Sports in Charlotte

[RugbyPike#11]

7 hours ago, Hushpuppy321 said:

Very interesting turn of events indeed.  I’d still be shocked if they play at BOA because average attendance numbers for MLR are so low, like around 2,500 - I wonder if Tepper is involved since his team owns the Stadium.  

I hope Tepper is not involved in any way.  I'm completely guessing and I don't have any inside information on this, but maybe he's offering a relative discount on the stadium as an MLR venue as part of a broader deal for when the RWC comes to the US?  Totally speculating again, maybe because World Rugby is involved with the team, we could host a series of international friendlies as part of a double-header with the Charlotte MLR matches? Unless there's something else going on, BOA as the venue would be baffling.

The average league attendance is pretty low, I think in part because some teams have moved venues and not done a particularly good job of marketing. Even if we double that 2,500 attendance figure, have 5,000 people per game, and only open the lower bowl of BOA, the stadium is going to feel as empty as... a Panthers game this season.  5,000 people in Memorial Stadium would be a much better gameday atmosphere.  We'll see what happens. I'll still try to catch all the matches!

[RugbyPike#11]

The official announcement for Charlotte's new Major League Rugby team is out!

https://anthemrc.com/news/mlr-world-rugby-usa-rugby-forge-historic-partnership/

And I am absolutely thrilled to see that the venue will be Memorial Stadium and NOT Bank of America Stadium as it was listed on the schedule that was previously released to players.  

[victory]

As a former rugby player, I am stoked about the news Charlotte is getting  an MLR expansion team. I live in Cola, so its only about an hour and a half away. I hope to take in a few matches.  Honestly, I'd rather go to Memorial Stadium than the BOA. Parking will be less of a headache, and surely ticket prices will be more in the average Joe's range. Plus, the beer there will be just as cold.

Edited January 19 by victory

[KJHburg]

what is the name of this new Rugby team Anthem?

 

[Hushpuppy321]

If Charlotte gets the Major League Lacrosse Team back, will Memorial Stadium be able to host all of the games between High School Football, MLR, MLL, Independence Soccer and a possible Woman’s Soccer Team?  Sounds like a lot for the venue and with overlapping seasons.

[kermit]

11 hours ago, Hushpuppy321 said:

If Charlotte gets the Major League Lacrosse Team back, will Memorial Stadium be able to host all of the games between High School Football, MLR, MLL, Independence Soccer and a possible Woman’s Soccer Team?  Sounds like a lot for the venue and with overlapping seasons.

I agree, it does sound like a lot, but it does make the decision to renovate Memorial look like a really good one.

The PLL web presence is pretty hinky. As best I can tell the only pro lacrosse here this year is scheduled for June 7-9. https://premierlacrosseleague.com/schedule  I am having a hard time getting on board with the PLL's really non-traditional 'team' schedule, its more like a wrestling tour than team play.

One other event heading to Memorial this summer, the ACC Lax tournament will be there from May 3-5

As for rugby:

Quote

The Charlotte team will play 16 games this season, ending in late June.

The team's first game, which will be at home, is scheduled for March 3 against the New England Free Jacks.

Weather permitting, I'll be at that first match. It should be easy to find me, I'll be the guy with the beer.

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2024/01/22/charlotte-lands-major-league-rugby-expansion-team.html

Edited January 23 by kermit

[InSouthPark]

On 1/19/2024 at 3:58 PM, victory said:

As a former rugby player, I am stoked about the news Charlotte is getting  an MLR expansion team. I live in Cola, so its only about an hour and a half away. I hope to take in a few matches.  Honestly, I'd rather go to Memorial Stadium than the BOA. Parking will be less of a headache, and surely ticket prices will be more in the average Joe's range. Plus, the beer there will be just as cold.

If the tailgates are anything like they were when I played in college (club), this should be a LOT of fun.  Although I think I am a little too old to be running around drunk and naked anymore lol. 

[kermit]

The CBJ says that Gastonia will announce new owners for the Atlantic League Baseball team next week.

