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Charlotte entry in MLS Next Pro circuit will be known as Crown Legacy FC

CHARLOTTE — Charlotte’s new MLS Next Pro team unveiled its name — Crown Legacy FC — and logo Monday as preparations ramp up for the club’s debut season. Crown Legacy FC will be the feeder club to Charlotte FC, the city’s Major League Soccer team, beginning this season.

Tepper Sports & Entertainment owns both Charlotte FC and Crown Legacy FC as well as the NFL Carolina Panthers and Bank of America Stadium.

While Charlotte FC plays at BofA Stadium, usually in a configuration that reduces capacity to 35,000 from 75,000, Crown Legacy FC said Monday it will play home matches at the county-owned Sportsplex in Matthews. The main stadium field at Sportsplex has capacity for 5,000 and the playing surface is natural grass.

MLS Next Pro debuted last year as the equivalent of Triple A baseball for Major League Soccer, known as MLS. Twenty-seven of the 29 MLS clubs will field and own their MLS Next Pro affiliate teams this year.

“We were adamant about the club having its own brand and name and kind of laddering up into the Charlotte FC parent club,” Crown Legacy FC President Darrius Barnes told CBJ.

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