How soccer lit the fuse to Charlotte as a ‘world class’ city

CAROLINA LIGHTNIN'

Tony Suarez, who signed with the Carolina Lightnin' as an amateur in 1981, earned a spot on the ASL All-Star team and was named game MVP. Suarez, who led Charlotte with 15 goals that season, sparked the Lightnin' to the league title and won ASL's Rookie of the Year award.

When professional soccer came to Charlotte 43 years ago, it was part of a plan to brand what George Washington described as “a trifling place” as a world-class city.

From a sporting perspective, with Charlotte hosting four matches of this summer’s FIFA Club World Cup and a semifinal and third-place match of the Copa America last year, it is safe to say Washington’s ghost needs to come back for a reassessment. 

Those games were here due to the Queen City’s success in hosting a litany of international club and national team games, and magnified Charlotte FC owner David Tepper’s support of bringing more global events, including a push for the next FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2027.

On Wednesday against D.C. United, Charlotte FC will pay homage to the team that started it all in 1981, the Carolina Lightnin’, with the debut of the team’s first third kit, a retro design that will feature the yellow and blue colors, and a lightning bolt or two. The first season of the Lightnin’ came with packed stands at American Legion Memorial Stadium and an American Soccer League title for the city’s first national professional championship. 

The Lightnin’ was as famous for its marketing antics as its play on the field. With strong local media support and bold sponsors, owner Bob Benson, coach Rodney Marsh, and their crew primed the pump with crazy contests to win cars, boats, and even an airplane, and postgame concerts such as the Beach Boys. Myriad camps and player appearances sparked the growth of youth soccer and community engagement. 

The Lightnin’ lasted only three seasons as the ASL, which was founded in 1933, was shuttered in 1983. But the wheels were in motion. Most of the team came back for one season in 1984 as the Charlotte Gold in the USL (not today’s United Soccer Leagues). 

Then came the Charlotte Eagles, who competed on various professional levels since 1993, winning championships in 2000 and 2005 before passing the professional baton to the Charlotte Independence in 2015 and still operate on the amateur level.

There are now four professional soccer teams in Charlotte, including Charlotte FC (MLS), Charlotte Independence (USL One), Crown Legacy (MLS Next Pro), and Carolina Ascent (USL Super League), which won the new women’s top tier league’s regular season honors in their first season.

The tribute is not without a sense of gratitude that extends far beyond soccer. The success of the Lightnin’ can be directly attributed to the gumption of George Shinn in believing that Charlotte could be an NBA city. 

“Bob Benson got 20,000 people to a soccer match in Memorial Stadium in 1981 — 20,000 people! For soccer!’ Shinn told the Charlotte Observer. “You better believe that had an influence on me. I saw that and I thought, ‘Wow, what a market Charlotte is. If we can actually get an NBA team in here, we’re going to blow the doors off.’”

Seven years after the Lightnin’s debut and that spectacular sellout championship game, the Charlotte Hornets came in and upped the ante, redefining NBA fashion with pinstripes and a level of local enthusiasm that led the league in attendance for seven years and sellouts over their first 364 games.

The Hornets helped Jerry Richardson’s crusade to bring the NFL to Charlotte with the Carolina Panthers, a team now owned by Tepper, who brought this full circle when he made Charlotte a Major League Soccer city in 2019, taking the field in 2022.

Benson never got to see Charlotte FC play. He passed away in 2021 at age 83. That summer, the team he founded and built came together at a Charlotte Independence match, which featured pending CLTFC players Christian Fuchs, Brandt Bronico, and Adam Armour, for the 40th anniversary of that 1981 championship season.

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