Ticket cost, practice plan, more: The latest on all things Charlotte FC with Nick Kelly
Nick Kelly made the professional transition from sports marketing executive at Anheuser-Busch InBev to president of Charlotte’s new MLS team last winter. He also made a physical transition from New York to Charlotte for the new role ahead of the soccer club’s inaugural season in 2022.
Kelly’s priority has been lifting the team’s business operations off the group ahead of Charlotte FC’s debut next year, meaning his search for a long-term place to live is taking a backseat to the team for the time being.
“We signed a lease long enough to get us through kickoff and then from there maybe I’ll pivot to personal stuff, finding a house,” Kelly said.
He remains in an apartment for the foreseeable future, and is busy behind the scenes of Charlotte FC’s recent announcements, which include the news of three local television stations partnering with the club to carry match broadcasts next year and the released renderings of soccer-specific renovations at Bank of America Stadium.
Kelly answered The Observer’s burning questions on all things Charlotte FC. This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Alex Andrejev: What’s the latest on team headquarters? There were some earlier changes with just the Academy teams to be based out of Eastland.
Nick Kelly: Right now, both the technical and the business side are based out of 400 South Tryon, where we have an office space that we’ve been in for probably four months now, three months, and all of our team staff as it relates to the Academy, technical staff, all the business operations will operate out of here at least for the foreseeable future. Obviously, Rock Hill is still under development, and with the Panthers still taking over all of Bank of America Stadium, it makes the most sense to have our own space here, which has been great. The first team as well as all of Charlotte FC will be practicing in-house at Bank of America Stadium. So we’ll have everything from coaches, trainers, it will live out in its own ecosystem within Bank of America Stadium.
AA: And then the Academy teams will transition to Eastland once that development is finalized?
NK: That’s the plan. (Tepper Sports COO) Mark Hart has been working pretty hard with the city to get those timelines finalized, but our hope is that next summer, next fall, we’ll be out in Eastland with the Academy. And I think that for the first team, they’re in a unique position in that they’ll have first-class facilities because of the amenities already there with the Panthers, but will also have their own space, which we saw (last week with the renderings).
AA: There was also the announcement about the deal with Cox Media Group to broadcast matches on three local television stations next year. Is this a long-term thing? What are the terms of that deal?
NK: I can tell you broadly that it’s a shorter-term partnership. It’s strictly driven by our friends at the league (MLS). It’s been pretty highly publicized that the league is in the middle of broader media negotiations for all of its teams for media assets, which includes local broadcasts. We were very fortunate to pull together a partnership with WSOC, Telemundo through our friends at Raycom because it’s very hard to get a good, local media deal, but also to get it for such a short-term, like 18 months. We’re really fortunate to have that. Our hope is that — and we expect — it will go extremely well, but we’re in a little bit of a wait-and-see long-term period until the league figures out what it’s doing from a media partnership standpoint.
AA: So it’s an 18-month deal?
NK: Yeah, I mean there’s an opportunity for us to expand it should certain things not happen at the league level.
AA: How does Raycom fit into this? Is their role similar to how the Academy match broadcasts were being produced?
NK: That’s an interesting question, because we actually produced all the Academy matches ourselves. Fortunately, we have the broadcast capabilities in-house to do that level of production. The thing for us is that we wanted somebody who was used to working with a lot of broadcast partners across the Carolinas, and clearly Raycom’s work with the ACC Network, the SEC Network, they’re almost a turnkey solution for us. Our focus now really pivots now into what our game presentation looks like. Everything from graphics to who the on-air talent is going to be, that’s really the priority, as well as getting syndication across both states (North Carolina and South Carolina).
AA: Anything you can share on that front? I’m assuming that’s also a team-specific deal rather than coming from the league.
NK: Yeah, we own full rights to figure that part out. The good part for us is that the Panthers have built a pretty fruitful Panthers network and I think we’re going to try to lean into the advantages of having a shared ownership group with the Panthers. We have a lot of existing relationships because of them. We’ll probably lean pretty heavily on those, but at the same time, there are relationships that Raycom has. Our number one goal is to have every square mile of the Carolinas have the opportunity to watch us on syndicated television, so it’s going to take a lot of partners to make that happen. It’s not going to happen overnight, but that’s our number one goal now is to gain access before kickoff. It’ll take time, but it’s not necessarily that we’re all ABC or we’re all FOX. Each market is slightly different.
