‘All about the Courage’: Soccer team’s stadium needs at heart of decision to suspend men’s club

CARY – North Carolina FC, the top men’s professional soccer team in the Triangle, is suspending operations after this season with the hopes of returning in 2028 in a new league that plans to compete with Major League Soccer.

But it’s the NC Courage, members of the National Women’s Soccer League, at the heart of the decision. Both teams currently play at the 10,000-seat First Horizon Stadium at WakeMed Soccer Park campus in Cary.

“This is all about the Courage,” said Steve Malik, the chairman of both clubs. 

“They’ve shown that this region can take our roots as one of the original places for women’s soccer in the world – all the college success, the giant youth club. If you grew up in this community, you have a connection to soccer. They’ve shown that, and we do need to address the Courage’s needs, but with the right infrastructure, it can support all kinds of professional soccer, lacrosse and a number of other field sports.”

NCFC currently plays in the United Soccer League’s Championship division. The league is creating a new Division One level to start in 2028. NCFC, whose franchise agreement ends at the end of the season, is focusing its resources on that application process. 

The club is still alive in the 2025 USL Championship playoffs, hosting Rhode Island FC in the Eastern Conference semifinals on Saturday night. With a win, NCFC would host the conference final in Cary.

All of the team’s players will become free agents once the season ends and can continue their careers elsewhere. The club was founded in 2006 as the Carolina Railhawks. 

“As our market continues to grow and be a place that people move here [to] with expectations, we need top-tier sports and we believe that for the men, the right choice for the next 20 years is to apply for USL top division,” Malik said. “And we think that, frankly, the Courage have shown that there’s a big demand for the highest level and we think that the men can benefit from that, too.”

USL, under the U.S. Soccer umbrella, is not associated with Major League Soccer. Charlotte FC, which plays its home games at Bank of America Stadium, is in the MLS.

Franchises in the new Division One must meet minimum standards, including a 15,000-seat stadium and financial viability standards, including ownership wealth. Malik said the club meets all those standards already – except for the stadium capacity.

In 2019, Malik and John Kane of Kane Realty proposed a $2-billion entertainment district development project in downtown Raleigh. The project, which became known as Downtown South, would have featured a 20,00-seat open air stadium and nearly $2 billion in private development, including housing. It has never been built.

But Malik has not given up on the area as a future home to a multi-purpose stadium as the anchor of an entertainment district.

“Obviously I have an interest in Downtown South,” Malik said. “I think that’s a great location, but really it’s about Raleigh and the growth of our region. Frankly, downtown could use an attractor. So that obviously makes some sense, but the entire region is growing. We’re one of the largest metro areas in the country without any kind of downtown stadium, so it does make a lot of sense. But there are other locations as well.”

Lenovo Center, home of the National Hockey League’s Carolina Hurricanes and NC State men’s basketball, is in west Raleigh. Lenovo Center, which opened in 1999, is undergoing a $300-million renovation, and the Hurricanes are developing up to 80 acres around the arena complex. Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon has expressed strong interest in trying to bring a Major League Baseball franchise to the region.

The Courage moved to Cary in 2017 and won three consecutive regular-season championships. The Courage captured playoff titles in 2018 and 2019. The franchise has not advanced past the first round of the playoffs since. 

The Courage drew 11,000 for its regular-season finale on November 2. The club won the game, but narrowly missed out on the playoffs for just the second time since moving to NC.  Average attendance for teams in the NWSL for the 2025 regular season was 10,669, more than capacity for the Courage.

“We broke the stadium,” Malik said of the final game. “We have outgrown our infrastructure and shown it all year long through the Courage. You can’t have merch lines that are unable to get through during a game. You have to be able to serve concessions. You have to have a number of amenities that are at a pro level. And frankly, if we do that with the Courage, it makes sense for as many events as we can have in a facility like that to bring the highest economic impact.”

Among the possibilities, Malik said, are men’s soccer, pro lacrosse and the United Football League, a spring league.

NWSL Commissioner Jessica Berman told WRAL in an exclusive interview in September that supporting owners’ efforts for new stadiums and other investment efforts is one of her top priorities.

“Our clubs are examining the foundations of their business,” Berman said. “And when you boil it down to the basics in any sport, the number one more important building block is infrastructure. So you look at your training facility and you look at your stadium and you ask yourself, is that going to set you up for success?”

Malik said the Courage’s finances have played a role in how the club has approached its roster construction, opting for younger players and development. The team has three players born in 2005. Malik said the team is the youngest in the league.

“We did that on purpose,” he said. “We wanted to be in a position to develop talent and take us to the next level. When you don’t draw as well as Los Angeles or some of the bigger markets and you don’t have all the premium suites that some of those have, you have got to be able to develop players.”

Capitol Broadcasting Company, which owns WRAL, has an ownership stake in the Courage. In 2023, CBC increased its investment and received a seat on the Courage Board of Directors.

Malik said NCFC would look to take on additional investors as it pursues membership in Division One. He said the club wants to be part of the original group of teams announced. Men’s soccer clubs in Louisville and Pittsburgh have applied to join USL Division One. Clubs in Detroit and Sacramento have plans to expand their stadium capacity to meet the standard.