MLS in Charlotte - 2021

[JoshuaDrown]

1 hour ago, SouthEndCLT811 said:

Atlanta is just mind boggling.  Arthur Blank and even Carl Lindner of Cincy should be required to mentor any new franchise owner in MLS on how to do things. 

The attendance for last night’s MLS All-Star game in Atlanta  was 72,317, the second-largest attendance ever of any All-Star Game across all  North American sport leagues. By all accounts Atlanta  put on one heck of a party. It was an entertaining match too, which is sometimes hard for in-season All-Star games.

https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2018/08/01/2018-mls-all-star-game-sell-out-will-break-asg-attendance-record

[HighRiseHillbilly]

I came across this article a few days ago. It's got some interesting insight into how soccer has grown in Atlanta. While we lack the superstar support, I'm curious to see how the impact of what's happened there impacts popularity and growth in our own city. It's a pretty interesting read.

https://syndication.bleacherreport.com/amp/2791278-listen-to-the-kids-how-atlanta-became-the-black-soccer-capital-of-america.amp.html

The run at Five Points station is only one part of a vibrant soccer scene that has grown feverishly in and around the city in recent years. "I would say that soccer is the biggest sport in Atlanta," says Ryan Glover, an appointee to MARTA's board of directors and soccer dad to two daughters. "Above the Falcons, above the Braves and certainly above the Hawks." If you drive around Atlanta, it's not difficult to see: Soccer is everywhere—from the east side to the west, from the inner city to the suburbs.

[NcSc74]

Note to Tepper, get on the train and get us a team...I'm ready.  NC can support 2 teams by the way.

[Hushpuppy321]

Do you guys think MLS would accept Teppers idea for the Panthers to share Stadium with an MLS Franchise?

[SouthEndCLT811]

I think so if it comes with renovation to the stadium that allows a more intimate configuration for MLS matches.  Atlanta and Seattle are the exceptions attendance wise in the league everyone points to but for each of those there's a New England Revolution that has terrible optics that the league wants to get away from..  Hence the strong push for expansion in soccer specific stadiums

[TheOneRJ]

18 hours ago, Hushpuppy321 said:

Do you guys think MLS would accept Teppers idea for the Panthers to share Stadium with an MLS Franchise?

Not in the current stadium. 

[Nick2]

So this is interesting. It definitely seems like tepper is really really pushing for a team. Heck, there is already talk of how to create a clt-atl rivalry.

[CharlotteWkndBuzz]

This is a paywall but the brief 5 second skim I was allowed, looks like similar info lol.

 

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2019/01/30/mls-for-bofa-stadium-backers-of-latest-effort-to.html?iana=hpmvp_clt_news_headline

[Nick2]

56 minutes ago, CharlotteWkndBuzz said:

This is a paywall but the brief 5 second skim I was allowed, looks like similar info lol.

 

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2019/01/30/mls-for-bofa-stadium-backers-of-latest-effort-to.html?iana=hpmvp_clt_news_headline

Yeah they have a link in the article to the same page. I saw a friend share the email on FB.

[TheOneRJ]

Hearing very creditable things about this. 

[hokiehigh]

Yep.   Seems like something may be happening.  Isn’t Tepper/Panthers supposed to meet with the city soon about possible stadium renovations?   

I think it would be smart to get a Team now rather than wait until the MLS possibly goes to 32.  Also it would give Raleigh more time to get their stuff together. 

[dylansukkert]

Go ahead and sign me up for season tickets can't wait for more tailgates!!

[hokiehigh]

Does anyone know how the focus group meetings went?   It's interesting to see how this plays out.   I am not that informed on what's going on with the MLS but it seems like the final expansion slot will go to St. Louis, Sacramento or San Diego?   Supposedly we could pass them with a better plan and with Tepper's money?   There also seems to be another round of expansion in the MLS to get it to the same number of teams as the NFL.   I guess we could wait for second round?

[Niner National]

4 minutes ago, hokiehigh said:

Does anyone know how the focus group meetings went?   It's interesting to see how this plays out.   I am not that informed on what's going on with the MLS but it seems like the final expansion slot will go to St. Louis, Sacramento or San Diego?   Supposedly we could pass them with a better plan and with Tepper's money?   There also seems to be another round of expansion in the MLS to get it to the same number of teams as the NFL.   I guess we could wait for second round?

