MLS in Charlotte - 2021

[Hushpuppy321]

16 hours ago, southslider said:

Raleigh only has NHL. Charlotte has both NFL and NBA.

Charlotte does have those but I fear if Raleigh is awarded an expansion team then that will be the death kneel for Charlotte’s chances.  Absolutely no way NC gets two (2) MLS Teams.

[JoshuaDrown]

11 hours ago, Hushpuppy321 said:

Charlotte does have those but I fear if Raleigh is awarded an expansion team then that will be the death kneel for Charlotte’s chances.  Absolutely no way NC gets two (2) MLS Teams.

Raleigh is not getting an MLS expansion club. 

The current proposal is just OK. The city and market is just OK. The ownership group headed up by Steve Malik would be among the “poorest” of the entire league. Raleigh literally has nothing to set it apart from the other bids. 

Now St. Louis, Detroit, Phoenix, and Sacramento have some VERY strong bids... and all are well, well ahead of Raleigh. 

Charlotte has David Tepper. His $11B net worth makes Charlotte’s bid a powerhouse. Only Seattle’s Paul Allen has a higher net worth.

Do not underestimate how much MLS wants and needs owner/investors with deep deep pockets. They want to play in the world’s transfer market, and envision a near future where MLS is a top 6 league along with or near the EPL, La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A, and Ligue 1. Atlanta has been in existence for 2 seasons and already has transfer fees of $15M and $14M (Barco and Pity Martinez), which puts them roughly in the same tier as the record transfer fees for many English clubs: Brighton & Hove Albion £14M, Burnley £15M, Cardiff City £11M, Fulham £12M, Huddersfield Town £17.5M, Southampton £19M, Watford £18.5M, Wolverhampton £15.8M, etc.

I expect Atlanta to keep pushing MLS forward, they just sent Miguel Almirón to Newcastle for $28M, and will be investing that into other top tier young players. David Beckham’s Inter Miami CF will start play in 2020, and they will attract (and pay) the world’s best players. MLS can no longer afford millionaire owners; the league needs the David Teppers of the world... and there just aren’t very many of those.

 

[Merthecat]

The Raleigh bid also hinges upon State Government agreeing to a major redevelopment of part of their campus in downtown, including tearing down the Archdale Building (which I understand is in poor condition).  As unlikely as that is, I can't see a stadium coming to fruition in Raleigh (though I would love for us to win the expansion).  Charlotte has a huge advantage over us.

[JoshuaDrown]

We have been talking for a while about the possibility of Charlotte getting MLS expansion slot #28... but MLS Commissioner Don Garber has now been saying that MLS is likely to move beyond 28. He said the following to Sports Illustrated's Planet Fútbol TV, on February 20:

“(Team) 28 will have to get resolved sometime soon, and then we’re going to spend some time over the next year figuring out do we go beyond that,” Garber said.

“Ultimately, I think there are many cities in our country that have ambitious potential owners with great stadium plans that ultimately could help our league be bigger, more influential. And if that’s something that we think is going to make sense, to grow the league, then we’ll expand beyond 28”.

https://www.bizjournals.com/louisville/news/2019/02/21/when-will-mls-award-its-28th-team-league.html

MLS is coming to Charlotte, I think the better questions now is just “when”. Does CLT have a shot at #28 over the cities we have talked about, or is it more likely to jump in after the plan to 30 or 32 is announced?

[SouthEndCLT811]

St. Louis is a little further down the road and were a heavy favorite the first time around.  They regrouped, got a better owner (billionaire from Enterprise).  Tepper would have to quickly escalate his plan for the stadium with the city.  It seems he's a little bit earlier into the process, depending timing maybe 29-30 at earliest IMO

[NYtoCLT]

11 minutes ago, SouthEndCLT811 said:

St. Louis is a little further down the road and were a heavy favorite the first time around.  They regrouped, got a better owner (billionaire from Enterprise).  Tepper would have to quickly escalate his plan for the stadium with the city.  It seems he's a little bit earlier into the process, depending timing maybe 29-30 at earliest IMO

I think this is probably true since it seems like both Saint Louis and Sacramento are above CLT in line and both have good bids with good ownership groups.  The biggest things in CLT's favor are that (1) Tepper has deeper pockets than the other ownership groups despite them getting billionaire support, (2) Tom Glick has very legit experience so MLS would have confidence in the operation being well run and (3) CLT is a better fit given future population projections (similar in size to STL but way faster growing and bigger and faster growing than SAC).  

 

Hopefully those things help push things in our favor.  I would buy season tickets the day they were released.

[gman430]

 

[Missmylab4]

I don’t get the context of that Gman. 

[SentioVenia]

Did anyone else receive this survey?  It was sent to my son and the questions asked his opinion about getting an MLS franchise and whether BofA stadium would work for MLS.

[eastsider]

Yup, i got one.

[NYtoCLT]

With the expansion to 30 teams, Charlotte's odds of getting an expansion team has skyrocketed.  Sacramento and STL look like locks, but Charlotte might be in poll position for #30.  

[elrodvt]

If not MLR is continuing to expand and is getting considerable tv revenue. I enjoyed going to the MLR games in Denver more than MLS.  

[CLT>]

19 hours ago, elrodvt said:

If not MLR is continuing to expand and is getting considerable tv revenue. I enjoyed going to the MLR games in Denver more than MLS.  

Charlotte is supposedly a hub for youth rugby. (or so I've been told)

[Hushpuppy321]

20 hours ago, elrodvt said:

If not MLR is continuing to expand and is getting considerable tv revenue. I enjoyed going to the MLR games in Denver more than MLS.  

