Speaking to Herbert White at The Charlotte Post last week, Charlotte City Council member James Mitchell said that Marcus Smith and MLS4CLT will have to wait until Fall 2017 at the earliest for funding approval.

“If they can wait until probably 2018, I think you can have a council that would be willing to be back at the table.”

Mitchell cited last year’s death of Keith Lamont Scott and the ensuing protests as the largest deciding factor for why the City Council didn’t vote on MLS stadium funding in January after the Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners voted to spend their share of the $175 million cost.

“September (2016) changed the city of Charlotte,” Mitchell said. “When we had the [unrest] in our community, I think City Council said that our priorities are workforce development, trust and accountability and affordable housing. Soccer’s timing is probably wrong right now. “I think if we do those things great by August or early September, then I think soccer will be more favorable to City Council. “When the discussion came up in January, a lot of council members were very upset,” he said. “We had two weeks to make a decision to spend $43 million while we felt those other three objectives were not being addressed. …I’m not saying it’s off the table. I think council members want to do those three things to have a greater benefit to the community before they invest $43 million into soccer.”

Any MLS fan upset by this should, frankly, take a seat and shut the hell up.

$43.75 million of tax-funded money, regardless of what it has been appropriated to be spent for, is a lot of money. Charlotte as a city is still experiencing the effects of last September — the politicians who run our city have pressure to address the community’s concerns.

That is going to take a focus of energy and funding.

A soccer stadium doesn’t help the city with workforce development, trust and accountability, or affordable housing right now. There should be real conversations about if the funding for a MLS stadium would actually create setbacks in the city’s priorities.

So, right now, we should all just wait and let our city leaders make wise decisions about the future of Charlotte.