All the attendees had to sign NDAs. That doesn't mean someone won't leak it, but it doesn't appear to have happened yet.

[Tyrone Wiggum]

Ok, I ask this sincerely,  because I truly don't understand:  why in the hell does anybody care about MLS soccer?  I was in a conversation this weekend about ATL United with a Brit friend of mine, and my comment was "half the teams in MLS would struggle to compete with Bristol City."  His retort was "hell, half of them would struggle against  Derby County."  

MLS is a garbage product full of preening hipsters who don't realize that the equivalent would be packing the hive for a JV basketball game between Statesville Christian and Country Day, so who cares if Charlotte has a team or not?  Stop fetishizing mediocrity just because it's a bunch of occasional has-been but mostly never-was dudes that look like they'd be right at home on your Wednesday night softball team.

/rant

 

[hokiehigh]

1 minute ago, Tyrone Wiggum said:

Ok, I ask this sincerely,  because I truly don't understand:  why in the hell does anybody care about MLS soccer?  I was in a conversation this weekend about ATL United with a Brit friend of mine, and my comment was "half the teams in MLS would struggle to compete with Bristol City."  His retort was "hell, half of them would struggle against  Derby County."  

MLS is a garbage product full of preening hipsters who don't realize that the equivalent would be packing the hive for a JV basketball game between Statesville Christian and Country Day, so who cares if Charlotte has a team or not?  Stop fetishizing mediocrity just because it's a bunch of occasional has-been but mostly never-was dudes that look like they'd be right at home on your Wednesday night softball team.

/rant

 

Basically I care because I like soccer.  No harm in that!  Heck, I like the Checkers even though it isn't the NHL and the Knights even though it isn't MLB.  

[SgtCampsalot]

40 minutes ago, Tyrone Wiggum said:

Ok, I ask this sincerely,  because I truly don't understand:  why in the hell does anybody care about MLS soccer?  I was in a conversation this weekend about ATL United with a Brit friend of mine, and my comment was "half the teams in MLS would struggle to compete with Bristol City."  His retort was "hell, half of them would struggle against  Derby County."  

MLS is a garbage product full of preening hipsters who don't realize that the equivalent would be packing the hive for a JV basketball game between Statesville Christian and Country Day, so who cares if Charlotte has a team or not?  Stop fetishizing mediocrity just because it's a bunch of occasional has-been but mostly never-was dudes that look like they'd be right at home on your Wednesday night softball team.

/rant

I don't even follow sports, like not one bit. But I'm interested because soccer is the most popular sport in the world, and the US, perpetually being a nation of new immigrants, will only have increasing interest in the sport in the decades ahead. Plus if we're actually seeking to have teams compete internationally, you do so by having a legitimate league to build talent. To me, that last part is like Charlotte in the 80s saying, "Why build sidewalks, no one walks anyway."

[videtur quam contuor]

A KEY element in US professional sports is that team owners are part of a monopoly. In the top European football leagues there is promotion-relegation where the lower teams must drop to another league and the best of the next level down are promoted to the top series. In the US this is never so and this leads to tanking (intentional losing), gross differences in talent and skills between teams, imbalance within leagues. It also requires the meaninglessness of team performance at the next lowest level (e. g. AAA baseball, NBA development league) and all subsequent lower levels. If MLS would create the relegation-promotion concept it could revolutionize US sport. 

[teeg]

1 hour ago, tarhoosier said:

A KEY element in US professional sports is that team owners are part of a monopoly. In the top European football leagues there is promotion-relegation where the lower teams must drop to another league and the best of the next level down are promoted to the top series. In the US this is never so and this leads to tanking (intentional losing), gross differences in talent and skills between teams, imbalance within leagues. It also requires the meaninglessness of team performance at the next lowest level (e. g. AAA baseball, NBA development league) and all subsequent lower levels. If MLS would create the relegation-promotion concept it could revolutionize US sport. 

I have always loved the idea of a multi-tier league system with relegation and promotion just like the european leagues, but recently I have been wondering how we would get there from here.  Given that MLS does have its monopoly, and the current owners each have a ton of skin in the game (current franchise value, club purchase price / expansion fees, stadium costs...), why would any of them agree to change the system (or buy in as an expansion team) if they might then be dropped to the minor division next year?  Maybe if it had been set up as multi-tier from the beginning, but at the beginning there were only 10 teams or something.  

