Soccer is having a moment in Charlotte. Real Madrid, Chelsea FC provided more proof
Charlotte felt like a soccer town again on Tuesday night — an occurrence that seems more and more common as the years pass.
There were 62,617 loud, proud fans — almost all of them paying customers who forked out $75 a pop or more — watching Real Madrid and Chelsea FC play at Bank of America Stadium in what was analogous to an NFL preseason game.
This “friendly” had a number of advantages over the typical Carolina Panthers home preseason game, though: For one, it was played on real grass (which was only rolled out five days before and will soon regrettably be rolled up again, as the Panthers and Charlotte FC go back to sharing their artificial turf field).
For another, that announced crowd of 62,000-plus that filled the lower bowl and most of the upper bowl was legitimate. It wasn’t one of those “tickets sold” figures that NFL teams throw out there every August, when maybe half the fans locked into buying preseason games because they own season tickets bother to show up.
For a third, while some star players on each team didn’t play, a number of them did (the Panthers, meanwhile, are sitting a healthy Bryce Young in their first preseason game Thursday night).
And lastly, both teams actually scored. As you may remember, the Panthers went “nil” and “nil” during their last two football games of the 2023 season. So scoring should never be taken for granted around here.
Real Madrid won 2-1, with all the goals coming in the first half. The result delighted a crowd that had to be 75% Real Madrid fans. While Chelsea FC has played in Charlotte before, this was Real Madrid’s first appearance, and people came from far and wide to support one of the globe’s most famous soccer teams.
Again, this sort of thing is no longer an unusual occurrence in the Queen City.
A Copa America semifinal between Uruguay and Colombia drew 70,000-plus earlier this year and then got rowdy post-game. Charlotte FC, in its third season, currently sits sixth in the Eastern Conference standings and appears to have the best team and the best head coach it has fielded in its young franchise history. It will be a surprise if Charlotte FC doesn’t make the Major League Soccer playoffs in 2024, while it will be a surprise if the Carolina Panthers or Charlotte Hornets do.
It’s been a summer of soccer in Charlotte. Bank of America Stadium has repeatedly proven it can do a good job hosting big events (rowdy fans notwithstanding — that wasn’t a great look, but you can’t ever totally prepare for that). The MLS no longer feels new around here. It feels entrenched, as do the rambunctious soccer crowds.
As for Real Madrid and Chelsea, the result didn’t matter. It was a “friendly” in every sense of the word, with players on each team checking on each other after collisions and far fewer fake injuries, by my unofficial count, than your average “this one counts” soccer game.
So yes, futbol is having a moment in Charlotte.
Given the long no-playoffs streaks of the other two major-league sports in Charlotte, let’s hope it keeps finding the back of the net.
This story was originally published August 7, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