AA: The team’s been hosting seat selection events on weekends. How many have you done so far and how have those been going?
NK: We’ve done two so far. One was more of a seat selection to come out and sit in a seat to figure out where they wanted to be. That was for deposit-holders. And last weekend we did one with existing season-ticket holders who already purchased season tickets as more of a thank-you and welcome-to-the-family event, where Charlotte FC and Ally handed out swag and beer and fans had the ability to take their picture on the field with their names on the billboard. I think the big piece for us is that the more traditional seat selection events for the general public we hope to kick off in earnest this summer. Being cognizant of the construction between (the tunnel) and the East Gate, we’re still trying to find ways to have these types of experiences as it relates to tickets ... We’ll probably have a handful of these again between now and kickoff just to make sure that everybody has a chance to truly figure out what they want to do when it comes to gameday.
AA: (Tepper Sports president) Tom Glick said in December that the team had 10,000 season-ticket deposits for 31,000 seats. Are there updated numbers for those you’re able to share?
NK: Right now we’re working through that deposit list. It’s a big list with 10,000 individuals and the potential for 30,000 seats. It’s very time-consuming and laborious to make sure it’s one-on-one interactions, but we’re very pleased with where we’re at. Every time we’ve had an event, we’re seeing thousands of people show up just to pick a seat or take a picture, but from where we thought we would be on the conversion side to where we need to be for kickoff, we’re pleased with it. We’re not in a position to share numbers until we get much closer to kickoff.
AA: I spoke with some fans when season ticket prices were released who expressed concern over the cost of tickets. Are you able to provide any clarity around what the team hopes to do with that ticket revenue for fans who might be questioning season ticket prices?
NK: What we do with the revenue as a whole is not something that we disclose, because it’s everything from running a business, to turning the lights on at the stadium, to players, you name it. I think there was concern from fans when we first came out with season tickets in trying to compare them to other teams and leagues. We feel pretty good about the progress we’ve made to this point. And the other part is that we’re only looking at season ticket numbers. We haven’t even released individual game tickets or group tickets or any of the other things that come into the equation of being affordable and accessible. We’re still fairly confident that with the model we have in place, by the time we get to first kick, it will make us one of the top teams in the league for attendance.
AA: The repeated goal has been to fill the lower bowl, about half the stadium’s seating capacity, with fans. Is that still the goal and does that seem achievable at this point?
NK: Yeah, that’s very accurate. Our objective is still the lower bowl for every match. And I think if we’re able to do that, it automatically will put us in the top tier of teams in MLS. There will always be opportunities for us to flex up, which makes Bank of America Stadium a great venue for us. If we have 30,000-plus in the lower bowl, I think it’s a great gameday environment. So that’s what makes us excited, and it makes it a little more tangible talking with everybody. Now they can kind of see it (with the renderings). But that’s the plan for us, is that we have an amazing gameday experience driven by a packed lower bowl.
AA: Kits have also been a hot topic with the 2021 MLS season kicking off recently. Is the plan for releasing those still the fall?
NK: The timing is correct. It’s probably late-fall of this year. It’s really driven by Adidas and the league. We really want to be able to get it right, but late-fall we’ll be able to release the kit, and we’ll release the Community Kit probably much closer to first kick in ‘22.
AA: Final question is actually about soccer, and the signed players. It seems like they’re all having pretty successful loan situations. How’s it been to follow those matches?
NK: That’s probably the most exciting part of all this, besides (news last week) and having so much positive momentum. Seeing the success of Sergio (Ruiz) and Riley (McGree), now that they have a new coach giving him a lot more momentum. And I think Jan (Sobociński) has had an extremely strong last couple weeks. It one, hopefully, reinforces to the fans that there is a plan; We’re picking these players so far in advance because they’re developing and they’re going to bring us strong stability to our team next year. Two, we’re going to continue to do our job of working with the media and the fans to get to know these players so that by the time they actually get here in January, everyone already has a better understanding of their background. We want to do a good job of introductions so fans already have a favorite player. We’ve been very privileged to have so many successful players sign so early.
