CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Steve Malik, the owner of the North Carolina Football Club, acknowledges that Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper’s play for a Major League Soccer franchise — something he’s also coveting — has chops.
“Charlotte and Raleigh are two different markets, clearly,” Malik says. “I hope they do get a team.”
[ALSO READ: Hopeful Charlotte reps meet with MLS brass about expansion]
He says the cross-metro rivalry that would happen with MLS teams in both Charlotte and Raleigh would be good for both cities — and their respective tax bases.
“Now I have questions about playing at Bank of America stadium,” Malik says. “I don’t put as much weight in exhibition matches between European powerhouses drawing 50,000 and 60,000 people once a year as a birthright to success in MLS.”
Nor does he put much weight in talk that Charlotte is a shoo-in for one of the next MLS slots.
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