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Amping up the pregame: Charlotte FC goes big with more fireworks, flame towers, guards and a new trumpet player; drawing from ‘Game of Thrones,’ ‘Star Wars’
New pyrotechnics encircling the upper deck at Bank of America Stadium add to Charlotte FC’s “intimate” atmosphere. (Photo courtesy of Charlotte FC.)
Justin Drum, Charlotte FC’s director of event presentation and production, says his philosophy on pre-game programming is “Game of Thrones”-meets-soccer-meets WrestleMania.
He and his team have gone even more medieval this year, while surrounding Bank of America Stadium with WrestleMania-worthy pyrotechnics to fire up the pre-game setting for Charlotte FC games. They’re using more flame towers, more knight characters and a two-part hype video to help Charlotte FC amp up the energy, as the club shifts to lower bowl-only seating throughout the MLS schedule.
Charlotte FC fans are known for jumping up and down to the Poznan right before kickoff, and for their energy in one of Major League Soccer’s best in-game atmospheres. What Drum and a team of 25 in the production booth and 12 more working on the field focus on is building anticipation to that point.
“The goal is to feel like a crescendo to kickoff, and then let fans take it the rest of the way,” Drum said.
Here are 5 changes his team has made this season:
1. More pyro
With a nod to Christopher Walken and his “Saturday Night Live” plea for “more cowbell,” Charlotte FC wanted more pyro.
If you’ve been to one of the first three home games at Bank of America Stadium this season and noticed that the atmosphere is a little hotter, it’s because it is.
They moved two “pyro shots,” or tubes that shoot fireworks and smoke and other pyrotechnics, from the top of the videoboards at each end of the stadium to the base of the 500 section. Along with those four, they installed four more pyro shots, as Drum calls them, along with six new flame towers. Those are the black cylinders where flames shoot out behind each goal when Charlotte FC scores. Now, the lower deck is encircled by a ring of fire — Johnny Cash reference for the win?
Yes, the fire marshal was called when they tested it over the winter. And yes, he has approved everything. Drum said the only big concern was the height of the flame towers and whether high winds might blow them over, but that was resolved by bolting them into areas normally used for upper deck ADA seating during football games.
The guard and two ominous-looking men-at-arms prepare to light the pre-game cauldron. (Photo: Kevin Young/The 5 and 2 Project.)
2. More knights!
Charlotte FC has added more menacing-looking characters to its own round table of medieval-looking warriors. “The guard” was unveiled two years ago. He’s an armor-wearing intimidator who strides onto the field and lights a cauldron to signal the start of the battle in “The Fortress.”
Last year, an accompanying man-at-arms was added. This year, the guard is accompanied by as many as four more knights, all in black, standing in formation as the players take the field for pregame introductions.
“I’m a big sci-fi movie nerd, so I love ‘Star Wars,’” Dunn says. “So I viewed our guard as Darth Vader and our men-at-arms as his Imperial Guard. Then I viewed these guys as Stormtroopers.”
The stormtroopers help address “scale,” making an NFL stadium play more intimately.
Adding more elements is entertaining, and not just to fans. Drum enjoys seeing players’ reactions, too.
“I always love to see the photos of the guys when they come out right after the guard walks out because they just, they all have this look on their face like, ‘What is happening?’” Drum said.
Charlotte Symphony Orchestra’s principal trumpeter Alex Wilborn performing the national anthem. (Photo: Robert Taylor/The 5 and 2 Project)
3. Anthem accompaniment
Not every change is a slam dunk, and Drum and his team have had to weigh making changes against tinkering with tradition. Charlotte FC has started using a trumpet player to accompany fans during the national anthem. As you might recall, fans have sung the anthem a cappella from about the third verse since the microphone went out on the anthem singer the night of Charlotte FC’s record-setting inaugural home opener in 2022.
Drum said the club wants to honor that tradition while also helping the crowd stay synced up as it sings, an issue brought up in fan feedback.
“Some people talked about having the cadence of the building feeling off, people singing at different paces and times,” Drum said. “It's really hard to keep everybody singing the same when there's 35,000 of them, all spaced out in different areas. With a trumpet player, we're not overpowering or blowing anybody away. We’re allowing them to still sing, but giving us more of that back line.”
Drum borrowed the idea for a trumpeter from the Dallas Cowboys, who had trumpeter Freddie Jones playing the anthem for 13 years. Playing for Charlotte FC is Alex Wilborn, principal trumpeter for the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra and a native of Cookeville, Tenn. He’s been wearing a Charlotte FC kit that matches whatever the team is wearing that night.
Through the first three home games, the team has received both positive and negative feedback about the change, Drum said, but it’s trending toward more positive.
4. Two-part hype video
Charlotte FC’s history of award-winning pre-game hype videos has been a tall task to try to replicate. This year, Drum and team decided to divide it into two parts about four or five minutes apart. The reasoning? “It’s really hard in a two-minute-and-30-second video to storytell, set the table, incorporate players and also drive energy.”
This season, they’re featuring a 45-second video set to ominous music as a table-setter for fans entering the stadium, establishing the setting as a fortress, and players preparing. A second video segment played about four or five minutes later features music with a harder beat and visuals with players showing more emotion, meant to create tension and anticipation.
[Below: Charlotte FC won the 2022 Golden Matrix Award for Best Overall Video Production in Soccer at the IDEA Conference for its “Protect Our Fortress” in-stadium hype video made with TriGlass Productions.]