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2024/02/01/gastonia-honey-hunters-fuse-atlantic-league.html

If it happens, I will be impressed they were able to pull it off so quickly. The previous owner was working hard to get everything bogged down in bankruptcy court.

[KJHburg]

This is great for my alma mater #2 UNC Charlotte basketball is en fuego!  After attending the game where the 49ers took down a nationally ranked team FAU the atmosphere is electric and college games are so much fun!  

from the Biz Journal:

UNC Charlotte students have waited a long time — as in two decades — for relevancy in men’s basketball. And no one saw it coming this season, given that the team’s former head coach, Ron Sanchez, resigned abruptly last summer to go back to Virginia as an assistant coach, the same job he was in for nine seasons prior to becoming the 49ers’ head coach in 2018.

Sanchez’s departure set off a scramble that ended with assistant coach Aaron Fearne being named Sanchez’s successor on an interim basis for 2023-24. Given the turmoil, and Charlotte’s mostly subpar seasons during the past decade, expectations were low as the school began its first year in the American Athletic Conference.  

Even last season, with 22 wins, the Niners were an afterthought, finishing fifth in Conference USA. Yes, they went on a nice streak at the end of the season and won the Discount Tire College Basketball Invitational, but have you ever heard anyone mourn or celebrate a Discount Tire College Basketball Invitational bracket-buster? Did you even know what it was before reading this paragraph?

Things look decidedly different this winter: Charlotte is 13-7 on the season and 7-1 in conference and on Saturday afternoon, the 49ers will play East Carolina at Halton Arena, where they’re expecting their largest crowd in five years. The previous high came in 2022 against Appalachian State, when 5,148 fans attended. Capacity at Halton Arena is 8,100 (down from 9,100 in past years because of revamped seating configurations).

As for #Fearneville? That’s what students have dubbed their tent village, where they will be camping out Friday night to get the best seats for Saturday’s game. Students at UNC Charlotte camping out for a basketball game is akin to the cicadas that appear every 17 years.

Fearne and Athletic Director Mike Hill plan to bring breakfast supplied by 49ers sponsor Bojangles to students Saturday morning as part of #Fearneville festivities outside the arena. 

The Niners have won seven consecutive games and are tied for first in the American Athletic Conference, circumstances that have fired up students and fans alike.

“It’s been amazing and really fun to see,” Hill told CBJ. “Because it’s a fan base that loves basketball so much and has been so hungry for excitement and for meaningful games.” 
 

The Niners reached the Final Four in 1977 — still their lone trip to college basketball’s championship weekend — and developed a loyal following while playing in the shadows of the sport’s royalty nearby, including Duke and UNC Chapel Hill.""

Charlotte 49ers target revenue gains as men's basketball flashes potential - Charlotte Business Journal (bizjournals.com)  Cornbread Maxwell in '77!

[KJHburg]

Go see a winner they are few and far between here in Charlotte UNC Charlotte basketball.  Over 8400 today in Halton Arena.

 

[CLT2014]

Spectrum Center will host the ACC Men's Basketball Championship in 2025, 2026, and 2028. Greensboro will host in 2027 and 2029. 

[kermit]

Gastonia managed to navigate the disastrous ownership and bankruptcy of their first baseball team owners and they now have a new owner in place and will have a team playing in the Atlantic league this approaching season. Very impressed Gastonia managed to work through a complicated legal process with an uncooperative counter party so quickly.

I'll certainly go to a couple of games next year, but I really don’t understand the business model of the Atlantic league, I just don’t get where the player salary money comes from in the absence of major league affiliates. Given that Gastonia was able to find a new owner so quickly, I guess there is money to be made in the league somehow.

https://businessnc.com/gastonia-gets-a-new-baseball-team-and-a-promise-to-pay-old-debts/

 

 

Edited February 9 by kermit

[QCxpat]

Today's CBJ "Charlotte FC unveils new uniform as it kicks off merch campaign" by Erik Spanberg

Excerpts: "Charlotte FC released its redesigned primary jersey and uniform this morning, kicking off a new merchandise campaign at the same time."  "Each of the 29 Major League Soccer teams has a primary uniform and an alternate uniform.  Designs are updated every two years on a staggered basis.  In 2023, Charlotte FC’s alternate uniforms were redesigned."  "The primary jersey and uniform — kit in soccer terms — is worn for a majority of home matches and some road games.  MLS apparel company Adidas and Charlotte FC collaborated on the new look, which eschews the home jersey’s solid Carolina blue on the front torso in favor of a wavy gradient pattern of blues that fade into a white top and sleeves."

