Mecklenburg County is adding millions for Memorial Stadium upgrades. Here’s why.
Mecklenburg County is paying an additional $5.5 million to rebuild Memorial Stadium in Elizabeth, bringing the total construction estimate to $40.5 million due to rising material and labor costs.
Mecklenburg County commissioners voted Tuesday night to use a savings fund to cover the increased expenses, which are about 20% steeper than when the project was approved in December 2017.
County Manager Dena Diorio said the funding boost will preserve initial plans to upgrade Memorial Stadium, built in the 1930s through the Works Progress Administration. It’s poised to become the future home of the Charlotte Independence soccer team and Charlotte Hounds lacrosse team.
“There’s no differences in the terms of the contract — the issue came about because of economic factors,” Commissioner Mark Jerrell, of District 4, said in an interview Wednesday.
The county held a ground-breaking ceremony for Memorial Stadium this past September and expects construction will be finished by spring 2021. The new stadium will have a 10,500-seat capacity for professional and amateur sports events.
The development comes as Panthers owner David Tepper vies to bring the 30th Major League Soccer team to Charlotte. The city may be prepared to offer about $100 million in an incentives package tied to MLS expansion fees and Bank of America Stadium upgrades, James Mitchell, at an-large city council member has told the Observer.
George Dunlap, the chair of the county commissioners, said Wednesday “the county will not be participating” in any financing as part of the MLS bid.
‘Part of history’
Memorial Stadium carries historic clout for the Charlotte area, county commissioners noted.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, for example, spoke at the stadium’s opening in September 1936. For decades, the venue has hosted high school and collegiate football games, including the Shrine Bowl.
Major performers, ranging from Jimmy Buffet to Pearl Jam, have also played at Memorial Stadium.
At-large Commissioner Pat Cotham said the venue, formally known as the American Legion Memorial Stadium, pays critical tribute to World War I veterans from Mecklenburg. Cotham said she wasn’t concerned — or surprised — by the need to allocate more county funding in light of recent tariffs on building materials.
“It’s important because a lot of people in the community have all these memories from there,” Cotham said in an interview Wednesday. “It would have lost its luster...We wanted all that to stay because that’s part of history.”
At the commissioners’ meeting Tuesday, Diorio told the board that other ongoing county-funded projects, including some at Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, could see similar budget overruns. But it’s unclear how many capital investments could be impacted.
“I’m looking for a review of those capital projects in the pipeline so we can see what we think the impact will possibly be and what we think it will cost taxpayers,” Jerrell said. “We have to get ahead of this so we’re not piecemealing it together.”