We’re now a little over a month away from the city of Charlotte’s first professional soccer match of 2017.

The United Soccer League’s Charlotte Independence kick off their third season on Saturday, April 1st at Ramblewood Park. Their opponent? The Charleston Battery, their South Carolina rival. This is what soccer supporters call a “derby,” and for the opening game of the season, that’s kind of a big deal.

The other Carolina USL team, the Wilmington Hammerheads, moved down from the USL to PDL in the offseason, joining our own Charlotte Eagles in the “Premier Development League.” (USL is the second division of American soccer, just below MLS; the PDL has amateur status, and finds itself somewhere below that.) That means Charlotte and Charleston will fight a two-way battle for Carolina supremacy for the first time in 2017.

The cities of Charlotte, NC and Charleston, SC have a long history as Carolina rivals across both sports and culture, but the Independence-Battery version of this rivalry has never really mattered to me. Of course, that’s because the Charlotte Independence have been an infuriating thorn in my side for going on two years now.

If you know me as a fan of soccer and a fan of all things Charlotte, this might surprise you, but I’m guessing if you’re reading this, you’ve heard me complain about the Independence before. I did so regularly over at Zach Hall’s Crown Town Soccer before finally giving up, swearing to forget about the Independence altogether mid-summer 2015.

So I won’t complain any more about them here… haha, of course I will.

The first two seasons of the Independence era in Charlotte, North Carolina have been underwhelming to say the least. And, as crowds hover around 1,000 on a good night in a city of nearly a million, I think I’m not alone in feeling that way. The Independence draw hundreds to their games, while cities like Cincinnati, Sacramento, Louisville, and St. Louis are drawing thousands and tens of thousands. For a club that talked about joining MLS from day one, “Over-Promise and Under-Deliver” could be the motto under the Independence crest.

But I’m going to put all of that behind me in 2017, and I think you should too. No, seriously, I am.

Since the summer of 2014, the Charlotte Independence have been tied to a specific vision of soccer in the Queen City: the vision of landing a Major League Soccer franchise. They launched their USL club promising “the return of soccer to Uptown,” talked endlessly about Memorial Stadium (update: the local paper deleted their video previously linked here after we posted it), and even sold season tickets for their first season in USL by promising you’d “save your spot in line” for MLS tickets when they secured a franchise.

They left the two-time USL champion Charlotte Eagles behind completely when they bought their USL rights, barely acknowledging their existence, because “this new thing was going to be big.” The general vibe around Independence before March 2015 was not “come see a great, well-run, lower-division soccer club,” but instead: “You should be a fan of the Charlotte Independence because you want MLS and we’re going to deliver it… soon.”

Ah, Ramblewood Park. August days in Carolina sure make me want to grab my scarf and sit on hot metal bleachers without shade. How about you?

My family bought full-season tickets and scarves at the launch event behind Hooligans, but before the inaugural season kicked off, we already felt like we were going to regret our commitment. We were disappointed when Memorial Stadium didn’t happen and the club moved around to different stadia in different cities and states in its first months of existence. We were frustrated and bullied as a small number of supporters became aggressive towards anyone who didn’t “support” the club as they did, somehow blaming critical fans’ “high expectations” for the club’s early missteps and failures. And eventually, we asked for and received a refund on our season tickets when we realized the club wouldn’t fully deliver on the product they promised. (Good on the club for giving refunds at all, much appreciated.)

But I said I wasn’t going to complain, didn’t I? Haha. Sorry. Let’s put all of that behind us: the last two years, the “sausage party” jokes, everything….

Because in January of 2017, the soccer game in CLT changed forever.

A new voice appeared in the Charlotte soccer conversation as the Smith family of NASCAR fame and fortune threw their hat into the MLS expansion ring. Friends have written extensively about their #MLS4CLT bid elsewhere; I won’t get into that here.

But the professional sports experience and deep pockets of the Smith family took the MLS focus away from the minor-league Independence front office… and that’s an incredibly lucky opportunity.

Without being tied to their grandiose promises of MLS (soon! we promise! keep buying gear and season tickets!), the Independence can now be taken at face value: as the minor league soccer club, operating with a minor league soccer staff and budget, that they’ve always been. They currently play at their “temporary” stadium at Ramblewood Park, a stadium that once had (still has?) printer labels for seat numbers and a parking situation that turned away all but the craziest supporters.

But this summer, they’re moving to a suburban park they can make all their own: the Sportsplex at Matthews.

And with two seasons now under their belt, they’re good on the field too. The team has consistency, with third-year head coach Mike Jeffries returning and much of the playoff-caliber side sticking around for 2017. They finished 5th in the 14-team Eastern Conference last season, two points ahead of Charleston. And while they were knocked out of the 2016 playoffs in the first round, away at Rochester, there’s clearly talent there to finish in playoff position again this season. Oh, and each game is streamed on YouTube, for anyone hoping to watch from home.

I love soccer. I edit/manage a blog about Leeds United in the English Championship, I traveled to watch the Women’s World Cup in Ottawa, Canada in 2015, my MLS team in Seattle just won the 2016 MLS Cup, we’re going to follow the NWSL’s North Carolina Courage in 2017 over in Cary whenever we get a chance, and we’ll definitely be Charlotte Eagles season ticket holders again this year.

But the Independence that marketed themselves as an MLS team from the start were an insult to my intelligence, and everyone else’s for that matter. For the last two years, they wanted you to think that giving them your money for their painfully-inferior product was somehow increasing the chances of MLS coming to Charlotte; in fact, it was a necessity, and if you didn’t, it was your fault if MLS never came.

Now, that illusion is completely gone. MLS will happen without them, or it won’t happen at all. Now, finally, we get to see and support the Independence for what they really are: the Queen City’s USL team, a second-division, playoff-caliber club that plays in a great spot in suburban Matthews, ideal for families, available to “young professionals,” and easily accessible to everyone with a car in the Charlotte metropolitan area.

I’ll be there for my first Independence game since August 2015, somewhere in the crowd at the Sportsplex trying to convince my 4-year-old daughter to sit still. And I’ll be watching away games online whenever I get the chance.

If the front office can position themselves correctly with all of that, it’s a huge opportunity for a marketing and fan-relationship reset. Do USL soccer. Do it well. Stop being “edgy” or “beer-focused” or “frat-tastic” on social media. Leave the MLS talk for the big boys, own what you really are, and put out a good overall product on game day, worthy of the price of admission.

If they can do that, they deserve a second chance from all those who gave up on the over-promising, under-delivering mess of the last two years. It’s the world’s game, in one of the fastest-growing, youngest cities in the country. How can you mess that up? Well, now we know how, but it’s time for that to stop. Here’s hoping the front office and its handful of fans welcome the rest of us soccer-loving Charlotteans to Matthews this summer with a professional product and open arms. COYJ.