I’m a pretty big Atlanta united fan but have to say I’m impressed with the atmosphere at Charlottes matches. Hoping they keep it up. Atlanta haven’t been good the last few years and even though we have 45k, the atmosphere is nothing like it used to be.
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I will say being there for the opening home match and having the whole stadium filled to the brim with excitement created a tremendous atmosphere. It was better than any regular season Panthers game I’ve been to and was probably only bettered by Panthers playoff games IMO
However I personally feel what might be driving the ticket sales/attendance this season is it’s the shiny new toy/novelty item. It’ll be interesting to see if they can keep up the momentum, especially if they’re a middle of the road/trending downwards kind of team and not experiencing any success like Atlanta did straight out the gate.
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Atlanta had one big thing going for it: United began play right as the Braves ran off to Cobb County and there are a lot of hard feelings those in Atlanta proper have towards the Braves for doing so. Also toss in knowing that the Falcons would probably enter a downturn after 28-3 and that a fair amount of United fans were dejected Thrashers fans who were put back in the Atlanta sports loop and they were gifted a great set of circumstances.
CFC is the shiny new toy and it’s amazing to see how everyone in Charlotte now claims to be a soccer fan when they never supported the Independence and are never on the Top 30 markets for any soccer viewership (less the two OTA MLS games they’ve had). It’s like they want a fall from grace to happen. Add in that their name alienates the rest of two states and alienating the second largest metro in the region and it says a ton.
This Thursday will be an interesting test: CFC and the Knights (playing the Bulls) are at home at the same time for only the second time and last time the Knights took an attendance hit (though 6400 for a Sunday game with that competition isn’t that bad).
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Silverbacks didn’t have great attendance before United showed up. And cant really remember Atlanta being on lists of top soccer viewership. Kinda similar situations to Charlotte? Just a big city with a rich guy with a NFL stadium who wanted a team.
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Saw an article today about the upcoming Qatar World Cup ticket prices and good lord…hopefully the 2026 edition here will have some tickets that are somewhat more reasonable.
Looks like the state is incentivizing the move to Charlotte for the new ACC HQ now. The article says they still haven’t made a decision yet but I think we can all read between the lines here.
Why would the state get involved in poaching from within the state?
Edit: Well I guess the bill doesn’t specify, but some legislators are doing a “wink wink nudge nudge” sign. I did like they put two extra Greensboro tournaments into the equation.
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Sure but MLS might’ve been Raleigh’s last chance at another professional league. We all know MLB isn’t even giving Raleigh a look right now
To be quite fair MLB isn’t giving anyone a look right now, at least not until Oakland and Tampa resolve their stadium situations. Even then, NC is at the point which MLB can’t ignore it too much longer since it’s already the largest state without an MLB team.
I’ll repeat this again regarding MLS: If MLS can put a team in Cincinnati when there’s a team already in Columbus (independent of the obscene fan support FC Cincinnati got in USL) when the Cincy-Dayton-Columbus corridor has less people and wealth than Triangle-Triad-Charlotte, there’s no reason MLS can’t do the same here. Of course, that awful AppleTV+ deal gives me the feeling that MLS is like a house of cards that is going to collapse.
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Yeah that one representative basically said it aloud aka we like Charlotte better than Greensboro for this. His direct quote was:
“We just want to make sure that we keep it here,” Saine told WRAL News. “You grow up in the state, one, it’s sentimental, but two, from an economic development standpoint from what we attract as far as future tournaments and where they’re going to be played, if they’re headquartered in this state, we’re far better off. Hate to get competing between two cities, but the reality is some cities have more of what they need right now.”
Until Raleigh gets somebody with extremely deep pockets and is ready to blow money on a sports team, we unfortunately aren’t getting another pro sports team here. I’d love for somebody like Tom Dundon to become our David Tepper, but I just don’t see it happening.
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Ah they were just awaiting for hand out for a decision they already made. Probably time to shake up ACC and turn it irrelevant.
What do you think would inhibit Dundon for being our Tepper? He has the money there just hasn’t been the opportunities to do so as of late as he had just bought the Canes when MLS fell through.
Its all about the $$$$$, The combine CSA of Raleigh Durham is definitely big enough has off the charts median income stats, the issue is we need the Billionaires to step up we have more here that in any other metro area in the State, and yes that includes Charlotte USA, but if we had a Serious ownership group willing to spend Billions then you woukd find the MLB and MLS very serious about expanding here.
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Tepper net worth is $16 bill. Dundon’s is maybe around $2 bill?
The guy also doesn’t spend anytime here in Raleigh. He’s yet to buy a house here. He doesn’t seem to have much attachment to Raleigh. Tepper seems to have made Charlotte his living quarters.
^ This is unfortunately critical to us ever having nice things.
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The MLS is looking at LV, Montreal, Nashville, Charlotte, Portland, Mexico as locations for a potential team for the most part.
With respect to the enhancements now required at the ESA, I mean PNC, I hate the conflicting NCS vs Canes stuff all over the place. Old State banners from the ‘80s, etc. The Giants/Jets Meadowlands Stadium has the capacity, through lighting, to completely represent each team (& different colors), with a trip of a switch. Why not have the 2 Raleigh teams have the capacity to change the exterior + interior logos, etc. to coordinate with each team as the Jets and Giants do. At least both have the same red.
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Vegas: Raleigh in reverse in this case, market of similar size with money but has motivation and tourism. Problem is building a team around tourism never ends well. Also would need a dome to be viable.
Montreal: Has the Expos heritage ready to go and Stade Olympique could be used as a temp venue. Would the province pay for the required retractable domed stadium given how their past experiences paying for venues (the aforementioned, Centre Videotron in Quebec City) have been disasters.
Nashville: Fills part of a southern hole and is roughly halfway between Cincinnati and Atlanta. Two big problems: First Horizon Park, home of the AAA Sounds, can’t be expanded to MLB capacity and the Titans are starting to whine to the city/state about wanting a new stadium. Do they have the appetite for both?
Charlotte: Similar to Nashville, two big issues in that the relatively new AAA park can’t be expanded to MLB standards and the NFL team is getting ornery. With Tepper’s recent antics would Charlotte want to deal with this?
Portland: A park would need to be ready from Day One as the old MiLB park was converted to MLS when the Timbers leveled up. Also, short Phil Knight getting bored with the University of Oregon who’s going to own it? As it is, finding someone to buy the Blazers with Paul Allen’s estate being forced to sell them has been difficult.
Mexico City: No Comment.
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