LOL, Mixing Red and Cry Baby blue mixes as good as putting someone's testes in a meat grinder. The biggest thing, in all seriousness, is to keep the schools out of the decision. Why? Because it might alienate folks from pulling for the team. You have to remember, college sports in NC is a religion.
^^^this guy is right, if you want to kill the franchise from the get go, put them in Carolina/Dook blue. I would have liked green, but seattle/pdx has that on lockdown. Brown is a color that has yet to be used. A thread on NC pops up every couple of months, I wrote a really long thing a few months ago, so i'll just do the bullet points. -Charlotte and Raleigh (or the whole triangle) are the only viable options. -Those two markets are very different from each other -Charlotte is larger, richer, and more influencial though it is also much more "red state" -The triangle is more progressive and is populated by transplants, college students, and techies. IMO the demographic for soccer is much more present in the triangle. -Both cities are undergoing huge era's of development downtown, plenty of space to build in both cities as well as the momentum of development. -The old Legion Memorial stadium in charlotte would be very interesting. -Wakemed park (where the railhawks play) is absolutely not an option for an MLS stadium. -The cities of charlotte and raleigh really don't like each other. If both cities got teams, the potential for rivalry is be wonderful. If I had a few (tens of) millions of dollars, I would build a 7.5k seater inside of 277 in charlotte and move the eagles (after changing their name) up to USL1. I would do the same thing in raleigh.
Would prefer a team in Raleigh because an 1.5 hour drive is a lot better than 4 hour drive. Why not WakeMed? Right now it seats 7,500 people and can get up to 10,000 with temporary seating. If need be, it could certainly be built up. Plus there are already 2 other lighted practice fields (plus extra) already built and ready to go. It would seem to work, but the MLS would make a decision on that, not me. I would also love to see MLS in Charlotte and Raleigh. It would be a great rivalry (like you said, Raleigh and Charlotte despise each other).
What about calling it a simple, "Raleigh/Charlotte/Carolina FC", or the team name could be "Raleigh 1792" (when the city was founded). The colors could be purple (with the black Adidas stipes on the uniform) for away games, and white with the purple Adidas stripes for home games?
WakeMed is wonderful for what it is right now. But there is very little to expand past the 10k that they can squeeze in there now. The endline and far sideline stands are just metal bleachers, there isn't anywhere to build more. The main stand can't be build up either because it serves field 2 as well. It's also too far out in the county to be poised for growth. A team aiming for growth needs to be closer to the growing downtown. In reality though, NC has no prospects for team in the next while. In the meantime I would love for the eagles to move up to USL1 and get a proper stadium
Yeah, I can agree with this. To bad it is apparent that MLS cares nothing about the South (outside of Atlanta). And it would be nice for the Eagles to move up. I could see the "North State Derby", lol.
It's not that the league doesn't care about the south. It's the fact there is nobody trying to make a team happen. If a group of billionaires (looking at you, bank executives) decided to build a downtown SSS and bid for a MLS team, we'd be in contention with St. Louis. That's how the process works, interested parties push the league, not the other way around.
I'm with you on Galaxy, Crew, Burn, Wiz, Clash, Crunch, Attack, etc. But American team names (Sounders, Phillies, Packers, Bears, Timbers, Earthquakes, etc.) are what people are used to. That's the thing, just like Randy Lerner would be stupid to rename Aston Villa the Birmingham Rebels, or Malcolm Glazer to rename Man U. the Manchester Green Sox (especially since they wear black socks, but that never stopped Chicago ), it sets you back to try to import names from other countries. When soccer was played mainly in the Northeast and Midwest, and mostly by immigrants and prep schoolers, it was okay to have teams whose names identified them with the ethnic group who sponsored/supported them. But Joe Sixpack from Detroit, who has a passing interest in the game, and wants to follow the league, is going to say "Blau-Weiss Gottschee? What the hell is that?" when he hears of a team from New York that's coming to his town to play a game. Or, if it's FC Dallas, or Toronto FC, he'll ask, "What's this FC crap? The only football club we have is the Lions!" Same with Sporting, AC, United ("United what?"), or any other foreign sounding name. He'll ask "Why can't we have teams with names that we're used to?" And he's the guy we need to buy tickets, as well as the soccer moms and "hardcores." That's why the NASL went to such lengths to have their teams have American nicknames, to appeal to American sports fans; they were rather annoyed when the Toronto Metros merged with Toronto Croatia, and became Toronto Metros-Croatia, because they wanted to be devoid of any ethnic undertones. Having European team names would have killed the league in nothing flat, and it's not doing MLS any favors on the grand scale (makes 'em look like wannabes, which a lot people already think). MLS stills need the soccer moms and the casual fans, else all you'll have are the hardcores, who usually number merely in the several. If you want soccer to succeed here from an American fan's viewpoint, you have to let the fans make it their game, not Europe's game or Mexico's game. It has to become their own.
