Charlotte FC
Also written as Charlotte.
The club
Charlotte FC was awarded to the city as a Major League Soccer expansion franchise on 17 December 2019, owned by David Tepper, the hedge-fund billionaire who also owns the NFL's Carolina Panthers, through Tepper Sports and Entertainment. The expansion fee was reported at around 325 million dollars. The club was due to begin play in 2021 but the start was delayed a year by the COVID-19 pandemic, and Charlotte played its first MLS match on 26 February 2022, a 3-0 defeat away to D.C. United, as the league's 28th franchise. The club's name, Charlotte Football Club, was revealed on 22 July 2020, along with a crest built around a four-pointed crown representing the four wards of Uptown Charlotte and the words "Minted 2022," a reference to the city's banking history and the historic Charlotte Mint.
Charlotte FC is not the Charlotte Eagles, a club founded in 1991 that turned professional in 1993 and has played across the second-tier A-League and various lower USL divisions; the Eagles are operated by the Christian sports ministry Missionary Athletes International and now play in the amateur USL League Two, entirely unconnected to the MLS club. Charlotte FC is also not the Charlotte Independence, founded in 2014 and still playing today in USL League One; the two clubs had only a one-season loan and affiliation agreement in 2022, under which Charlotte FC sent a minimum of three players to the Independence, and the Independence deliberately dropped a division that year to reduce overlap with the new MLS side. Neither club folded or became Charlotte FC.
The team plays at Bank of America Stadium, home of the Panthers, which has a full capacity of 74,867 but is generally configured to around 38,000 for Charlotte's matches using the lower bowl. A 50 million dollar soccer-specific renovation was completed in early 2022, adding dedicated locker and training rooms and a players' tunnel at the halfway line, on top of a FieldTurf playing surface installed in 2021. Charlotte's training base, the Atrium Health Performance Park, opened in August 2023 and was subsequently chosen as Scotland's base camp for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
The head coach is the Englishman Dean Smith, in charge since December 2023 and now in his third season.
Recent seasons
Charlotte's inaugural 2022 season ended without a playoff place. The club reached its first MLS Cup Playoffs in 2023, going out in the Wild Card round to the New York Red Bulls; head coach Christian Lattanzio was dismissed at the end of that season. In 2025 Charlotte made the playoffs again, finishing fourth in the Eastern Conference and seventh overall with a record of 19 wins, 13 losses and 2 draws, 55 goals scored and 46 conceded, before losing in the first round.
Honours and landmarks
Charlotte FC have not won a major trophy since entering MLS in 2022. The club's most significant landmark remains attendance rather than silverware: its first-ever home match, and the record described below, remains the high-water mark for a single-match MLS crowd from an expansion club. Charlotte has made the MLS Cup Playoffs in two of its first four seasons, in 2023 and 2025.
Notable scorelines
Charlotte's first home match, on 5 March 2022 against the LA Galaxy, drew 74,479 spectators to Bank of America Stadium, reported at the time as the largest single-match crowd in MLS history. The club's first MLS win came at home to the New England Revolution, 3-1, on 20 March 2022. That inaugural season also brought Charlotte's biggest win, 5-1 over the Richmond Kickers in the US Open Cup on 11 May 2022, and its heaviest defeat, 0-5 away to LAFC in MLS play on 13 August 2022. On 1 October 2022 Daniel Rios scored four goals in a win over the Philadelphia Union. In a July 2022 friendly Charlotte beat Chelsea 5-3 on penalties after a 1-1 draw. In 2023 Charlotte lost 0-3 away to Atlanta United in March and 0-3 away to D.C. United in April. In 2026 Charlotte beat the New York Red Bulls 6-1 at home on 21 March, their most emphatic league win of the season, and also won 2-1 at home to the Philadelphia Union on 4 April and 3-1 at home to Toronto FC on 16 May, against a 3-0 opening defeat away to the LA Galaxy on 28 February. Charlotte's Leagues Cup results in 2026, including a reported match against Pumas UNAM, were not established from the sources read here, nor was any Concacaf Champions Cup involvement; that competition is reached via winning MLS Cup, the Supporters' Shield, the US Open Cup or the Leagues Cup, none of which Charlotte has yet won.
Head-to-head notes
Charlotte's rivalry history with specific opponents was not established from the sources read here.
Right now (2026/27)
Dean Smith is the head coach, in his third season. As of 23 August 2026 Charlotte sit fifth in the Eastern Conference with 32 points from 21 matches, 9 wins, 5 draws and 7 losses, a goal difference of plus 6 on 38 scored and 32 conceded. In the US Open Cup, Charlotte reached the round of 16 in 2026 with a record of 2 wins and 1 loss across three matches, 6 goals for and 2 against. The club's full Leagues Cup 2026 campaign and any summer transfer business were not established from the sources read here.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_FC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_Eagles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlotte_Independence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Charlotte_FC_season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_Charlotte_FC_season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Charlotte_FC_season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Charlotte_FC_seasons https://www.mlssoccer.com/clubs/charlotte-fc/
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.