Charlotte’s bid for the first round of MLS expansion is "dead -- and the lead investor for a local team confirmed it," according to Erik Spanberg of the CHARLOTTE BUSINESS JOURNAL. Charlotte City Council member James Mitchell, who has supported using tourism tax money to help build a $175M stadium for a new team, said that the "combination of upcoming elections and a competing bid by Nashville dashed any remaining hopes." Tension and "disagreement last summer between city and county government over funding the stadium started the backslide." SMI President & CEO Marcus Smith leads MLS4CLT and had "committed to pay" the $150M fee to acquire a team if Charlotte’s bid succeeded. Smith said, "It’s disappointing that it looks like we’re not going to be able to make that deadline." Mitchell said that city administrators and the committee have "run out of time and won’t be able to cobble together an MLS proposal by December." He added that the city would be "interested in trying to help with a stadium plan for the next round of bidding, which the league has said will be its final expansion, to 28 clubs." Smith said that he is "uncertain whether MLS4CLT will pursue the next round of expansion." Mitchell cited a proposal in Nashville for a $250M, 27,500-seat stadium as an "example of the kind of competition Charlotte can’t match." At least "not immediately" (BIZJOURNALS.com, 10/23). Mitchell said that the bonds that Nashville is "considering to fund a prospective MLS stadium and improvements nearby are 'just unbelievable,'" and set a "new standard that was far above what he believed Charlotte could spend now." Smith said that he is "still interested in landing an MLS team, but that it would be hard to imagine doing so without public money" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 10/24).
HITTING THE RIGHT NOTES: In Nashville, Joey Garrison notes "mid-rise residential buildings with retail and restaurants, commercial and office space, and a new hotel are among future development planned" as part of a proposed MLS stadium at the city's Fairgrounds Nashville. Under updated conceptual drawings delivered to council members, multiple mixed-use residential buildings "would flank the west side of a new realigned street that would connect Nolensville Pike and the stadium on the fairgrounds site." Each would be around "three- to five-stories tall and have ground-level retail and restaurants." The residential units would be both "market-rate and affordable housing." MarketStreet Development Dir Dirk Melton said that current MLS clubs and other cities "vying for expansion teams have embraced the inclusion of ancillary development to activate areas around their stadiums when games aren't going on" (Nashville TENNESSEAN, 10/24).