What’s next for Charlotte sports: Army-Navy football? An NFL Draft?
The future of Charlotte sports could include all sorts of new events on the calendar: An Army-Navy football game. An NFL Draft. Hosting a portion of the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
When your job is dreaming up what sporting events are coming next for Charlotte and how to fund them — which is more or less what the nonprofit Charlotte Sports Foundation does — you’re always thinking 5-10 years down the road.
But you also have to keep in mind that you’re about to help coordinate and host five separate events over the next nine weeks, from high-profile college football and basketball games to the return to Charlotte of tennis star Venus Williams.
On Tuesday I spoke to Will Pitts, the CSF’s CEO, about that fascinating mix of the present and the future. Pitts gave me an update about a number of things the CSF is working on. Let’s go through it in bulleted form.
Army-Navy: The Charlotte Sports Foundation has been interested in hosting this popular, rotating college football game for years and aggressively pursued it several years ago, only to lose out when the Army-Navy games from 2023-2027 were awarded elsewhere. (This year’s game is Dec. 13 in Baltimore.)
Pitts said he anticipates that the next cycle of bidding, for the Army-Navy football games of 2028 and beyond, will likely come in the spring of 2026.
“I would say that Charlotte was and continues to be very interested in bringing the Army-Navy game to our community,” Pitts said. The game is traditionally played on the second Saturday in December as the final regular-season college football game, so it wouldn’t conflict with the ACC football championship game always played in Charlotte (first Saturday in December).
The NFL Draft: The NFL used to only hold its draft in New York but now moves it around each year; it is a three-day event generally held in April. The next two cities are set: Pittsburgh in 2026 and Washington, D.C., in 2027. While 2028 and beyond are up for grabs, it sounds like Charlotte’s earliest real shot would be 2031. A number of NFL cities are interested in hosting, as is Charlotte, which has sent fact-finding delegations to previous drafts to see the setup.
“It is something that we continue to be very interested in,” Pitts said of hosting a draft. “Given the (ongoing) renovations with Bank of America Stadium, it is likely not an event that we would pursue until after those renovations have been complete. That is currently scheduled for 2030, so we would look for an opportunity beyond that point in time…. and would obviously do so in partnership with Tepper Sports & Entertainment.”
As for the idea of a Charlotte Super Bowl: Pitts said that his organization would, of course, be interested in that conversation. However, in my opinion, this possibility remains a monster longshot for Charlotte. The NFL generally awards Super Bowls only to cities that can guarantee warm weather in early February, or who have just built a brand new stadium. Or have a roof on their stadium. Charlotte doesn’t neatly fall into any of those categories.
Soccer and rugby: Pitts said that the Charlotte Sports Foundation wanted to pursue hosting parts of the FIFA Women’s World Cup, which will be jointly played in the United States and Mexico in 2031. He also said Charlotte would like to be part of the Rugby World Cup, both the men’s and women’s versions, in the early 2030s. All of those events would be held at Bank of America Stadium in conjunction with Tepper Sports & Entertainment.
Too much talk of the future? OK, here’s a list of what’s coming up over the next few months that CSF is involved in and you might want to see:
Nov. 4: The Dick Vitale Invitational, presented by Belk, features Duke and Texas playing men’s college basketball in the Spectrum Center.
Nov. 9: The Ally Tipoff, a showcase for women’s basketball, will feature N.C. State vs. Southern Cal in the Spectrum Center.
Dec. 4: The Charlotte Invitational exhibition tennis event will feature top men’s players Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe in the Spectrum Center. On the women’s side, Madison Keys will face off against 45-year-old Venus Williams, who recently made a successful return to competitive tennis.
Dec. 6: The ACC football championship game will be played at Bank of America Stadium. This game will be played in Charlotte every year through 2030 and Pitts said he hopes that contract will be extended.
Jan. 2, 2026: The Duke’s Mayo college bowl game will be held in Bank of America Stadium, as an ACC and SEC team will play.
March 10-14, 2026: The ACC men’s basketball tournament will be played in Spectrum Center.
Summer 2026: The Major League Soccer all-star game will be played in Bank of America Stadium.
This story was originally published September 24, 2025 at 5:30 AM.
