Tepper, Garber and Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles announced the expansion team in front of local mediaBRET MCCORMICK
MLS this morning officially named Charlotte as the league’s 30th team, ending months of speculation about which market would close out the league’s latest round of expansion. NFL Panthers Owner David Tepper is paying a reported $325M for the franchise, which will begin play in ’21 and will call the Panthers’ Bank of America Stadium home. The Charlotte team will accompany Austin FC into the league, while fellow expansion clubs St. Louis and Sacramento Republic join in ’22. MLS has grown from 16 teams at the start of the decade to 26 active clubs headed into the ‘20 season. The club’s name, colors and crest were not revealed at today’s announcement.
MLS A FOCUS FOR TEPPER: As Tepper worked to buy the Panthers in the summer of ‘18, he first mentioned trying to bring an MLS team to Charlotte. He completed the purchase of the Panthers in July ‘18 and brought in former City Football Group exec Tom Glick to the Panthers’ front office about a month later. Glick’s experience working with EPL power Manchester City and helping launch NYCFC, City Football Group’s MLS team, seemed to increase the likelihood that Tepper would pursue an MLS team in earnest. MLS sponsors Wells Fargo and Continental Tire are headquartered in Charlotte, a fact that MLS Commissioner Don Garber this morning said helped the city’s bid. “Charlotte has always been a market of interest to us,” Garber said, adding that MLS had tested the city over the previous few years through Mexican national team and Gold Cup matches. MLS’ Soccer United Marketing handles Mexican National Team and Gold Cup organization and promotion in the U.S.
DIFFERENT RESULT THIS TIME AROUND: Marcus Smith, from the Smith family that is prominent in NASCAR, launched a late bid in ‘17 to bring MLS to Charlotte, but it never got off the ground. The expected MLS expansion fee at that time was around $150M. Unlike Smith’s unsuccessful bid, Tepper has received the backing of Charlotte civic leaders and government. In a letter to Garber, Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles promised $110M to support Tepper’s bid to bring a team to the city. Tepper was represented in the negotiations by O’Melveny & Myers’ Charles Baker and Irwin Raij, along with Tepper Sports & Entertainment’s Steve Argeris. City Manager Marcus Jones and Assistant City Manager Tracy Dodson represented Charlotte’s interests.
