The Major League Soccer era began in Charlotte on Tuesday morning, not with a bang, but with a baritone.



Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper, who was awarded MLS’s 30th expansion team in just his second year of NFL ownership, burst into song at the lectern during the ceremony at the Mint Muesum in Uptown Charlotte.



His song — an adaptation of “Heartbreak Hotel” — was a love song for Charlotte, the city in which Tepper has made a home, begun to overhaul the NFL franchise for which he paid a record $2.25 billion cash and hopes to reshape into a “destination sports city” in the years to come.



“Charlotte,” he said, to a room filled with almost 100 media members, city council members, city leaders and about 60 fans from two separate supporter groups, “are you ready to party?!”



Tepper will pay a league-record $300 million to $325 million expansion fee for the franchise, which hopes to...