Charlotte FC is "not going to have" its team HQ at the former Eastland Mall site east of uptown Charlotte, as the club "no longer plans to put its youth academy on the city-owned Eastland property," according to Erik Spanberg of the CHARLOTTE BUSINESS JOURNAL. Charlotte FC is in its first season and has "used various fields for practice sessions," including Bank of America Stadium. Tepper Sports, which also owns the Panthers and Bank of America Stadium, said that the collapse of the Eastland training center will "not affect separate, ongoing talks for an uptown entertainment district and possible renovations or a replacement of the 26-year-old stadium" (BIZJOURNALS.com, 7/20). In Charlotte, Contino & Fowler note the decision comes just a day after Panthers COO Mark Hart resigned and in the "wake of a failed deal for a Panthers practice facility and new team headquarters in Rock Hill." A high-ranking city official said “no one at the city knows why” TSE pulled out of the Eastland Mall project. According to the proposal, plans called for "two large fields for the academy, one large field for public use as well as four medium fields and six small fields for public use" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 7/21).
NOT THE FIRST OR LAST ISSUE: The OBSERVER's Fowler in a separate piece writes Charlotte FC and Panthers owner David Tepper’s relationship with the city of Charlotte and its sports fans "took another nasty turn." The "honeymoon has long ago ended" for Tepper and Charlotte, and things are "going to get even more tumultuous whenever TSE asks for a public-private partnership that would funnel millions of public dollars toward a renovation at Bank of America Stadium." TSE will say that it has "privately funded" more than $70M in facility improvements at the stadium, and that it "hasn’t received any public funding from the city of Charlotte to do so." Fowler: "But ... Something is clearly wrong when an organization goes through high-ranking executives like paper towels." Something is "clearly wrong when what was supposed to be a state-of-the-art NFL practice facility dies on the vine," as it did in Rock Hill, and "devolves into a series of lawsuits." And something is "clearly wrong when news like Charlotte FC’s pullout from the Eastland Mall redevelopment plan elicits almost a 'Well, what did you expect?' shrug instead of a sense of shock" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 7/21).