I've also been wondering if the eurpoean system approach -- in practice -- is as elegant as I've always thought in theory.  It sounds like a really great approach to guaranteeing competition at every level of the sport,  but then I see that only about 5 teams have won Premier League in the last 20 years, and a similar number have won Bundesliga in that time.  I am guessing that the wealthiest teams (Bayern Munich, Chelsea, etc)  will always be able to buy enough talent to  guarantee that they are never relegated, which would mean that those wealthy clubs have their own little effective monopoly within the system, with relegation being a second-tier city concern. 

[kermit]

Meanwhile in Raleigh:

They are full-speed ahead discussing a $300 million request for public funds to build a downtown soccer stadium.

https://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2019/02/11/pnc-arena-proposed-mls-stadium-seek-600m-in-public.html

No mention of MLS expansion plans changing or Tepper's billions  a couple of hours down the road.

 

[JoshuaDrown]

23 hours ago, Tyrone Wiggum said:

Ok, I ask this sincerely,  because I truly don't understand:  why in the hell does anybody care about MLS soccer?  I was in a conversation this weekend about ATL United with a Brit friend of mine, and my comment was "half the teams in MLS would struggle to compete with Bristol City."  His retort was "hell, half of them would struggle against  Derby County."  

MLS is a garbage product full of preening hipsters who don't realize that the equivalent would be packing the hive for a JV basketball game between Statesville Christian and Country Day, so who cares if Charlotte has a team or not?  Stop fetishizing mediocrity just because it's a bunch of occasional has-been but mostly never-was dudes that look like they'd be right at home on your Wednesday night softball team.

/rant

 

I’ll take the bait because you asked “sincerely”...  despite following that up with two paragraphs of assumptive insults at MLS and those of us that are MLS fans. 

Personally, I’ve been a sports fan my entire life, I simply love competition... it’s my reality TV, full of spectacle and drama, grace and power, agony and ecstasy. I started watching European soccer in the 80s, when that was the type of content ESPN had before they had the big money for the NFL and MLB. I fell in love with soccer, the stadiums, the supporters, the tifos, promotion/relegation, domestic cups, World Cups, the U.S. Men’s and Women’s National teams, and well... the Beautiful Game. 

In 1996 we began the MLS experiment, and I have watched ever since, because it is Our League. I have my club, and I don’t miss a minute. I wear their colors, I sing their songs, I drive hundreds of miles and fly thousands to support them at home and on the road.

You see, U.S. Soccer in general is imperfect... our players, national teams, and local clubs are a reflection of the unique soccer history in our country. We were late to the party, we are the underdogs. But we are hungry, we are passionate, and we are dedicated.

MLS grows every year, and with that growth comes incredible commitments and opportunities for the local community... with most clubs now featuring youth and academy teams, giving local players chances at a future American soccer players could never dream of before. These opportunities are now spreading across this part of the world, attracting many of the best young Central American, South American, and Caribbean players. The league is a freight train of growth, from the skill of the players on the field, to the world-class stadiums and training facilities... it looks like an unstoppable force narrowing the gaps between it and the best leagues in the world. To not understand the arc of growth would be naive; I mean, the English Football League was created in 1888, they have a wee bit of a head start.

I would suggest that you give MLS a chance. It has the same ingredients as the best soccer in the world... electric stadiums, graceful and skilled players, magnificent goals, passionate fans, and above all else... it is Ours.

Edited February 12, 2019 by JoshuaDrown

[JoshuaDrown]

On 2/11/2019 at 8:46 AM, Tyrone Wiggum said:

it's a bunch of occasional has-been but mostly never-was dudes that look like they'd be right at home on your Wednesday night softball team.

FYI... this is NOT what my Wednesday night softball team looks like:

 

Edited February 12, 2019 by JoshuaDrown

[lewy2000]

That Rooney assist gave me goose bumps and I don't even follow soccer.

[Hushpuppy321]

Anyone here on this thread worried about Raleigh having a head start in asking for Public funding?  What’s the chance they get an expansion MLS Team over Tepper?

[southslider]

9 hours ago, Hushpuppy321 said:

 What’s the chance they get an expansion MLS Team over Tepper?

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