The Charlotte FC thread

[Cynicaps]

It’s embarrassing to see Charlotte having their day in the sun when we are the better soccer town in every possible metric except for those of “Willing Billionaires” and “Ready Stadium Not Occupied By a University”. We’re a growing metro, we have money, we have the fan support, why are we on the sidelines while NCFC keeps getting relegated?

Raleigh needs more pro sports. We are basically Sacramento with one team we got via relocation only because their former market just wasn’t working. And at least Sacramento has the Bay Area 90 minutes away, we sure don’t. Until a date when Dundon or Jim Goodnight or Jim Goodmon or Tim Sweeney or anyone with money wakes up and gets us to act our metro size, who is with me.

We could have what Columbus and Cincinnati have with Charlotte. But it's like nobody wants us to be like them. That just seems wrong.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

I honestly don’t care at all.

 

[MinJaBen]

I’d much rather Raleigh to have been awarded the team first. But I’m not rooting against them. If we want Raleigh to ever get a team, then having Charlotte fail seems counter productive.

 

[Unsustainable]

success of the international games at BOA factored into it

 

[Cynicaps]

success of the international games at BOA factored into it

When did we ever get an international game?

Answer: Never. Because we don't matter and have zero motivation.

 

[Cynicaps]

I’d much rather Raleigh to have been awarded the team first. But I’m not rooting against them. If we want Raleigh to ever get a team, then having Charlotte fail seems counter productive.

I want Charlotte to fail so Tepper can cut his losses and the team can get moved here. Since unlike Charlotte where sports leagues want to be we can only get teams by relocation.

We need more teams. At any cost.

 

[HisIceness]

Well they appear to be friendly with each other. So no, I won't be rooting for them to fail but I won't be a diehard fan either.

I'm not sure what @Cynicaps is on about this "more teams" thing. The sports dollar only goes so far the smaller the market. Raleigh is a "small market" and is also a "new market" in that growth didn't start to really occur until the 80s and 90s, well after the likes of DC and Dallas and Chicago had established teams and had that "old money" thing going. Major league sports didn't even touch this state until 1988 and even then it wasn't exactly a no-brainer that Charlotte would be a good market for the NBA. Panthers were kind of a long shot too.

If it makes you feel better Caps, the Courage compete at the highest level of women's soccer in North America and have 2 championships in 5 years of being a franchise. And obviously we all know that the Hurricanes have the only major league championship (NBA,NFL,MLB,NHL,MLS) in the region.

Let's just keep rooting for the hockey team to climb the mountain a la 2006 again.

 

[poobags]

It’s embarrassing to see Charlotte having their day in the sun when we are the better soccer town in every possible metric except for those of “Willing Billionaires” and “Ready Stadium Not Occupied By a University”. We’re a growing metro, we have money, we have the fan support, why are we on the sidelines while NCFC keeps getting relegated?

Raleigh needs more pro sports. We are basically Sacramento with one team we got via relocation only because their former market just wasn’t working. And at least Sacramento has the Bay Area 90 minutes away, we sure don’t. Until a date when Dundon or Jim Goodnight or Jim Goodmon or Tim Sweeney or anyone with money wakes up and gets us to act our metro size, who is with me.

We could have what Columbus and Cincinnati have with Charlotte. But it's like nobody wants us to be like them. That just seems wrong.

If Tim Sweeney buys any team I will boycott them instantly.

 

[Cynicaps]

Well they appear to be friendly with each other. So no, I won't be rooting for them to fail but I won't be a diehard fan either.

I'm not sure what @Cynicaps is on about this "more teams" thing. The sports dollar only goes so far the smaller the market. Raleigh is a "small market" and is also a "new market" in that growth didn't start to really occur until the 80s and 90s, well after the likes of DC and Dallas and Chicago had established teams and had that "old money" thing going. Major league sports didn't even touch this state until 1988 and even then it wasn't exactly a no-brainer that Charlotte would be a good market for the NBA. Panthers were kind of a long shot too.

If it makes you feel better Caps, the Courage compete at the highest level of women's soccer in North America and have 2 championships in 5 years of being a franchise. And obviously we all know that the Hurricanes have the only major league championship (NBA,NFL,MLB,NHL,MLS) in the region.

Let's just keep rooting for the hockey team to climb the mountain a la 2006 again.

We aren't that much smaller than Charlotte in terms of metros. But instead we're just another Sacramento that got another city's discard by accident.

Raleigh is the perfect market for MLS. And that they picked Charlotte over us because we lack motivation hurts. We need more teams and I wish we had a David Tepper in this joke of a town to get us them.

