Charlotte FC

Soccer in Charlotte

The Charlotte area has been home to several lower-division soccer teams, dating back to the Carolina Lightnin' in the early 1980s. The Lightnin' won the American Soccer League championship in 1981 in front of 20,163 people at American Legion Memorial Stadium. It marked Charlotte's first professional sports championship. After the league folded in 1983, the team played for one season as the Charlotte Gold in United Soccer League before ceasing operations. Professional soccer did not return to Charlotte until the founding of the Charlotte Eagles in 1991, who joined the USISL in 1993.

Charlotte was on the list of cities interested in joining Major League Soccer (MLS) in 1994, prior to the league's inaugural season, but was not awarded a franchise. Charlotte was also named as a potential home for an expansion team in both 1996 and 1998, but was passed over in favor of other cities. The Charlotte Convention Center hosted the MLS SuperDraft and National Soccer Coaches Association of America conference in January 2004. Since a renovation to Bank of America Stadium in 2014, the city has hosted several friendly and international matches, including the CONCACAF Gold Cup and the International Champions Cup, which drew strong attendance figures. The area also has a large soccer-playing population, centered around recreational leagues that have led other efforts to attract a professional team to Charlotte.

Unsuccessful MLS bids

A separate professional team, the Charlotte Independence, was founded in 2014 and replaced the Eagles in the second division (now named the USL Championship). The team moved into a permanent soccer stadium in Matthews, North Carolina, in 2017. The Independence's ownership group had expressed their goal of winning an MLS expansion team when the club was founded, and proposed a major renovation to American Legion Memorial Stadium in 2015 that would make it into soccer-specific stadium. The team hired a sports investment firm in October 2016 to advertise the MLS bid to potential investors while preparing further stadium plans.

A separate Charlotte bid was formed in late 2016 by Marcus G. Smith of Speedway Motorsports, the owners of the Charlotte Motor Speedway, with support from local business leaders. The bid proposed building a new stadium at the Memorial Stadium site with 20,000 to 30,000 seats that would cost $175 million, including $87.5 million funded by the city and county governments and a $75 million loan to the ownership group. The Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners voted 5–3 in favor of the stadium plan, while the Charlotte City Council decided against a vote on the issue before the bid deadline on January 31, 2017.

Smith submitted the bid without the city council's support, instead relying on the county government's funding plan. Several league officials toured Charlotte in July 2017, but the city council and county commissioners both canceled their meetings during the tour. Charlotte also faced competition from a bid submitted by Raleigh, North Carolina, who were also part of the twelve-city shortlist and had support from the state government. The Mecklenburg County government voted in August against their financial contribution to the stadium project in favor of deferring the issue to the city government, who declined to vote on the issue. MLS narrowed its shortlist of candidates in November 2017 to four cities, leaving out Charlotte.

Expansion bid under Tepper

David Tepper, who had purchased a 5% stake in the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2009, became the owner of the National Football League's Carolina Panthers in July 2018 and suggested his interest in bringing Major League Soccer to Charlotte. The Panthers' new team president, Tom Glick, was formerly the chief operating officer of Manchester City F.C. and was also involved in the MLS expansion bid for New York City FC. Glick was placed in charge of organizing an MLS expansion bid for Tepper, who had several meetings with league officials before the next bidding window was opened in April 2019.

Tepper presented a formal expansion bid for Charlotte to the league in July 2019, shortly before meetings with league officials and additional tours of Bank of America Stadium. He announced plans in September to upgrade the existing Bank of America Stadium to make it suitable for an MLS team, which would include up to $210 million in contributions from the city government. Tepper also discussed constructing a new stadium for the Panthers and a soccer team that would have a retractable roof. In November, MLS commissioner Don Garber named Charlotte as the frontrunner to earn the slot for the 30th team, praising Tepper's efforts and the bid's plans.

The Charlotte City Council approved $110 million in stadium and franchise funding in late November, using revenue from a hospitality tax. MLS's board of governors convened in early December to discuss the Charlotte bid and authorized final negotiations with Tepper. The expansion team was officially awarded to Charlotte by MLS at an event at the Mint Museum on December 17, 2019, with the team to begin play in 2021. The expansion fee to be paid by Tepper is reported to be near $325 million, a 62.5 percent increase from what was paid by the successful bids for St. Louis and Sacramento earlier in the year. The team sold 7,000 season ticket deposits in the first 24 hours after the expansion announcement. On July 17, 2020, MLS announced that the Charlotte expansion team's debut would be delayed by a year to 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Inaugural season

The club signed its first player, Spanish midfielder Sergio Ruiz, from Racing Santander on July 8, 2020; he was immediately loaned out to UD Las Palmas for 18 months, with an expected arrival in Charlotte in January 2022. Spanish manager Miguel Ángel Ramírez was hired as the team's first head coach in July 2021. During the 2021 MLS Expansion Draft, Charlotte FC selected five players and traded away two for general allocation money; the three picks they kept were used on veteran defenders Anton Walkes and Joseph Mora along with winger McKinze Gaines. The club signed its first Designated Player, Polish forward Karol Świderski, on January 26, 2022. Joe LaBue, a Carolina Panthers sales executive, was appointed club president in February 2022 to replace Glick after his departure. According to a FIFA report, Charlotte FC spent the most in transfer fees of any club in the CONCACAF region in 2022.

Charlotte FC played their first MLS regular season match on February 26, 2022, losing 3–0 to D.C. United at Audi Field. The club's home debut at Bank of America Stadium, a 1–0 loss to the LA Galaxy on March 5, was played before a crowd of 74,479 and set an MLS record for the largest single-match in league history. At the time, it was also the second-largest crowd to attend a match anywhere in the world in 2022 at the time. Adam Armour scored the club's first goal on March 13 in a 2–1 loss to Atlanta United FC; Charlotte's first win, a 3–1 result at home, was a week later against the defending Supporters Shield holders New England Revolution.

Ramírez was fired on May 31 after 14 league matches due to conflicts with the front office according to media reports; at the time, Charlotte was tied for eighth in the Eastern Conference, one place below a playoff berth. The club had also been eliminated from the 2022 U.S. Open Cup in the round of 16 a few days earlier. Assistant coach Christian Lattanzio was named interim head coach and led the club to defeat the New York Red Bulls in his first match. Charlotte FC earned their first away win, a 2–1 victory over Houston Dynamo FC, on July 3 after seven losses and two draws.

Charlotte FC played their first international friendly on July 20, 2022, against England's Chelsea; the match was tied 1–1 after regulation time and decided by a penalty shootout, which Charlotte FC won 5–3. The team's first hat-trick was earned by Daniel Ríos, who scored four goals against the Philadelphia Union on October 1. The club remained in contention for a playoff spot until the penultimate matchday of the season, but were eliminated after a 2–2 draw with the Columbus Crew. Charlotte FC finished their inaugural season at ninth place in the Eastern Conference with 13 wins, 18 losses, and 3 draws; the team drew an average attendance of 35,260 per match, the second-highest figure in MLS behind Atlanta United FC. During the offseason, Lattanzio was signed as permanent head coach through 2024, having amassed an 8–10–2 record; he added retired captain Christian Fuchs to his staff as an assistant coach.