CHARLOTTE FC

Charlotte FC owner David Tepper and his wife Nicole led the dedication of a soccer mini pitch at Nations Ford Elementary School as part of the Pitches for Progress initiative sponsored by their foundation.

At a dedication ceremony for a Charlotte FC community mini pitch at Nations Ford Elementary School, team owner David Tepper and his wife Nicole spoke to the media.

The facility is the seventh of  22 planned Pitches for Progress planned for installation across Charlotte and the Carolinas, providing kids and adults safe opportunities to play soccer. This is the second to be put in at a public-school ground and the first to be co-sponsored by the David & Nicole Tepper Foundation.

“Nations Ford seemed to be the right fit for our foundation,” said Nicole Tepper. “The relationship with the values and everything this school has to offer seemed like a right fit. Sports bring people together and it also brings self-confidence.”

A large portion of the student body at Nations Ford are immigrant children, most from Central and South America – some from Ukraine as well according to principal Nick Paquette – who have a cultural connection to the game.

Charlotte’s growth as a global city was also acknowledged by Tepper, who also owns the Carolina Panthers.

“I have so much fun at the games. It’s fun from my perspective; it’s fun from the fans’ perspective. As Nicole was saying, it’s so interesting to see the diversity that Charlotte is, and see these people coming together. We have an international city, and it brings out the international (flavor). Quite frankly, it makes me happy to see everyone enjoying themselves.”

Asked about his thoughts on Charlotte FC’s inaugural season, Tepper said: “From different perspectives, to be second in [MLS] attendance, to come close from a sporting side, to be there until the very end of the season, to beat Philadelphia Union who are in the final, and beating New York twice doesn’t hurt either.”

Perhaps it was the Pittsburgh native in him when he added with a touch of sarcasm, “I’m sure the Philadelphia people are really happy we beat them because it cost them home field advantage.”

“We beat top clubs and at the end of the year, we were on a bit of a roll. We had three wins in a row,” he said, then alluded to the Columbus Crew match which was rescheduled to Oct. 5 after lightning storms stopped play on July 30. “We had a five-game unbeaten streak and then we had to play by the (league) rules of to have that roster in.”

MLS rules state that only players from the first match date roster were eligible. Without late summer additions Adilson Malanda, Nuno Santos, and Nathan Byrne, all who had become starters or influential substitutes, the match ended in a draw but still eliminated the Crown from playoff contention.

“It was an exciting first season,” said Tepper, who had set the tone for home games with his “Let’s party!” decree at the announcement of getting the franchise.

“The opening game, 74,000 setting a (MLS single-game attendance) record was great. I can’t say I had one (favorite moment) but that I had many. The ‘Star-Spangled Banner’ and everybody singing there was fantastic. But I have to say when we beat Chelsea in this stadium, 60 million people worldwide saw Charlotte that day on the web. They got so many visits and it put Charlotte, not so much in America, but across the world. The people who hate Chelsea, they were watching it. Let me tell you that.”

Regarding making Christian Lattanzio the head coach, Tepper said: “The coach did a fantastic job at the end of the season bringing the club together, and I’ll give some credit to (Zoran Krneta) also, bringing those new players onboard that helped build into the second season.

“Soccer is interesting – football, if you will – because unlike the other football, I can help that team along in different ways that I can’t do on the (NFL) side.

“Christian did a great job coming in. … We had to go through a process and look at other coaches, just what we have to do but it was clear that Christian did a great job and was the best man for the job.”

Asked about the move of team headquarters from its proposed former Eastland Mall site to McAlpine Office Park off Monroe Road, a difference of about 5 miles, Tepper said it put the team ahead of schedule in establishing a permanent solution.

“Going over to McAlpine is two years earlier to get there than what we ever would have got at Eastland. That’s probably reason number one. Reason number two is that it just wasn’t big enough what we could do over there,” he said, referring to the development academy and MLS Next second team that will bridge the academy to the first team.

The McAlpine location already had open ground developed for soccer pitches, some which are used by the Charlotte Eagles youth club. Charlotte FC opened the season training at the Matthews Sportsplex and later moved to a back corner of the McAlpine complex, upgrading the pitch quality and installing security fencing. The building being renovated for the new headquarters is less than forty yards from those fields.

“To have everybody together is really crucial in this league for the success of the sport,” Tepper said. “Two years is a big difference. Quite frankly, I think the fans would have killed me without having a training facility for two more years at Eastland.

“If you look at what that place is and how it is, and the setting for that place, it’s inside Charlotte, which is very important for us, to be inside Charlotte for the soccer club, the football club. It’s a nice setting and where you walk up for the first team, it’s so close to the pro fields. It’s just the whole setup and accessibility in some ways for the whole community to get over there. We had people over there for Latin Heritage (event) and it really was amazing how many people came over there and how easy it was to get there. It’s still in the middle of the community. It’s just a really nice location.”

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