5. Halftime entertainment
In the past, the extent of halftime entertainment for those not making bathroom and beer runs was watching the sprinklers water the turf while sponsor videos played on the jumbotron. That’s changed this year, as Charlotte FC has featured a halftime drone shown, has plans for a lights show, and two weeks ago at halftime of the New York Red Bulls game featured a team of Sir Minty and other local mascots taking on kids from the Charlotte Soccer Academy.
Roll call, etc.
For the first few weeks of the season, new center back Morrison Agyemang requested to go by his first name only, using “Morrison” on the back of the jersey instead of his last name. Charlotte FC was happy to oblige. The problem was that it threw off pre-game introductions because the PA uses a call and response to go through Charlotte FC’s starting lineup. Normally, the announcer says a player’s first name and the crowd responds with his last name. The quandary need not continue, though. The young defender has decided to use Agyemang.
New center back Henry Kessler nearing return
Center back Henry Kessler in a preseason practice with Charlotte FC. (Photo courtesy of Charlotte FC.)
Henry Kessler hasn’t gotten the introduction to Charlotte FC he would want — “it’s not ideal” — he said this week, but the MLS veteran center back is nearing a return from his preseason hamstring injury. Kessler played 45 minutes of a Crown Legacy scrimmage last weekend and is scheduled to get more minutes tonight when Charlotte’s MLS Next Pro team takes on Atlanta United 2 in Matthews.
“I'm looking forward to the rest of the season,” Kessler said this week, after returning to full practice with Charlotte FC. “ I feel like the team's off to a decent start, so hopefully I can help out, too.”
Kessler, 27, has played seven seasons in MLS with New England and St. Louis. He said he had options both in MLS and overseas but chose Charlotte FC, which had a need at center back after the departure of Adilson Malanda, in part because of Coach Dean Smith and his reputation as a former center back.
“I think it was a good fit,” Kessler said. “A good coach that I felt like could help me improve.”
Kessler played college soccer at the University of Virginia. He’s originally from New York (he grew up in Manhattan), though he doesn’t sound like it.
“Some people expect a really thick Brooklyn, or Long Island accent,” Kessler said with a smile. “I don't have one of those.”
He said he’s spent much of the last two months living out of a suitcase but has enjoyed exploring Charlotte by walking streets in South End, uptown and Plaza Midwood. He also took in a Hornets game with his new Charlotte FC teammates.
Charlotte FC to face Charlotte Independence in ‘Derby’ matchup in U.S. Open Cup
Finally, a spicy matchup for Charlotte FC in the U.S. Open Cup. The Round of 32 draw was announced Thursday, and Charlotte FC will face its pro soccer predecessor here, the Charlotte Independence, of USL League One. The matchup will be held at the Mecklenburg County Sportsplex in Matthews on April 15 at 7:30 p.m.
If Charlotte FC wins, it would have a chance to potentially host Atlanta United in the Round of 16. While facing Atlanta would be a truer MLS rival, only a local opponent counts as a “Derby.”
For more on the English term for a local rivalry game, American fans can learn about its origin from this BBC article, which said it’s up for debate whether it can be traced back to the Earl of Derby, or the town of Derby. Since this is Easter weekend, we’ll go with Edward Stanley, the 19th Earl of Derby, who told BBC’s Newsround that the term originated from rugby league:
It wasn't from football at all. On our family's Knowsley Estate, you had St. Helens at the southern end, and the town of Wigan at the northern end. At Easter, a game was arranged between the two sides, which became known as the local derby.
Up next: Charlotte FC (2-1-2) vs. Philadelphia Union (0-5-0)
When/Where: 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Bank of America Stadium
How to watch: Apple TV. Find information about how to subscribe here.
How to listen: WFNZ 92.7 in English, WOLS 106.1 in Spanish.
Notable
Charlotte FC is coming off a 6-1 win over the New York Red Bulls, which set club records for goals scored and margin of victory. It’s been two weeks since then, though, given an international break.
Tim Ream returns from duty with the U.S. Men’s national team, where he played in the first of two exhibitions, and gave up a hand ball for a penalty in a 5-2 loss to Belgium. He did not play on Tuesday for Mauricio Pochettino, which Smith said he was “rather pleased about,” because it meant Ream would be fully rested for Saturday’s game with Charlotte.
For the second straight game, Wilfried Zaha is sitting on four yellow cards, which means the next one he gets will result in a one-game suspension. He played card-free against the New York Red Bulls on March 21 after getting booked in each of Charlotte’s first four games.
Smith brought on a new assistant coach this week, Karl Hooper, who will specialize in set pieces, or dead ball plays like free kicks and corner kicks. It’s an area Smith has wanted to see improvement in, at least offensively. Hooper spent the last six seasons with Smith’s former Premier League club, Aston Villa, where he worked most recently as Villa’s Assistant Under-21 and Professional Development Phase coach.
It’s been a brutal start for the defending Supporters’ Shield winners from Philadelphia, who have yet to collect a point in the team’s first five MLS games. Gone are defenders Kai Wagner and Jakob Glesnes, as well as Israeli forward Tai Baribo. And midfielder Quinn Sullivan is injured.
Former Charlotte FC midfielder Ben Bender has played in three games off the bench for the Union. Former Charlotte FC reserve goalkeeper George Marks is playing with Philadelphia’s MLS Next Pro team.
Nikola Petkovic, who is on loan from Charlotte with the Seattle Sounders, tore his anterior cruciate knee ligament and is out for the remainder of the season.
Carroll Walton is a longtime baseball writer with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution now in her fifth season covering Charlotte FC. She would love to hear from you. E-mail her with questions, suggestions, story ideas and comments!