Retrofiting BOA stadium won’t cut it - If it’s simply a play to leverage a dome for the Panthers, I think it fails. It’s gotta be a SSS, state of the art, +25,000 seating, with a complete development plan that ties into the community. There is too much competition for anything half-jazzed. Don’t blow it Charlotte!
I disagree. I think we are getting MLS and they are playing in Bank of America as is for a while.
FWIW, the Seattle Sounders set the facility attendance record during today’s MLS Cup at CenturyLink Field, which they share with the Seahawks.
Seattle and Atlanta have both proven that the SSS is not a requirement. They can do a few things to make it more soccer friendly and be set and ready to go. It is far more important to have the stadium in the urban core than a SSS outside of the city center.
I’ve been to a regular season Atlanta united game against Orlando with 73k in attendance and a Revs game vs Chelsea with like 30k in attendance. Building a culture and the stadium being right in the city is key.
FYI…
Tepper talks latest on MLS expansion, new NFL stadium
Interesting - Like the frankness. Wow, 1996 was some time ago - Charlotte has changed a LOT since then. I think Charlotte has to go ‘whole hog’ here with a thoughtful, significant investment. Tepper is the right guy to lead the charge.
I disagree with Tepper that it is unlikely that MLB would have a team in Charlotte. Just this morning on MLB radio they were discussing Charlotte as a top 5 landing spot for a relocated Tampa Bay Rays or potential expansion team.
I don’t see MLB expanding any time soon but with Tampa exploring splitting home games between Tampa and Montreal I could see them relocating within 5-10 years if not sooner.
I just don’t see it. MLB is a giant money pit if you aren’t in a giant market.
I would love for us to have a team, but I don’t see it coming this way. 81 home games is a lot. Braves would be sacrificing a massive part of their market. Too many negative bricks in the wall.
I saw lots of talk in the shoutbox about the city funding part of this with hotel/tourism tax dollars. I wanted to comment on that here.
So Tepper and the MLS would bring at least 34 games per season. The revenues for each team in 2019 were quite varied with Atlanta with the most at $78 million and Colorado with the least at $18 million. There is no cost justification for subsidizing any sports team. However, I do believe there are some advantages to a city having multiple franchises across different sports platforms. This gives the city the perception that it is big and a major player in US Economics. Having the Hornets leave was a major blow to the city and the city fought real hard to get a new franchise brought in. I think this has more to do with how the city wishes to be perceived versus actual monetary value to the city. For example, with just an NFL franchise what separates Charlotte from say Green Bay, WI. Green Bay is quite the small town compared to Charlotte.
On a second note, the actual taxes incurred are going to be spent on something that is used to try and increase hotel revenue. This could be a new convention center or other venue that creates an event that may bring in people from outside the area. It is highly unlikely that the city would agree to use those funds on a greenway space or in other areas that would make the life of residents actually better. Cities just typically don’t do that with hotel tax revenue. As we all know if you want to waste money give it to the government at any level.
Lastly, even if they charged additional tax to citizens in the Charlotte area, Charlotte still pays relatively low property taxes. To give you an idea of this, I lived in a small town in Iowa and my tax rate was $2.85 per $100 assessed value compared to Charlotte’s $0.35 per $100 assessed. So a house valued at $250k in CLT would pay about $870 in city taxes whereas a $250k house in my old Iowa town would be about $7,100. I was always amused when I would hear people say that Meck had high property taxes. Now even a fraction of an increase would help support a lot of nice things, but then we get back to government spending money wisely.
I think the people in Meck should embrace the sports franchises, even though the owners are stupid rich as it does increase the visibility of the city Nationally and Globally. Don’t expect a good return on investment and just know that the money could be spent in worse ways. With the sports franchise business model as it is, I think it would be really bad to see the NFL/MLS franchise move to say Greenville/Spartanburg versus having them in Charlotte.
clt supports MLS. Just get Jordan to sell the hornets to tepper next
I hope for the name Charlotte SC
But everyone would be like, “Charlotte, South Carolina?” I’m a soccer fan and that was my first thought.
QCFC please
Why not Charlotte Divided? There are many Uniteds, but no Divideds.
Charlotte’s Web Psych.
My son played for Charlotte SC. Don’t actually have a lot of fond memories with that now defunct group!