What is this feeling? It’s barely recognizable… I haven’t felt this in a long time. It feels like… hope!

Marcus Smith, the local mega-millionare looking to bring a MLS franchise to Charlotte, hadn’t formally announced what his stadium plan was — I’ve had a few ideas, but the Charlotte soccer Twitter scene all agreed that Memorial Stadium in Elizabeth was still the best option.

Smith seems to agree and is pushing through a plan with the county and city to renovate the entire property — all for a cool $190 million.

Hey there, Marcus. Photo Credit: youtube.com

WSOC and Erik Spanberg are both reporting that government officials are already getting briefed on Smith’s proposal with more happening early next week.

The plan is this: tear down the existing structure and the Grady Cole Center, saving the “historic” stone wall that lines the existing field and is the facilities main aesthetic feature. The city would need to put in $50 million from the hotel/motel tax, the county would need $50 million from their general fund, and Smith would pay for the rest. Smith would also pay for the $150 million expansion fee himself.

There has been no vote; nothing has been decided yet. But the fact that a proposal was seen by the county commissioners this week while Jim McPhilliamy and Charlotte Independence’s proposal was put on hold before Christmas speaks volumes.

So does this:

That’s Charlotte mayor Jennifer Roberts publicly supporting Smith’s bid. Mayor Roberts attended an Independence game this past season, but beat around the bush when it came to actually throwing her support behind their MLS ambitions. She tweeted this just minutes after the CBJ and WSOC released their reports.

Then there was this from The Charlotte Post’s Ashley Mahoney:

What a gut punch for McPhilliamy and company. They’ve been operating at million dollar losses for the past two years all while saying they were doing the work behind the scenes to bring in investors and get Memorial Stadium renovated. Now Marcus Smith walks in, says “I can do that and I don’t need you.”

He isn’t wrong, by the way. All Charlotte Independence and its owners have is a brand that isn’t recognizable to even a lot of the casual soccer fans in Charlotte.

Smith can start from scratch and apparently do all the political stuff without McPhilliamy and his group.

If all of this happens, and I don’t know if it will, but if it does, there deserves to be some kind of post-mortem on Charlotte Independence.

What was going on for the past three years that got them essentially nowhere with the city that allowed Marcus Smith to come in and box them out?

What kept the team from being a known factor in the city and therefore a bargaining chip to try and work with Smith?

Why was the city so quick to hit pause on McPhilliamy’s plan when they’ve scheduled closed-door sessions with Smith?

All of those deserve answers at some point, and there will be more speculation about Charlotte Independence and their short- and long-term future with this news.

The news coming out today should also put other potential MLS cities, especially Raleigh, on alert. Nothing that has happened over the past three years matters when judging Charlotte: a MLS team in Charlotte won’t have anything to do with Charlotte Independence.