"The jersey front includes black lettering and accents with the Adidas logo on the left chest and Charlotte FC’s crest on the right.  Lead sponsor Ally Financial, Inc. (NYSE: ALLY) continues to have its name and font featured most prominently.  The back of the jersey continues to be Carolina blue with white numbers and letters identifying each player, topped by a black, interlocking silhouette of North and South Carolina."  "Alexandra Schmidt, Charlotte FC’s senior manager of brand marketing, told CBJ that the wavy pattern of gradient blues on the front of the jersey are meant to evoke the signature geography and topography of North and South Carolina: the beaches along the Atlantic Ocean and the Blue Ridge Mountains."

"Online jersey presales began this morning; the stadium team store will begin selling the new gear Feb. 19, the same day presale buyers can pick up their items at the stadium.  The MLS online store will begin accepting orders Feb. 17."

"Charlotte FC will wear the new uniforms Feb. 24 in the season opener against NYCFC at Bank of America Stadium." 

 

• Adilson Malanda models the new Charlotte FC primary uniform.  Image Bee Trofort by CBJ

 

Link:  https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2024/02/12/charlotte-fc-uniform-mls-soccer-adidas-tepper.html

Edited February 12 by QCxpat

[eastsider]

That is a huge improvement.

[kermit]

 

I have no idea if this is accurate, but its really a shame following what was a pretty great season for the Niners. IMO, national, but identityless conferences (this is happening to every conference other than the SEC and the Sunbelt) are going to be the thing that kills college sports for me.

Edited March 18 by kermit

[videtur quam contuor]

delete

Edited March 16 by videtur quam contuor

[Rufus]

On 3/16/2024 at 1:16 PM, kermit said:

 

I have no idea if this is remotely accurate, but its really a shame following what was a pretty great season for the niners. IMO, national, but identityless conferences (this is happening to every conference other than the SEC and the Sunbelt) are going to be the thing that kills college sports.

Off topic, but this is a result from conferences trying to capitalize on Texas even though most conference teams are east coast based. Pretty soon it may be the ACC Basketball Championship in Dallas now that SMU is in the conference. Could you imagine? 

[videtur quam contuor]

Remember when the ACC championship football game was in Florida? The team participating each year did not know if it qualified or opponent until after the Saturday prior to the game. Then all fans had to make arrangements within six days and travel hundreds of miles to Jacksonville or Tampa. The Florida native fans had minimal interest in Syracuse-Clemson and after 2-3 years of embarrassing attendance and far below promised hotel/tax/tourism spending common sense intervened.

I am sure that whatever Fort Worth promised the AAC, or vice-versa, each party is now questioning the rationality of a four year deal which has two more years to run. I grant that it brings several thousand visitors to Ft Worth at an otherwise dead time of year. However the embarrassment of hosting ONLY the teams/administrators/parents  per team (see post from kermit above) and a few hundred spectators per game will outweigh the "benefit" of the arrangement. How many of us knew Fort Worth was the location of the tourney?

The other side of that is the first two years the CIAA was here in Charlotte when all uptown restaurants and attractions learned they had to reschedule their hours and attractions due to the crowds. I know a man who owned a restaurant and he rented it to a group of CIAA people for a private closed event one night of the tournament and his bartenders said they made more money in that night than in two weeks of regular work. Extra large orders of top shelf liquor for the event. And nearly no bad behavior. 

edit: The first year of CIAA I went to Opera on a Saturday night uptown and viewing the situation with some perspective in time it was a humorous experience. Not at the moment it occurred.

