Charlotte: MLS expansion success proves competitiveness possible

Charlotte Sporting Director Zoran Krneta has said the MLS expansion team will be competitive from day one. And based on recent success, there is no reason to think that that isn’t possible.

Expansion into Major League Soccer did not use to be like this. From Toronto FC’s near-decade-long mire to Orlando City never making the playoffs, it is not normal for MLS expansion teams to be competitive from the moment they take to the league. Just ask Minnesota or FC Cincinnati or San Jose or Vancouver.

But the explosive early success of Atlanta United and Los Angeles FC has changed the record. Expansion teams being immediately competitive and successful is the new normal, and everyone wants a piece.

A team based in Charlotte will commence their MLS journey in 2021 alongside Austin FC. And like Atlanta and LAFC before them, they expect to competitive from the moment they take to the pitch.

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Sporting Director Zoran Krneta did not hold back on his bullish expectations for the team in a recent interview with mlssoccer.com. His most assertive claim came right at the end, and it lays down the foundation for what Charlotte is expected to become:

"“We made sure we brought the best people we think at this moment could help us to build this team to be competitive from day one. Whether we will win [MLS] Cup or not, nobody can say, but whether we will be competitive from day one? Absolutely.”"

Krneta goes into depth about the expansion process, from the disruptions of COVID-19 to the extensive scouting network that is being assembled, including what types of players the team will be searching for ahead of a January 4th start next year.

Krneta also highlighted the positive progress Charlotte has already made in preparations for their expansion.

“From the middle of January we were working full-time,” Krneta explained. “The scouting department, technical department was brought on, the people for youth development were brought on, community engagement and that arm was formed. So I would say that in some areas like scouting or identifying players and head coach, we are almost a little ahead of where we might be expected to be.”

Of course, the sporting director of the club is hardly going to say that his work is months behind schedule in what is already a truncated period to launch an expansion team — from announcement to play, Charlotte has a little over a year. That said, he is not shy to praise the work of the club thus far and state his high expectations for what is to come.

This is a similar process to LA, Atlanta and now Inter Miami CF. They were bullish in their expectations for their team. They invested heavily, opened luxurious stadiums, or joined with NFL teams knowing that they had the fanbase to fill a larger complex. They wanted to be competitive from the moment they stepped onto the pitch. And they were.

Charlotte is at the start of that process. They still need a head coach, which Krneta says will ‘fit the profile of Charlotte’, which is a ‘vibrant, full of energy, relatively young, ambitious city.’ They are yet to sign a player and there is plenty of work still to be done.

But by stating their ambitions plainly and now investing in their pursuit of achieving them, they have a chance of being competitive from day one, just as an increasing number of MLS expansions have been before them.