Carolina Airborne Carolina Crusaders Carolina Colonials Carolina Marksmen Carolina Independence Carolina Continentals Carolina Legion Carolina Brigade Carolina Regiment Carolina Cavalry Carolina Kings
Myrtle Beach. I mean, they have a minorrrrr league baseball team, a Ripley's Believe It Or Not museum, a Hard Rock Cafe, and a bunch of outlet stores--so why not MLS? I couldn't see anything outside of the aforementioned bigger places in North Carolina being even remotely possible for MLS.
Yeah, and then they can put a team in Gatlinburg TN and Panama City FL. MLS will give Nascar a run for it's money!
Just as a point of reference: MLS has never put a franchise in any city that didn't already have at least one "big 4" major-league team. In the Carolinas, that means Charlotte or Raleigh. I'd be very surprised if they went anywhere else in the Carolinas--if only because, if a team had anywhere near enough sports fans to support a professional team, the NHL has already expanded there.
That's like the old joke that some professors of mine used to tell. Two Economists are walking down the street... (economist 1)"Hey, is that a $10 bill on the ground?" (economist 2)"No. If it was, someone would have picked it up already."
The Charlotte-Raleigh rivalry is a bit overstated. There are Bobcats and Panthers fans in Raleigh, and there are Hurricanes fans in Charlotte (but not Bobcats fans). I pick on Raleigh, but I'm defensive of it to outsiders. It's a hell of a lot better than anything they can offer, though it's no Charlotte . The best supported team in both is actually the Tar Heels, so it doesn't really matter anyway. I still think the best place for any MLS team in North Carolina is Greensboro. People will say "but it has no pro sports!", and that's why it's the best. Charlotte and Raleigh aren't big, they're modest, and they're over-saturated. Charlotte isn't rich either, it's hood rich, there's a difference. I know, I've lived in Charlotte for 25 years. The triad is also connected to Charlotte and Raleigh via interstate.
I strongly disagree with the assertion that the triad offers competition to either the triangle or charlotte.
It's no competition, but I think of it as the best bet. You have to remember, Charlotte and Raleigh aren't Atlanta. They're big by our standards, not national standards. Charlotte has two professional teams, and it's AAA Knights, Raleigh has one professional team and several ACC sports teams, then to a lesser extent, Durham's AAA Bulls and Zebulon's AA Mudcats. Greensboro kinda has Wake Forest in Winston, then it has the A Grasshoppers. The competition for dollars (and potential tax dollars for venues) in Greensboro is smaller than it is in Charlotte or Raleigh. It's also growing at a similar clip to those two. My worry with a team in Charlotte or Raleigh is how well it would compete with established teams for money in saturated areas. Greensboro doesn't present that worry. Charlotte is also completely cash strapped, so any venue would be out of pocket for an owner.
The triad has a population of about 1,600,000 (including Winston-Salem). Raleigh has a population of 1,700,000 (2,100,000 including Fayetteville). ^ These are by memory, so they may be off a little. The best option would probably be promoting the Carolina Dynamo to USL-2 (after a stadium expansion) while giving a team to the Triangle and a USL-1 team to Charlotte. Of course, a team in either of the three areas would probably work.
None of the teams your mentioned play during the summer. The entire MLS season is post NHL/BBall and just barely overlaps with football. The triad might have have comparable population, but it is a dying area whereas charlotte and the triangle are booming. Charlotte has two real teams downtown. The panthers and the bobcats. The populous hates the bobcats (mostly for the arena, but also for the fact that they're a joke). There is absolutely no sporting options in the summer. The triangle has an even larger disparity of sports in the summer as the canes are out and ACC football isn't even close to bball. I'm under no disillusions about the viability of our state in MLS. There are no owners, no stadium talk, absolutely zero prospects at the moment. But, hypothetically, the triad doesn't offer anywhere close to the oportunity that charlotte or the triangle does.
I agree. There are only 2 viable options: The Triangle or Charlotte. Like you said it's not going to happen anytime soon (unfortunately).