CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The push to bring a Major League Baseball team to North Carolina is getting a big endorsement from one of the state's biggest sports investors.
Tom Dundon, the owner of the Carolina Hurricanes, says he wants North Carolina to be looked at as one of the top places that MLB could place its next team in.
"It's the only thing we're kind of missing if you look at the size of the state and the support of the teams," Dundon said in an interview with WRAL. "It sort of feels obvious."
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has expressed interest in adding two more teams to the league. Manfred's only concerns previously were to handle the Oakland A's and the Tampa Bay Rays, which both play in subpar stadiums for MLB standards. With the A's announcing a move to Las Vegas and the Rays set to get a new stadium in 2028, attention is now set once again on expanding MLB.
Charlotte, Nashville, Portland, and Montreal are typically the four cities most expected to attract a team. Dundon expressed that getting the team to move to Raleigh is more convenient for him but acknowledges the state should put the team in the city that makes the most sense for everyone.
"We've got to, just as a state, put our best foot forward, and wherever that is, wherever we think is our best chance, then I think that's where everyone would focus," Dundon said.
The Queen City is home to the Carolina Panthers, Charlotte Hornets, Charlotte FC, and Charlotte Motor Speedway. All of these attractions consistently bring in huge crowds and prove the area can support sports teams, even when the onfield performance is not at its best.
Regarding baseball, the Charlotte Knights have held some of the top attendance records in Minor League Baseball for several years playing at Truist Field in Uptown.
One group is looking to make sure that any future MLB team in NC would be placed in Charlotte.
Hayden Peterson is the visionary behind the Charlotte MLB Project, a grassroots movement to get a major league team in the Queen City.
"For Charlotte to be the size that it is and the location that it is, it just seems like the perfect fit that we're missing out [on baseball.]", said Peterson.
Peterson has open discussions on social media about what a hypothetical Charlotte MLB team would be named, their color scheme, and what stadium they would play in. He believes it's a good way to show that there is interest in Charlotte for an MLB team.
MLB has not added an expansion team since the Tampa Bay Rays were added in 1998. Regardless, Peterson believes an MLB team come to Charlotte within this decade.
Both Dundon and Peterson were adamant that more people need to be involved to build momentum for an MLB team to come to North Carolina.
"Now it's just starting to put a process together to understand what the landscape is. What are the choices the league would be looking for if you were them," said Dundon.