 

[Cynicaps]

If Tim Sweeney buys any team I will boycott them instantly.

He can't be worse than Dan Snyder, Peter Angelos, Eugene Melnyk, or that Sarver dude in Phoenix, can he?

 

[Canes]

Call me a eurosnob but I just can't watch the MLS. The level of play is like a hockey fan watching the NAHL and the fact that we try to do everything differently than the rest of the world sucks as well.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

Man, who gives a shit?

Look, maybe one day MLS will get serious, and they will grow to 32 teams, and then one day they will demote the entire bottom half of the table into a second division, and then new teams can join the second division to start, and maybe one day a third division will grow out of that. But until there's actual pro/rel, the Triangle isn't getting a team because Charlotte already got it, and I don't give enough of a shit to root against Charlotte, or really to care about MLS at all because it's a dogshit league.

 

[Blueline Bomber]

My main question is why is this a thread on a hockey board? I'm sure there's a Soccer thread already that this could have been posted in.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Raleigh needs more pro sports. We are basically Sacramento

I don’t see three big ACC programs in Sacramento, collectively pulling down the equivalent of multiple NFL/NBA teams in annual attendance.

Raleigh is a good sports market. MLS doesn’t change that whatsoever. Good for Charlotte getting the team, it’s better than having them in Pensacola or whatever.

 

[Derailed75]

My main question is why is this a thread on a hockey board? I'm sure there's a Soccer thread already that this could have been posted in.

The 4 people that care dont respond on the soccer forum.

 

[Cynicaps]

I don’t see three big ACC programs in Sacramento, collectively pulling down the equivalent of multiple NFL/NBA teams in annual attendance.

Raleigh is a good sports market. MLS doesn’t change that whatsoever. Good for Charlotte getting the team, it’s better than having them in Pensacola or whatever.

Some of us don't necessarily care about college sports, especially us who aren't originally from here or didn't attend State/UNC/Duke. Pro sports attract a totally different clientele and are on a whole other plane. Three ACC programs should not be an excuse to deprive us of MLS or MLB or even NBA.

And anyone saying that we're a "small market", Raleigh is a bigger Nielsen DMA than places such as Pittsburgh, Nashville, Salt Lake City, Kansas City, Cincinnati, Las Vegas, even Buffalo and New Orleans. Charlotte is only two ranks ahead of us with the "large market" of St. Louis in-between. Why should we be punished for growing too late? We deserve more than just one major pro team, we're not pulling our weight.

 

[Cynicaps]

Man, who gives a shit?

Look, maybe one day MLS will get serious, and they will grow to 32 teams, and then one day they will demote the entire bottom half of the table into a second division, and then new teams can join the second division to start, and maybe one day a third division will grow out of that. But until there's actual pro/rel, the Triangle isn't getting a team because Charlotte already got it, and I don't give enough of a shit to root against Charlotte, or really to care about MLS at all because it's a dogshit league.

Cincinnati got a team when they're closer to Columbus than the Triangle is to Charlotte and are a smaller, poorer market. If MLS can have two teams in Ohio, they can easily have two teams in North Carolina, a more desirable state to be in.

You may think it's a dogshit league, but I'd rather have a team in a dogshit league with an instant rivalry than have a third tier team that nobody cares about. Charlotte got a motivated billionaire in David Tepper, we have a bunch of hollow brained money hoarders for our billionaires.

 

[Nikishin al Gaib]

My interest in MLS evaporated with Tepper bullying his way into a team. I just done care anymore, and it's not like the product is that good.

NCFC building a stadium south of downtown also means I'll never be able to go, but given they are always going to be a minor league joke, it won't matter.

 

[HisIceness]

We aren't that much smaller than Charlotte in terms of metros. But instead we're just another Sacramento that got another city's discard by accident.

Raleigh is the perfect market for MLS. And that they picked Charlotte over us because we lack motivation hurts. We need more teams and I wish we had a David Tepper in this joke of a town to get us them.

They picked Charlotte because Tepper (a New Jersey native) is worth $15 billion. They didn't pick Charlotte the first time with the Bruton Smith group and NCFC at that time had a much better bid. Bad timing unfortunately. If anything you should probably be mad at Jerry Richardson, had he not been a bad person behind the scenes and/or had that information not gotten leaked out he'd probably still be Panthers owner today, and we wouldn't know the name Tepper.

FWIW I live in Charlotte and wish you guys in RDU had gotten this franchise because regardless of Smith or Tepper, I'm going to have to help pay for a stadium that I will probably never step foot in. At least the NCFC group was going to pay with private money.

