Source: Francesco Pecoraro / Getty
City and county leaders are considering whether placing a professional soccer stadium at the old Eastland Mall site would be better than demolishing Memorial Stadium and the Grady Cole Center.
Last week, the Charlotte Observer reported, Mecklenburg County Commissioners considered a plan in which the city and county would each spend $50 million toward building a new stadium. The local ownership group of Bruton Smith and his son, Marcus, who are working to land the Major League Soccer team, would also spend $50 million, the Observer reported.
Outgoing council member John Autry and council members Julie Eislet and Patsy Kinsey want to consider the old Eastland Mall site, which the City owns.
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“The city should look at the possibility of Eastland for use as an MLS facility with the same kind of rigor and analytic (as Memorial Stadium),” Autry told the Observer. “Does it make more sense doing it there than tearing down Memorial Stadium, which is a historic landmark, when we have 72 acres sitting at the end of Central Avenue?”
Of course the Uptown crowd wants the stadium to be closer to Uptown which would benefit from the location.
