Growing Greggs - A Love Story: Charlotte FC Inaugural Home Game

This past Saturday our family attended the inaugural game of the Charlotte FC MLS team. The girls and I have never been to an MLS game before while the boys have been to several at the Crew stadium in Columbus, Ohio and also in Portland, Oregon for a Portland FC game.

Our game was played in the same stadium that the Charlotte Panthers play in which holds quite a lot of people. (There was a record setting 74,000+ people at our game attending a professional soccer game in the United States, or so I've been told.)

The pregame stuff was AMAZING. Josh and Andy both agreed it was the best pregame experience they have ever been to. It was so magical. The lights turned off during part of the pregame production and inspiring videos were shown, fireworks went off, and a small laser show made feel like we were experiencing an epic moment.

When the National Anthem was sung the microphone went out on the lead singer and the entire stadium picked up where she left off creating a spine-tingling, hair raising several minutes that left myself, Sarah, and Andy with tears in our eyes. It was such a powerful moment to hear 74,000 people sing our national anthem acapella. I don't know if I will ever forget that moment.

The games itself got mixed reviews from our family. Some of our members loved it; while others thought it was subpar because the stadium was too big and the crowd didn't know what they were doing in terms of organizing chants/cheers. I thought the game was cool, but I do think it would have been better in a smaller stadium of half the size.

Charlotte FC ended up losing 1-0 on a goal scored in the second half. Our goalie had done a really good job prior to this goal and continued to do a good job after the goal. It was just one of those goals that were in the upper 90 and unstoppable.

Bobby did a great job scoping our parking prior to our trip and we reserved a spot in a lot about 3/4 of a mile from the stadium which was perfect because it allowed us to stretch our legs before and after the game. It was also far enough away from the stadium to avoid crazy traffic. We were able to get in and out of our lot with relative ease. (Plus, we only paid $20 for our spot where as some parking lots were charging $50 a spot!)

Bobby and I made a promise to our kids this year that we would make an honest effort to try and experience more non-naturey things with them as we haven't really ever had the budget to regularly go out on excursions that weren't relatively free. Bob has done a wonderful job working so hard to secure extra funds for our family, so that we can experience stuff like sporting events. I know the kids appreciate just how hard their dad is working and just how expensive it is for us to go out and do something as a family of six. I know that I certainly appreciate his hard work and dedication to our family.

Overall, I would say that this game was a good experience for us. It is always a tender experience for me when the six of us get to be together especially because that happens so rarely with Josh away at school and Andy working and going to school. I appreciate being with my tribe so much.

Picture of you, me, Andy, and Elizabeth before josh arrived.

In our parking spot partaking in some beverages (gatorade for me and the girls and beer for Bobby and Andy) before the game. Josh was meeting us at our spot as he arrived downtown earlier with his soccer buddies from school.

I cannot tell you in words how much I love these four humans in this picture with me. It makes me verklempt just thinking about it. They are my everything. (And it is crazy that I am the shortest person in my family by several inches!)

Dad, Andy, You, Josh, Elizabeth at the parking lot before the game.

Sarah looks so annoyed in this picture. We try to make a specific noise for her when we need her to look in a certain direction for picture taking, but obviously it didn't work too well in this one.

Picture of the skyline from our parking spot.

I think behind Washington DC, Charlotte is my second favorite city. It is clean, easy to use, makes good use of its space, is pretty to look at, has a lot to do, etc...This is a pic taken from where we parked.

View of the stadium from the front right before we went in.

From the outside this stadium is one of the coolest I have been to. The decor is majestic and sleek and the building seems imposing. I would definitely like to see another game here - maybe when the Browns come into town to play the Panthers this fall.

Up close picture of a panther statue outside the front of the stadium.

I'm not gonna lie - these statues were both really cool and really scary. There were two of them at the entrance of the building and they were definitely imposing.