It’s not as much what Charlotte did but what Raleigh didn’t.
With the new MLS franchise being awarded to Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper, Charlotte took another major step toward dominating the professional sports scene across North Carolina.
The Raleigh market has the Hurricanes, yes, and minor league baseball. But Charlotte will now have the NFL and the NBA and the MLS, while its presence in collegiate sports has diminished greatly.
Maybe that is a fair trade-off, as long as you don’t count Clemson and South Carolina as Charlotte sports teams. If you do, then there is no comparison. Raleigh has been after the MLS to upgrade its North Carolina FB Club and Courage minor league teams, owned by Steve Malik. But David Tepper has proven himself in another class.
When Tepper bought the Panthers, he saw the practice facility that surrounded Bank of American Stadium as a gross waste of commercial land. He immediately revealed plans to move the Panthers training grounds to nearby Fort Mill, reportedly to be replaced by a major retail and residential complex. Soccer may cause Tepper to call an audible.
Sure, the new soccer franchise will share the Panthers’ home, but Tepper’s long-range goal apparently is to mirror what Arthur Blank has in Atlanta with Mercedes Benz Stadium. The Falcons and the MLS United share that stunning facility, and the way owner Blank runs the two franchises almost corners the sports market in the Georgia capital.
Because he also owns the stadium, Blank is not bound by city and state regulations that dictate the price of everything sold at the games. Thus, soccer fans can actually afford to go to matches without having to fork over hundreds of dollars it takes to take in the NFL. Hot dogs cost as low as two bucks at soccer games and giant beers less than 10 dollars.
And tickets start at $20, accommodating the growing family market for soccer while pro football prices rule out most average fans. If Tepper builds a new stadium on that model, Charlotte will become a soccer town, too, that will have two completely different fan bases.
But where to build that new stadium, and what to do with the land surrounding the Panthers’ current digs? With 100 million soccer dollars committed from the city of Charlotte, Tepper will surely figure that out, too.
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