Charlotte breaks ground on Eastland youth sports complex

CHARLOTTE — Eastland has always been an underdog story, but Charlotte City Council is delivering a knockout punch for the east side.

“Y’all remember that scene when Rocky beat Apollo and he was in the in the ring, he said, ‘Adrian, we did it,’” Mayor Pro Tem James Mitchell said. “I’m going to say this, ‘East side. We did it. East side, we did it.’”

The city of Charlotte officially broke ground on the final project for Eastland Yards, a youth sports complex. It will have six outdoor fields that will be used for soccer, lacrosse and other outdoor sports and a 100,000-square-foot indoor facility with basketball courts with the ability to be converted for other sports like volleyball and cheerleading. The city expects the venue to host a lot of youth tournaments

Charlotte hopes to compete with Rock Hill’s Sports and Event Center. It had a direct economic impact of $77.6 million last year. It hosts events just about every weekend like this weekend’s Palmetto Volleyball Winter Heat Power. The events draw people to the city’s hotels and restaurants.

Rendering: Charlotte breaks ground on Eastland youth sports complex

“If you want a real example of economic impact, my other son, RJ, I put on the plane at 6 this morning to go to a tournament in Memphis, Tennessee,” managing partner Robert Bolton said. “So if you want to hear about the economic impact, I live it every day. I’m giving some money to mid Tennessee.”

The city hopes the complex will open in 2028.

Other ongoing projects at Eastland Yards:

Evoke Living Eastland Yards: Opening in 2024, this fully occupied 72-unit apartment building offers affordable housing for those 55 or older opened.
Solstice at Eastland Yards: This 274-unit mixed-use development has retail on the lower level. The first residents began moving in last month. The city will sublease 16,000-square-feet of ground floor space to small businesses. City Council approved leases for four small businesses at the location in January; those businesses are expected to open this fall.
The Central Village @ Eastland Yards: This development will bring 168 townhomes and detached single-family homes to the community.
Eastland Park: A 4.5-acre Mecklenburg County park is expected to be completed in spring 2026.