 

[Derailed75]

Some of us don't necessarily care about college sports, especially us who aren't originally from here or didn't attend State/UNC/Duke. Pro sports attract a totally different clientele and are on a whole other plane. Three ACC programs should not be an excuse to deprive us of MLS or MLB or even NBA.

And anyone saying that we're a "small market", Raleigh is a bigger Nielsen DMA than places such as Pittsburgh, Nashville, Salt Lake City, Kansas City, Cincinnati, Las Vegas, even Buffalo and New Orleans. Charlotte is only two ranks ahead of us with the "large market" of St. Louis in-between. Why should we be punished for growing too late? We deserve more than just one major pro team, we're not pulling our weight.

While all of what you said about the college teams is true, they still compete with each other for entertainment dollars. Maybe not for you or me but plenty in the area would want to attend college sporting events and pro sports and their money is finite.

 

[chaz4hockey]

Men's Professional Soccer would make it in the Triangle.

Significant MSA population, large numbers of young men and women playing the sport & the MLS season schedule works in this College dominated market (late Feb to October doesn't conflict with BB & FB that much). Plus weather in March-June and then Sept-Oct is fantastic.

Just need a billionaire to step up. It won't be Goodnight as he passed on Hockey & I think at close to 80 and with his health not as optimal these days it just won't happen.

 

[Cynicaps]

Men's Professional Soccer would make it in the Triangle.

Significant MSA population, large numbers of young men and women playing the sport & the MLS season schedule works in this College dominated market (late Feb to October doesn't conflict with BB & FB that much). Plus weather in March-June and then Sept-Oct is fantastic.

This is EXACTLY why the Triangle needs MLS. Similar profile to the Austins and Portlands and Columbuses too.

Just need a billionaire to step up. It won't be Goodnight as he passed on Hockey & I think at close to 80 and with his health not as optimal these days it just won't happen.

The lack of motivated billionaires is the shame of this metro. We need Dundon to step up because nobody with wealth will. We are the perfect market for MLS and yet we are full of unmotivated trash billionaires unlike Charlotte who has the hypermotivated Tepper.

I would do anything to get someone like Tepper to get us an MLS team. We deserve it.

 

[Cynicaps]

If anything you should probably be mad at Jerry Richardson, had he not been a bad person behind the scenes and/or had that information not gotten leaked out he'd probably still be Panthers owner today, and we wouldn't know the name Tepper.

That Richardson was forced to sell for being a "bad person" when Dan Snyder is much worse and Virginia McCaskey is probably functionally senile was BS and was easily avoidable.

FWIW I live in Charlotte and wish you guys in RDU had gotten this franchise because regardless of Smith or Tepper, I'm going to have to help pay for a stadium that I will probably never step foot in. At least the NCFC group was going to pay with private money.

Wanna swap towns? I want to live in a city that has things like MLS teams and light rail and motivated billionaires. You can live in the collection of small towns that got the Whalers by accident.

 

[DaveG]

This is EXACTLY why the Triangle needs MLS. Similar profile to the Austins and Portlands and Columbuses too.



The lack of motivated billionaires is the shame of this metro. We need Dundon to step up because nobody with wealth will. We are the perfect market for MLS and yet we are full of unmotivated trash billionaires unlike Charlotte who has the hypermotivated Tepper.

I would do anything to get someone like Tepper to get us an MLS team. We deserve it.

I mean, is what it is. The Charlotte area politicos getting involved and basically saying "like hell you are" to the development plan that was out there for the Raleigh stadium proposal being built on unused state land when Raleigh and Charlotte were in the running for the expansion bid sank the bid. Why they didn't try to get a remodeling proposal as a backup plan for the current Cary location in case that fell through is beyond me, though that area is such a shit location in terms of traffic without an MLS team there.

Whatever though, MLS is going to try to go to 40 anyway, and as Navin said they probably need to, as well as instituting pro/rel for teams to really have any incentive for truly competing or developing players, until that happens MLS will always be the 3rd tier league it currently is.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

Wanna swap towns? I want to live in a city that has things like MLS teams and light rail and motivated billionaires. You can live in the collection of small towns that got the Whalers by accident.

Maybe if you're so unhappy you should (a) find a soccer board and not a hockey board and (b) move.

Oh, and also, this "collection of small towns" landed Google and Apple campuses to go along with the Cisco and IBM and Red Hat campuses. I don't know why you're carrying around your weird inferiority complex and projecting it on us, but whatever, man.