Local

World Cup takes center stage during Telemundo Charlotte watch party at Camp North End

CHARLOTTE — Even though this year’s FIFA World Cup will be hosted thousands of miles from Charlotte, hundreds of fans still found ways to celebrate the game in the Queen City.

WSOC’s sister station, Telemundo Charlotte, hosted a Black Friday watch party for a pair of matches at Camp North End, including the United States draw with England.

Elena Lenis took in the games with fellow fans.

“It’s fun to like be here celebrating my friend’s country, I love that we can celebrate all of these things, kind of more than we did in the past,” Lenis said.

The event was put together with the help of Charlotte’s Latin American Coalition and the space provided by Camp North End Canteen. Their owner, Scott Lindsley, said the introduction of professional soccer to Charlotte has brought of sense of community to the city.

“I think fans of the World Cup and fans of football enjoy watching the games in a crowd, in a community,” he said. “Our goal with all of those is to try and bring the Latin immigrant community and the Latin heritage communities together.”

The organizers will be hosting another day of watch parties on Saturday for the France vs. Denmark match at 11 a.m. and the highly-anticipated match between Mexico and Argentina at 2 p.m.

The event is free and open to the public.

(WATCH BELOW: Charlotte nonprofit aiming to use soccer to improve reading skills of students)

Jonathan Lowe

Jonathan Lowe, wsoctv.com

Jonathan is a reporter for WSOC-TV.