Major League Soccer is coming to Charlotte.
Charlotte has been awarded an MLS expansion team, the league's 30th, and the club is set to begin play in 2021 out of Bank of America Stadium in downtown Charlotte. The expansion bid was led by billionaire David Tepper, owner of the Carolina Panthers.
“We are thrilled to welcome Charlotte as Major League Soccer’s 30th club,” Commissioner Don Garber said in a league statement. “During the last two decades, Charlotte has experienced enormous energy and growth, which matches soccer’s explosive rise in popularity in the United States. We are pleased to add David Tepper to our ownership group and look forward to working with him and his entire organization to launch Major League Soccer in the Carolinas in 2021.