Charlotte Bid at 'Front of the Line' for MLS's 30th Team

[NAS]

SEATTLE — In his state of the league address ahead of Sunday’s MLS Cup final between Toronto FC and the Seattle Sounders, commissioner Don Garber didn’t make a lot of news while discussing a number of topics–including the ongoing labor talks. But he did give a clearer indication than ever that Charlotte is in the driver’s seat to become the league’s 30th team as MLS’s expansion continues at a breakneck pace.

“There are three markets that we’re looking at, that our expansion committee has been engaging: Charlotte, Las Vegas and Phoenix. It’s fair to say that Charlotte has done a lot of work to move their bid really to the front of the line,” Garber said.

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MLS is expanding at a rapid rate, with teams already set to join the league in 2020 (Nashville and Miami), 2021 (Austin) and 2022 (Sacramento and St. Louis). In addition to building soccer stadiums in their markets, the ownership groups in Sacramento and St. Louis will pay expansion fees of $200 million. The 30th team is expected to pay a $300 million expansion fee.

If Charlotte gets an MLS team, Garber did say that the team would play in the city’s NFL stadium, not in a new soccer stadium.

 

Jennifer Buchanan/USA Today Sports

Charlotte’s appeal, Garber said, “starts with David Tepper, the owner of the Panthers, who’s a very passionate guy about sports, very passionate about Charlotte, and is reminding us that the league didn’t really see what Atlanta would become. I’d be the first to admit that. There’s a lot of things happening in Charlotte that are very similar to things that are happening in Atlanta in terms of the diversity of the fanbase and a lot of the corporate energy that’s going on down there. We’ve been engaged with them, and we’ll continue to do so.”

Garber did say that Team 30 was not yet a done deal for Charlotte, but he added that an official announcement will likely come in the "next number of months." That timeframe in itself suggests that MLS likely knows which city it wants to go to next.

Soccer fans (and ownership groups) in Las Vegas and Phoenix shouldn’t necessarily look at Garber’s statements on Friday as bad news. Garber himself has said recently that he could see the league expanding beyond 30 teams, and Vegas and Phoenix’s inclusion in Garber’s list of three candidates on Friday means they are almost certainly next in line.

Not being included at all in Garber’s list of cities would be discouraging news, however, for other cities with MLS aspirations like San Diego, Detroit, Tampa Bay, Indianapolis and Raleigh.

https://www.si.com/soccer/2019/11/09/don-garber-mls-commissioner-state-league-expansion-cba-strike

[PantherBoy95]

Lest we not forget.  Tepper's also ridiculously rich, and clearly invested in it.

[Snake]

When we build our dome in Rock Hill the MLS will have a permanent home in uptown. Just makes so much sence. 

[Asurfaholic]

Is there actually a market for soccer here? I don’t know anyone who watches it. I’m sure there are some people, but in my mind it’s just a fringe sport in our local area. Obviously Tepper feels differently. 

[onmyown]

Meh there’s an MLS team here. They’re slightly above average. Stadium isn’t too bad either, but there seems to be literally zero interest in it. I wonder how it financial keeps it going and expanding. Maybe other cities are different.

[run-run-pass-punt]

The demographics of Charlotte will make this a huge success.

[KSpan]

There are that many MLS teams? We have one in Kansas City but I couldn't tell you any others, let alone nearly 30.

[Ja Rhule]

7 minutes ago, KSpan said:

There are that many MLS teams? We have one in Kansas City but I couldn't tell you any others, let alone nearly 30.

MLS has been growing rapidly and it becomes very competitive.  Some of the Europe’s good players start moving to US in their prime.  As MLS expands, this trend will continue.  There is a work in progress to replace Champion League with another league that could include teams from other countries including the US.

[RoaringRiot]

This is exciting 

[CardiacCat]

1 hour ago, Nesbro1 said:

Why would you put soccer talk in a football forum? Men don't care about soccer.

As the famous Forrest Gump would say: "stupid is as stupid does"

 

[1of10Charnatives]

1 hour ago, Asurfaholic said:

Is there actually a market for soccer here? I don’t know anyone who watches it. I’m sure there are some people, but in my mind it’s just a fringe sport in our local area. Obviously Tepper feels differently. 

It's the most popular sport in the world. The primary reason it's interest has always lagged at the professional level is because of the difficulties of putting it on television, which is where pro sports get their visibility and exposure.  For reasons not worth going into here, the lack of regular breaks in the action to accommodate traditional television commercials, which are the bread and butter of american tv reveue has been the long time impediment. In most of the rest of the world, they have solved this problem by having ads around the border of the screen during the action, but american tv and advertising industry has long resisted going "outside the box" to do things different in order to accommodate soccer. 

The grassroots support for it is there because as many kids play youth soccer as do the other sports which have pro sports leagues, it's just that interest dies off after high school because beyond the rare kid who's soccer scholarship is the difference between whether or not he can go to college (pretty uncommon), there's no particular incentive to follow it at a higher level unless you're super passionate about it. MLS has been slowly but surely building a fan base for a generation or so, with the proliferation of sports channel tv options, they can get their product in front of more eyeballs.

It is still a fringe sport because things don't change with our cultural tastes overnight, but over time there is no real reason soccer can't make significant strides in popularity as it's pro league becomes more and more visible.  The US men's national team's rise from irrelevance to competitiveness has probably been the main driver of increasing interest in the sport over time. No one really gives a poo about gymnastics or or track and field etc etc, but every four years we'll pay attention if our team is good. US men's team success in Olympics and World Cup competition means more people pay attention.

[cookinbrak]

9 minutes ago, 1of10Charnatives said:

It's the most popular sport in the world. The primary reason it's interest has always lagged at the professional level is because of the difficulties of putting it on television, which is where pro sports get their visibility and exposure.

Just not here.

 

What Are The Most Popular Sports In The World?

Rank	Sport	Estimated Global Following	Primary Sphere of Influence
1	Soccer (Association Football)	4.0 Billion	Globally
2	Cricket	2.5 Billion	UK and Commonwealth
3	Field Hockey	2 Billion	Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia
4	Tennis	1 Billion	Globally
5	Volleyball	900 Million	Western Europe and North America
6	Table Tennis	875 Million	Globally
7	Basketball	825 Million	Globally
8	Baseball	500 Million	United States, Caribbean, and Japan
9	Rugby	475 Million	UK and Commonwealth
10	Golf	450 Million	Western Europe, East Asia, and North America

[mc52beast]

Just hoping that Tepper is as determined to make the Panthers an annual SB contender as he is to get a soccer team in Charlotte

[Happy Panther]

1 hour ago, Nesbro1 said:

Why would you put soccer talk in a football forum? Men don't care about soccer.

It's a Panthers forum. Tepper will own the team and may have them play in BofA. I mean we have threads on Olivia Culpo.

Anyway men care immensely about soccer.