Charlotte Football Club is an American professional soccer club based in Charlotte. The team competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference. The team is owned by David Tepper, who was awarded the expansion franchise on December 17, 2019. The Charlotte area has historically been home to several lower-division soccer teams, dating back to the Carolina Lightnin' in the early 1980s. The Lightnin' won the American Soccer League championship in 1981, played in front of 20,163 people at American Legion Memorial Stadium. After the league folded in 1983, the team played for one season as the Charlotte Gold in United Soccer League before ceasing operations. Professional soccer did not return to Charlotte until the founding of the Charlotte Eagles in 1991, who joined the USISL in 1993.

Bank of America Stadium

Columbus Crew SC is an American professional soccer club based in Columbus, Ohio which competes in Major League Soccer (MLS). It is one of the ten charter clubs of MLS, having competed in the league since its inception. Crew SC is owned by Anthony Precourt and Precourt Sports Ventures LLC. Precourt became the second owner in the history of the club on July 30, 2013. The club's head coach is Gregg Berhalter, a former player of the United States men's national soccer team. The club was founded in 1996 and originally known as the Columbus Crew, without any markers of its membership as a soccer club, until late 2014, when the club revealed a new logo and the addition of 'SC' to its moniker. The "SC" in the team moniker stands for Soccer Club, but the team name is officially "Columbus Crew SC". Crew SC currently plays its home games at Mapfre Stadium (known as Columbus Crew Stadium until 2015), the first soccer-specific stadium ever built for a MLS team, with a seating capacity of 19,968 as of the 2014 season. From 1996 to 1998, Crew SC played its home games at Ohio Stadium on the campus of Ohio State University. In 2014, the club's 19th season at Crew Stadium, the Black & Gold set attendance records for both most cumulative attendance and most sellouts. Crew SC has won five major trophies: MLS Cup 2008, the 2004, 2008, and 2009 Supporters' Shields, and the 2002 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup. Crew SC has qualified for the CONCACAF Champions League (or its predecessor, the CONCACAF Champions' Cup) three times, reaching the quarterfinals each time.