The author, John Marek, is executive director of the Anson Economic Development Partnership.
What will the new Charlotte MLS team mean for rural communities around the region?
When George Shinn brought the original NBA Charlotte Hornets to town in 1988, it was arguably the most important economic development announcement in the history of the city. The Hornets put Charlotte on the map in the early 1990s and paved the way for its continued explosive growth both as a population center and a business hub. The arrival of the Panthers in 1995, not entirely coincidentally the same year I moved here, further cemented Charlotte as a “major league” city. Sure, they’re the Carolina Panthers, but that gorgeous city skyline in the establishing shots is all Charlotte, and when they play New York or Chicago or Atlanta the implication is those cities are our peers, and it’s hard to even put a price on that.
So, when MLS Commissioner Don Garber stood in front of an audience of business and community leaders this week and announced that Charlotte would be the soccer league’s 30th team, I was … perfectly okay with it.
Not delighted. Not thrilled. Perfectly okay.
I understand all the breathless arguments in favor: soccer is an international sport and we strive to be an international city; soccer is the “up and coming” sport in the U.S.; soccer is popular with the millennials we are desperately trying to recruit, etc. But, at the end of the day I am still lukewarm on the MLS announcement.
Part of it is simply a personal preference; I just don’t get the appeal of the sport. To me, it appears to be a bunch of guys running around aimlessly until one of them accidentally scores … maybe. That’s not really the case, of course, and I will be the first to admit that if I had grown up playing and watching the sport, I might better understand its nuances. But the fact is, the majority of Americans are equally clueless to those nuances and the MSL is a niche league that falls somewhere between the NHL and Major League Lacrosse in fan following. I’m not convinced the local team playing Real Salt Lake or Sporting Kansas City on some obscure cable channel is going to substantially advance the community’s profile. And the rest of the world largely views the MSL as minor-league “football,” so I’m not even sure having a team will improve our visibility on the international stage all that much.
On the other hand, the point about millennials is probably quite valid. Many of them grew up playing soccer and have the participation trophies to prove it. The frenetic pace fits within their attention spans, and they are supposedly not very goal-oriented, so I guess a 0-0 draw is perfectly acceptable to them. I say that slightly tongue-in-cheek but, yes, the cities Charlotte competes with for high-end talent – Austin, San Jose, Nashville, Columbus – all have or are actively pursuing MLS franchises and having one of our own certainly does not hurt our marketability to those workers.
From an international standpoint, communities on the outskirts of the Charlotte metro area like Anson County have become hotbeds for foreign direct investment. In the past 24 months, companies from China, the Czech Republic, Germany and Portugal have set up shop in the county and that trend is mirrored in many other rural towns ringing the city. While I’m sure these relocated executives would prefer watching their own Bayern Munich, S.L. Benfica or Slavia Prague, a night uptown with the Charlotte “football” club will still be a fun diversion.
So is Major League Soccer a major league win for the rural areas surrounding Charlotte? Probably not. But there are certainly positives, and creative and forward-thinking communities like Anson County will position themselves to gain the maximum benefit from them.
So what do you think? Are you excited about MLS expansion to Charlotte? Will you attend matches?