mercer said.

Players cross state lines for the game

Mercer said the group has attracted players willing to drive well beyond Augusta for a chance to play — including people from Columbia, South Carolina, and Statesboro, with others planning to travel from even farther. Some players also make trips to the nearest ice rink in Columbia, which can be an hour and a half away — or more depending on where they live in the Augusta area.

From pickup to league — and a travel team

While many games are informal pickup, Mercer said the group has continued expanding its footprint.

He said some players have joined the National Ball Hockey League (Tier 3), and the group also has a travel team — the Swamp Monsters — that competes in ball hockey tournaments. Mercer added that last year they organized and ran their first full Augusta Ball Hockey League, a step toward building something more consistent as participation grows.

Buchanan said he’s already seen the numbers climb. He recalled a tournament the group holds between the last NFL regular season game and the Super Bowl — the “bi-week bash” — where nearly 30 players showed up and formed five teams.

“We all have different teams that we root for,” Buchanan said, “but we all come here, and we’re all rooting for each other to succeed.”

The Lynx bring new hope for hockey in Augusta

Now, local players believe a new pro team could be the boost the sport needs in the city.

The Augusta Lynx are set to debut, and both Mercer and Buchanan hope the franchise increases hockey visibility — and possibly leads to partnerships that help build youth interest and future leagues.

Buchanan said he would love to see a stronger pipeline for kids, but right now, the youth participation isn’t there yet. He said some players bring their children to the court, where they’ll shoot on the goalie during breaks, but it hasn’t become a consistent youth scene.

Mercer said the group has leaned on local hockey-related social media pages to find more players — including “Bring Hockey Back to Augusta” — and uses Facebook and an app called BenchApp to organize weekly games and keep members connected.

Buchanan hopes growth leads to support from local government, too.

“I hope the county gets involved and improves our playing surface and our playing area and put some money behind it,” Buchanan said. “Because then I think it’ll grow.”