Here’s why Charlotte FC’s website isn’t where you thought it might be
Looking for the website of Charlotte’s new Major League Soccer team? Prepare to do some extra typing or make sure it’s bookmarked.
The franchise’s website — www.charlottefootballclub.com — uses the long form of the team name instead of the shorter Charlotte FC moniker it will be known as.
But CharlotteFC.com, which the MLS club does not own and declined to comment on, has gone through a few changes before and since the MLS team announced its name on July 21.
In 2016, the “charlottefc.com” domain name was claimed by the Charlotte Independence, the city’s minor league USL Championship franchise. The Independence owned the domain name until December 2019, when it was purchased by an unknown buyer.
“We don’t control it anymore,” said Independence president Jim McPhilliamy. “We were informed last December it was being bought for $1,500. That was fine with us.”
The “charlottefc” domain, however, continued to automatically redirected to the Independence’s website (www.charlotteindependence.com) until the day the MLS team announced its name. On July 22, clicking on the “charlottefc” website revealed a screen with a message saying the domain name was available to be purchased through a broker.
Now charlottefc.com redirects to Charlotte Free Consultations (charlottefreeconsultations.com), an under-construction website which bills itself as a provider of “real estate, accounting, legal and all other professional services.” However, no information about what law firm the website belongs to is available, and there is no active U.S. trademark for Charlotte Free Consultations.
According to the Whois database, charlottefreeconsultations.com was registered July 23, the day after the Charlotte FC soccer franchise announced its official team name.
It’s also not clear whether the domain names for charlottefc.com and charlottefreeconsultations.com belong to the same business or individual.
The two domains were registered through Go Daddy, but have different registrant information. Chalottefc.com lists a North Carolina mailing address while keeping the rest of the owner’s personal information private. Charlottefreeconsultations.com says it’s registered through Domains By Proxy, an LLC created by Go Daddy to keep personal information of domain owners completely private.
In addition, the two domains are hosted at different name servers and IP addresses, possibly indicating different owners. For example, The Charlotte Observer owns the domain Charlotte.com, which redirects to CharlotteObserver.com; however, those two domains are hosted at the same IP address and name server.
This story was originally published August 10, 2020 at 12:42 PM.