Would it be possible for a MLR Team to share Memorial Stadium (after renovations) with the Independence and a reconstituted MLL Team?

[elrodvt]

1 hour ago, Hushpuppy321 said:

Would it be possible for a MLR Team to share Memorial Stadium (after renovations) with the Independence and a reconstituted MLL Team?

I was wondering the same. But most seem to be ponying up the cash for purpose built. Not sure if they did that for location or whether MLR drives it.

There are some nice stadiums out there. SD looks very nice and I'm fond of Gelndale Infinity park in Denver which has a rockin try club with good beer on draft. 

EDIT - I was wrong about most being purpose built. And SD looks a lot nicer on TV than reading about the specs...

Edited April 23, 2019 by elrodvt

[elrodvt]

45 minutes ago, CLT> said:

Charlotte is supposedly a hub for youth rugby. (or so I've been told)

I heard that also! I was disappointed the semi-pro guys lost their spot. Which was a lot better than just a field somewhere with even an attempt at a try club. It was somewhere south on Tryon but cannot remember the name of the place.  Don't even know where they  went after that.

[kermit]

^ I would really like to see Memorial become a busy hub for 'B' Level sporting events (minor-league soccer, MLL, MLR, seems like we may see some women's pro soccer as well). 100+ events a year out there would really change that part of town. 

[SentioVenia]

Three local youth soccer clubs announce a merger under the Charlotte Independence banner:

https://www.independencesoccer.club/index.cfm

 

[elrodvt]

30 minutes ago, kermit said:

^ I would really like to see Memorial become a busy hub for 'B' Level sporting events (minor-league soccer, MLL, MLR, seems like we may see some women's pro soccer as well). 100+ events a year out there would really change that part of town. 

I hope MLR won't be "B level" for long but that's an accurate description now.  It's certainly lower in interest than MLS.  It does have more TV presence than you would think for a league in it's second year and a sport most Americans have not seen. That actually surprised me when I saw my Glendale favs on TV last weekend and planned for next. Take a look at what the current member list is and their stadiums.  Most are equivalent to Memorial I would say. IMHO Memorial would be a nice location for at least 3-4 years. Is there going to be shade for all seats though and decent vending locations with beer allowed??? Rubgy must have alcohol. 

Given the US football culture I think Rugby could become pretty popular here.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_League_Rugby

    Note that Atlanta, DC and Boston are adding teams soon. Be nice to get a foot in at the ground floor.

Nice Stadiums 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinity_Park   (Denver)

https://zbra.rsl.com/stadium/  (Salt Lake)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MCU_Park  (NYC, never been, looks ok but is really a milb park...??)

 

[CLT>]

6 hours ago, kermit said:

^ I would really like to see Memorial become a busy hub for 'B' Level sporting events (minor-league soccer, MLL, MLR, seems like we may see some women's pro soccer as well). 100+ events a year out there would really change that part of town. 

If you look at the county's 'quick fix' rebuilding of Memorial Stadium, I think it will be tough to get anything but HS games and community events there. They did an extremely poor job planning and designing the renovation.

[tozmervo]

23 minutes ago, CLT> said:

If you look at the county's 'quick fix' rebuilding of Memorial Stadium, I think it will be tough to get anything but HS games and community events there. They did an extremely poor job planning and designing the renovation.

The renovation will enable the field to be used in multiple ways for a variety of sports and events, and it will not inhibit future construction of tiered seating, etc. What exactly are you looking for?

[cltbwimob]

On 4/22/2019 at 2:42 PM, elrodvt said:

If not MLR is continuing to expand and is getting considerable tv revenue. I enjoyed going to the MLR games in Denver more than MLS.  

I actually have been hoping that Charlotte would get an MLR team for a while now.  And a renovated Memorial Stadium would be perfect for it plus MLL and USL.

With the aggression of football and game play faster than all major sports except Hockey, rugby is a really cool sport and one that I can get into.

Running errands for my wife, watching the grass grow, watching paint dry,  etc are all preferable to watching an MLS game.

[navigator319]

10 hours ago, cltbwimob said:

I actually have been hoping that Charlotte would get an MLR team for a while now.  And a renovated Memorial Stadium would be perfect for it plus MLL and USL.

With the aggression of football and game play faster than all major sports except Hockey, rugby is a really cool sport and one that I can get into.

Running errands for my wife, watching the grass grow, watching paint dry,  etc are all preferable to watching an MLS game.

There is no such thing as MLL any longer here in Charlotte. They went out of business earlier in the month

[CLT>]

19 hours ago, tozmervo said:

The renovation will enable the field to be used in multiple ways for a variety of sports and events, and it will not inhibit future construction of tiered seating, etc. What exactly are you looking for?

Then maybe I'm misunderstanding what's being done? All the renderings show:

-The seating bowl pulled back, so demolishing the original stone walls and reconstructing them.
-The historic concrete walls at the top of the seating bowl removed
-Red brick concourse buildings to match CPCC, though the stadium has always been concrete/stone/stucco
-Greenway and stadium sharing some facilities
-FIFA Level 2 Artifical Turf
-Token armed forces branch seals on the pavement

Doesn't the greenway and concourse width preclude expansion or creation of additional seating? The plan put forward by the Independence allowed this, but the one approved by the county does not from my understanding

I have no problem with multi-use and actually think it's great if as many users as possible have access to it, I just always understood that the county plan was a rushed one to get it done ASAP, and cut off future options. I'm happy to be wrong on that front.

 

[elrodvt]

No shade??