“Are you ready to party?” screamed an exuberant David Tepper multiple times Tuesday to flocks of new soccer fansafter it was announced that Major League Soccer is coming to Charlotte in 2021.
The celebrations started mid-afternoon at Courtyard Hooligans in Uptown and went well into the night at Brewers on Yancey, with Tepper and other celebrities in tow.
No doubt many soccer fans woke up Wednesday with a bit of a hangover but wondering what’s next for this soccer club.
With all the fanfare surrounding the historic announcement Tuesday, the club still doesn’t have a name.
Team officials say they really want fan input on naming the team, colors, logos, etc. With a tight 15 -month window before the team hits the pitch for the first time, the team needs to resolve these issues sooner rather than later.
Last week, David Tepper Sports trademarked eight possible names.
Charlotte FC
Charlotte Crown FC
Charlotte Fortune FC
Charlotte Monarchs FC
Charlotte Athletic FC
Charlotte Town FC
Carolina Gliders FC
All Carolina FC
What should Charlotte's MLS team be named? (1 of 2)
— CharlotteFive (@CharlotteFive)December 18, 2019
What should Charlotte's MLS team be named? (2 of 2)
— CharlotteFive (@CharlotteFive)December 18, 2019
The team is apparently open to other suggestions and asking fans to submit names to its official twitter handle (@CharlotteMLS).
For a more in-depth look at the potential names, history and connections, soccer super fan Ryan Massey (@Soccer_CLT) evaluated the list. See below.
Within minutes of making the announcement, the team posted on its newwebsite a way for fans to make deposits on season tickets. Team officials say tickets are already in high demand.
“We doubled the sales already in Atlanta on their first day, so people who say Charlotte’s not a soccer town are so freakin’ wrong they don’t even know it,” said Tepper speaking to a reporter late Tuesday.
Lower level deposits will be split into three different tiers:
Supporters section - $50 located behind the East goal. This is the cheer section where chants begin, and fans stand the entire match.
General seating - $75 located in the lower level throughout the 100 and 200 level sections.
Silver Club -$100 located in the top half of the lower ball stretching from corner to corner on both sidelines.
All deposits are refundable and actual season ticket prices won’t be known until a later date.
Team officials say the club plans to only use the lower bowl and club sections of Bank of America Stadium which means tickets will be maxed out around 40,000 seats.
Within the past couple of weeks, several new social media handles popped up to capitalize on the excitement. There are several people and groups who spent years supporting and campaigning for this team.
@CharlotteMLS is the official team Twitter account. This is the best way to interact directly with the team and get the latest updates. The account already has 11,000+ followers.
@MintCityColl – Mint City Collective formed earlier this year and is the sister club to Roaring Riot, the Carolina Panthers fan club. Membership in MCC ballooned the past week. This group organizes several events and activities.
@RyanJayBailey – Writer, broadcaster and video producer working for the team. He has direct access to the team, plus a bloody good accent to boot.
@QueensFirm – A group started in January 2017 to help bring supporters together to attract MLS to Charlotte. They even created #MLS2CLT gear to attract more supporters.
@QC_FC – Queen City Football Chronicle is an off-shoot of the Charlotte Post and has written about anything and everything soccer since 2015.
@Soccer_CLT – Another supporter who started in January 2017 to bring together fans who love the game.
There are no other organized events currently, but several of these groups continue to organize watch parties, specifically for Premier League Soccer games.
Super fans are super out of luck (so far) this holiday season for official gear from the new team. The team handed out the swanky Charlotte MLS 2021 scarf at its celebration party, but no word on how and when you can get other gear.
Other outlets, however, are providing some entertaining options for under the tree. Mint City Collective managed to jump on the excitement from the announcement creating overnight thisnew shirt, “SCREW THAT CITY”, based on Tepper’s comment about Atlanta being a rival.
That shirt retails at $30. MCC is selling other shirts and caps as well.
Other than that, fans may want to wait until the team comes up with a new and kit before it shells out lots of money for the gear.
CharlotteFive asked self-described soccer super fan Ryan Massey (@Soccer_CLT) for some opinions on the new names.
Here’s what he said:
Iconic. Charlotte FC is a strong choice. One club comes to mind when I think of this, Liverpool FC. A city brought up much like Charlotte with the initial backbone based on a culture of blue collar, hard-working and a mix of the arts (ever heard of The Beatles). Charlotte FC would join only two other clubs in the MLS with just the city name Los Angeles and Toronto. New York City FC, FC Dallas and FC Cincy are the three others that are close. Charlotte FC would be Charlotte’s football club. This is something for the city and something supporters could embrace as our own.
Interesting. Charlotte Crown FC would obviously be a nod to the Queen City, which we are fans of. Sure, there are other cities that call themselves the QC but let’s be real, we are the true Crown Town. We’re comparing this to Wolverhampton Wonderers, located in Wolverhampton, England in the West Midlands. Wolverhampton are known in England as “Wolves,” and have some of the coolest kits in the land. You’d hope that like Wolves, Charlotte Crown FC would be known around the MLS as “Crown.”
Maybe a stretch. We get where this is coming from, we’re the banking city, but this name seems rather….. unfortunate. In the German Bundesliga, there is a club named Fortuna Dusseldorf. Alright, so here is where the stretch comes in. The club is known as Fortuna throughout the Bundesliga, so perhaps if this is the name decided on, the rest of the MLS would fear Fortune when we invade their pitch. I do smell a partnership with OMB immediately if we go with this German concept. We get the financial institute parallel but because this is a stretch and it really doesn’t have that great of a ring to it.
No. Is the mascot a butterfly? Shoutout to the KC Monarchs formerly of the Negro Baseball League, if you’re ever in Kansas City the museum is pretty dope.
Brilliant. Atletico Madrid is the club that initially comes in mind. Atletico is one of the most popular clubs in Europe and is huge in Spain. Athletico club de Charlotte has a nice ring to it. However, we’d link it more along the lines of English club Charlton Athletic. There are obvious similarities in the name, and it would be great to spark up a friendly partnership with the South-London based club if the team were to move in this direction. There are currently no other teams in the MLS with Athletic and it would immediately stick out. I’d compare it with Sporting Kansas City, which rebranded a few years ago. Whichever club comes to mind when you think of Charlotte Athletic it would be a phenomenal name for our team.
Classic. In the 1700’s the city of Charlotte was known as Charlotte Town. This alone is reason to name the team this but let’s look into some parallels. There are several English clubs that have the city name followed by Town such as Ipswich, Shrewsbury and Huddersfield, which all sound unbelievably British, but are real places. These clubs are typically all known as “Town,” whenever they are spoken about, with the exception when they face off against each other, but that wouldn’t be an issue since Charlotte Town would be the only team with this possibility. The uniqueness of this and with the history makes this our third.
First in flight, last in intimidation. Hard Pass.
Inclusive. The Panthers are great because it brings the Carolinas’ together. This club should absolutely do the same, but this doesn’t do for us.
This story was originally publishedDecember 19, 2019 at 5:40 AM.
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