With my daughter having a 3-day weekend and cheap flights to Charlotte, home of a couple of excellent children's attractions, I decided to spend a couple of nights with her in the Queen City. Of course, there was a game to be seen as well, with Charlotte FC at home on Saturday night.
I had seen this club last year in a U.S Open Cup match which was played at Mecklenburg Sports Complex, but this time, they would be at their usual home, Bank of America Stadium.
Of course, this is also the home of the Carolina Panthers, and I had been here over 10 years before as part of my NFL Road Trip. That happened to be the best game of the trip so I was hopeful we would see something similar tonight. Ha!
It's Pride Month and the stadium has rainbows here and there to celebrate.
Inside, the upper bowl is closed off, which means they can charge a lot for tickets. The silver seats are in the club and face value is an insane $145, while other seats are $60. Fortunately, the secondary market was more reasonable and I was able to get both of us in for about $60. Which was about $50 too much.
Attendance was announced at just over 30K, but there were still a lot of empty seats. The secondary market is odd in that people with extra tickets seem unwilling to accept a certain amount even though it is better than getting nothing. Our seats were in Section 256 in the end zone facing downtown, which is a nice view and out of the sun.
The stadium seems to be exactly the same as during my previous visit, and the food options were still excellent. Hot dogs in particular are among the best you can get anywhere. Naturally, prices have increased since then, but the $9 grilled cheese is a relative bargain.
Sir Minty was on hand as well and my daughter was happy to get a picture with him. It is hard to believe the club has just been around for three seasons.
The game itself was a stinker. The first half saw just three shots on goal, with the last coming on a header from Kerwin Vargas off a corner kick in the 7th minute of stoppage time. It beat D.C. United keeper Alex Bono, who had been with Toronto FC for 7 seasons before joining United in 2023. Many of the fans had left to beat the halftime food lineups and missed the excitement.
It was hard to believe, but the second half was just duller, with no shots on goal. There were a couple of chances but nothing memorable as Charlotte won 1-0 in a match that will soon be forgotten.
Not that my daughter cared, she enjoyed screaming nonsense at the players, much to the amusement of nearby fans. MLS matches can be a hard watch at times and this one was probably the worst I have seen.
Best,
Sean
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