Charlotte FC and Atlanta are the best fan bases in MLS. They’re bonded by joy, grief
Matt Chantry remembers the first time Atlanta United FC came to town.
It was a warm April day. The Charlotte FC fan and then-vice president of supporters group Mint City Collective was in Bank of America Stadium. So were his wife and his kids and his father-in-law. Chantry remembers an early Charlotte FC goal, a few late nerve-racking Atlanta opportunities, a Charlotte win.
But what the Kent, England, native recalls most is the energy before the game.
“It felt like a really big build-up to the day,” Chantry told The Charlotte Observer.
Charlotte FC and Atlanta, after all, had been anointed rivals. Both were relatively new expansion franchises. Both were in the South. Both boasted boisterous and robust supporters — the kind of supporters who took equal joy in either cheering on or clapping back at Charlotte FC owner David Tepper’s playful announcement-day comment: “Screw that other city!”
“It’s a game that we’d always had circled on the calendar,” Chantry said.
This weekend, a similar anticipation abounds, too.
Charlotte FC (0 wins, 2 losses, 0 draws) will play Atlanta United FC (1-0-1) on Saturday at noon on FOX. The nationally televised match will pit two MLS teams with high hopes after postseason-less ends to last year against each other, and it’ll also put on display two of the best fan bases in MLS — something that will almost certainly make the game more special.
“In fairness, I’ve seen a lot of loyal supporting in the U.S., not just obviously for us,” Charlotte FC head coach Christian Lattanzio said. “I’ve spoken many times about our supporters. Atlanta also creates a great environment.”
He added: “We know that this is a game that the supporters are even more passionate for.”
The Charlotte and Atlanta fan bases see in each other a kinship as much as they do a rivalry. They’re similar in a lot of ways.
Charlotte FC set the MLS single-game attendance record last year with a crowd of 74,479 and finished 2022 with the second-best attendance record for the year. It welcomed another nearly 70,000 on its season-debut last month. Charlotte FC’s first season was defined by parties — of tifos floating, of flags representing the international city that Charlotte is, of a crowd singing the national anthem in unison.
Atlanta United FC, similarly, has notched every other MLS attendance in the Top 5 besides Charlotte FC’s top spot. It averaged the most amount of fans per home match last season with 47,116.
For last year’s matchup in Charlotte, Atlanta fans hopped on team-sponsored buses and made the four-hour drive north. Sheryl Shectman remembers it well. The Atlanta fan, who now serves in a leadership role for the supporters group Terminus Legion, remembers how the Charlotte supporters hosted a night-before party at a brewery in the city.
“It was actually very cool because it was the mixing of the two fan bases,” Shectman told The Observer. “The night before, everybody gets along, and we chat, and we talk. And I remember being outside: A lot of our chants are the same but with different words, so it was kind of like Charlotte on one side, Atlanta on the other — they would do a verse of their chant, and we would do a verse of our chant. And we had drums, and there was a photo of all the fans who were there that night.
“There were a lot of people. It was a very special moment.”
This year will add another layer to their similarities. Not only do their supporters share a special joy — they share a unique grief.
In January, Charlotte FC defender Anton Walkes died in a boating accident in Florida. The tragedy reverberated across the city and league and world — and it especially hit home for Charlotte and Atlanta.
Walkes played for Atlanta during its inaugural season in 2017 and also for Charlotte’s inaugural season in 2022. Both clubs remember his smile, his dancing, his charisma.
Shectman was at an independent supporters’ council meeting in Albuquerque when the news broke.
“One of the things I do — my coping mechanism — is really to craft,” she said. “There were 13 of us from Atlanta and Charlotte, and we went out to the store. I bought T-shirts. And we made shirts for all of the Atlanta and Charlotte supporters. We just had a broken heart on it. Ours were the red and gold, theirs were white and blue. Ours had a ‘4’ on it, theirs had a ‘5’ on it. And the first day of the conference, we had our shirts on.”
The two fan bases have worked together in other ways, too. Leading up to the match, both have collaborated on making special scarves: It has Atlanta and Charlotte insignia stitched on one side, and on the other side, it reads, “Anton Forever Walkes With Us.”
All proceeds go to the Anton Walkes Family Fund. By Chantry’s last count, there were over 500 scarves sold.
“Honestly, for this particular game, I find it really hard to quote-unquote hate them as a rival at this point,” Chantry said. “Because they’ve been so great. It almost feels more like a game to remember Anton.”
He added: “Obviously on the pitch, I want to win the game, but I think we’ve got a really good relationship with the Atlanta supporters right now. So there’s going to be a lot of mutual respect this weekend I think because of that.”
How to watch Charlotte FC vs. Atlanta
When: Noon, Saturday
Where: Bank of America Stadium
Tickets: Single-game tickets begin at $45
Watch: FOX. You can also watch the game by signing up for MLS Season Pass on the Apple TV app. This gives you viewing access to get every regular-season, playoff and Leagues Cup match without any blackouts.
Radio: WFNZ 92.7 FM; WOLS 106.1 FM (Spanish)
Last Charlotte match: St. Louis 3, Charlotte 1
Last Atlanta match: Atlanta 1, Toronto 1
This story was originally published March 10, 2023 at 7:00 AM.
