As Panthers end their project in Rock Hill, Tepper’s MLS team faces delay at Eastland
Earlier this year, vendors at an open air market in east Charlotte were blocked by police and told to find a new place to sell their products when trying to set up at their usual spot, an 80-acre vacant property off Central Avenue that was once home to the bustling Eastland Mall.
The city, which purchased the property in 2012 after the mall closed, ended a lease agreement with the market operator last fall as it prepared to start a massive redevelopment project slated to transform the neglected lot into a hub for mixed-income housing, green space, businesses, Charlotte FC’s Academy headquarters and more.
Months later, construction on the site hasn’t started and there’s no clear timeline for when those plans will come to fruition.
“It’s still moving forward,” city councilmember Matt Newton, who represents District 5 where the Eastland site is located, told The Charlotte Observer. “And if there are any questions as to whether this momentary delay is a signal of any troubles or problems inherent in the plan, it’s not.”
“It’s just taking a little bit longer than we originally anticipated,” Newton continued. “Nonetheless, we’re still moving forward on the project.”
Tepper Sports & Entertainment CEO Nick Kelly told The Observer that the company, which owns the Major League Soccer expansion team Charlotte FC and its Academy, are in discussion with the city about the home of its Academy teams.
Charlotte FC’s Academy fields multiple youth boys’ soccer teams (U17, U15 and U14) and a Discovery program (U13 and U12). It will also field a reserve team in 2023. The Academy currently trains at a soccer complex in Rock Hill, S.C. called Manchester Meadows.
An Eastland redevelopment proposal issued last summer included plans for Tepper Sports to occupy about 11 percent of the open space, with 22 acres of the site set to house Charlotte FC’s Academy complex. There would be two large fields for the Academy and one large field for public use, as well as four medium fields and six small fields for public use, according to the proposal.
Kelly said that the plan for an Academy complex at Eastland “hasn’t necessarily changed,” but suggested that the delay presented an issue for its teams.
“It’s just more of the timeline and everything else,” Kelly said. “... We have another Academy season that starts this August and then another one the next August, so just being practical, we’re more focused right now on the short-term for the Academy because we can’t have them continuing to be nomadic.”
Tracy Dodson, the assistant city manager and economic development director, and Todd DeLong, the city assistant director overseeing the Eastland project, did not respond to requests for comment.
Crosland Southeast is the developer working on the Eastland project and did not respond to a request for comment.
When Kelly was asked what contributed to the delay, he directed the question to the city.
“We’re having conversations with them now,” Kelly said. “And I think that, hopefully, we’ll be able to have some more fruitful conversations with them now that we’re close to finalizing the first team facility.”
First team training facility
Simultaneously, Charlotte FC’s first team is in its inaugural MLS season and doesn’t have a full-time permanent training facility.
Kelly said that Charlotte FC remains close to finalizing those plans, with the team slated to move in by February 2023. That facility will be on private property in Mecklenburg County, Kelly said.
The team trains on a grass field at Matthews Sportsplex. Players and staff haul daily between there and Bank of America Stadium, where the first team plays its home matches and conducts team meetings, workouts and media sessions.
“It’s crucial, it’s the basic, to have a place to train, our place to train,” Charlotte FC head coach Miguel Ángel Ramírez said earlier this month. “And of course (it’s) always much better to have the Academy around. At Independiente del Valle, the first team players and staff are always in touch with the Academy players and coaches ... And the offices (of) the first team are together with the Academy coaches, so we can meet at any time.”
Kelly was Charlotte FC’s president before he was appointed CEO of Tepper Sports & Entertainment (TSE) in February, when former TSE president of business operations Tom Glick departed from the organization. Tepper Sports is also the ownership group of the Carolina Panthers, which shares Bank of America Stadium with Charlotte FC.
“This year has been a little bit of a challenge with our players practicing at the stadium and at Matthews,” Kelly said. “We want to make sure that it’s only a one-year problem.”
Bank of America Stadium is a roughly 75,000-seat sports and entertainment venue located in uptown Charlotte. The venue underwent a $50 million enhancement project, funded by Tepper Sports and the city, prior to Charlotte FC’s inaugural season.
Billionaire David Tepper owns both the Panthers and Charlotte FC, after agreeing to pay a reported record-setting expansion fee of $325 million to bring MLS to Charlotte.
The club produced a league record-setting crowd in its early existence, with 74,479 fans attending the club’s first home match against the LA Galaxy last month and has subsequently maintained strong home attendance figures within the league. The team sits eighth in Eastern Conference standings (3-5-0) and won its first Open Cup match against the Greenville Triumph on Wednesday.
Rock Hill
As Charlotte FC produces strong crowds and decent early results, ownership is juggling an ongoing drama regarding its Panthers facility in Rock Hill, which could impact the long-term home of Charlotte FC.
Tepper Sports this week terminated a contract with the city of Rock Hill over the construction of the Panthers’ new South Carolina headquarters, which was slated to open in 2023, creating uncertainty about the team’s future home.
“We truly do plan to sit down with the city, the county and the state in the near future,” Kelly said Wednesday night about the Rock Hill deal. “We want to see what all the options are that are left on the table to potentially see this project, but for the time being, we need to sit down and do that. That’s really where it’s at. We’re working right now to arrange a time and that’s about the only updates we’re discussing right now.”
A source recently told The Observer that “the deal is dead” regarding the Panthers’ facility in Rock Hill. The team was expected to move from its seven-acre practice complex located next to Bank of America Stadium to a 240-acre mixed-use property in Rock Hill, but a disagreement between Tepper Sports and Rock Hill has led to a halt in those plans.
Kelly said that “for the time being” the Panthers will remain training at their current venue.
“They’re going to remain there and we’ll continue to see what happens with Rock Hill,” he said.
Although ownership says it’s making progress on Charlotte FC’s first team facility, given the delays with its Academy plans at Eastland and uncertainties in Rock Hill, many questions about the future remain.