Edited March 18 by videtur quam contuor

[Rufus]

12 minutes ago, videtur quam contuor said:

The other side of that is the first two years the CIAA was here in Charlotte when all uptown restaurants and attractions learned they had to reschedule their hours and attractions due to the crowds. I know a man who owned a restaurant and he rented it to a group of CIAA people for a private closed event one night of the tournament and his bartenders said they made more money in that night than in two weeks of regular work. Extra large orders of top shelf liquor for the event. And nearly no bad behavior. 

edit: The first year of CIAA I went to Opera on a Saturday night uptown and viewing the situation with some perspective in time it was a humorous experience. Not at the moment it occurred.

Here's the thing though: the CIAA held its tournament at Spectrum Center (then known as Bobcats Arena), and the Women's tournament was at Bojangles, which is hardly that far from Uptown. 

The Dickies Arena (not making the joke, but damn) in Fort Worth is in the area of the stockyards, with the only relevant draws being three art museums, and the Will Rogers Center. It's nowhere near downtown or any other activity center. And I can say that the CUSA Men's Tournament was held in an even worse location, Frisco, Texas, at the arena on the Cowboys Headquarters in the middle of pure suburbia. Both tournaments attracted fans in the hundreds...not the thousands like the CIAA. There are distinct differences, and it is unfortunate bc these smaller arenas could be great centers, but they are surrounded by nothingness (no offense to the Kimball and Fort Worth art museums which are glorious architecturally). 

[kermit]

Eric Spanberg has an AMAZING recounting of how Charlotte got the 1994 Final Four in today’s CBJ. There is very little discussion of basketball (Arkansas beat duke, and a sitting President was in attendance) but tons of discussion of how the ‘Charlotte way’ worked and how civic engagement was much more of a public-private partnership back then. This is a highly recommended read for anyone with an interest in the history of urban change in Charlotte.

I was in grad school in Georgia at the time. As a North Carolinian,  I remember bristling at one of the stories about the Final Four  in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The sports writer  unapologetically referred to Charlotte as ‘the city that always sleeps’ when describing the Walk of Champions facade created on Tryon street for the game.

Quote

Organizers of that Final Four still remember the Secret Service and security headaches that accompanied Clinton’s visit. They recalled Charlotte’s Erskine Bowles being withthe president in one of the arena’s 12 luxury boxes; Bowles, at the time, was running the Small Business Administration in Washington as part of Clinton’s administration and would go on to be his chief of staff.

Bowles, searching his memory 30 years later, thought that Hugh McColl, then the CEO of what was known as NationsBank — still four years away from gobbling up Bank of America in a decidedly unequal merger — must have been there, too.

McColl cleared up matters for CBJ when asked about visiting the president’s luxury box during the championship game.

“A more accurate statement would be he was in my box,” McColl said, relishing every word. “He was in my box.”

McColl then off-handedly recalled Walmart heiress and philanthropist Alice Walton, a friend and supporter of the Clintons and the university, wearing Razorback red as part of a presidential contingency that included Bowles and White House counselor David Gergen, a Durham native and avid fan of Duke University. The Charlotte Observerreported that former Mayor Harvey Gantt and Congressman Mel Watt had joined McColl and the president in the suite for the semifinal games two days earlier.

https://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/news/2024/03/21/ncaa-final-four-march-madness-college-basketball.html

 

Edited March 22 by kermit

[videtur quam contuor]

In addition to the (somewhat) Potemkin village that was created on Tryon there was a FInal Four Extravaganza in the convention center which at that time was where Epicenter is now. I went with a 14 year old family member visiting from Florida (for family reasons) and she was excited to see the many activities such as three point contest, free throws, dunking on a low rim, plenty of fair food, a chance to see oneself on a tv screen with a network camera crew showing their equipment and other stuff I cannot recall. Something to tell her friends when she returned. It was rather fun for me also and not only because both of us had time away from the rest of the family for a few hours. Parking was plentiful as there were SO MANY more surface spaces at that time compared to now.

We walked down South Tryon and it was less interesting than the Extravaganza. More adult/visitor oriented than the family atmosphere.  It was an image of what could be in the future of Charlotte. As with Imaginon, Library, and Discovery Place, when children and families are connected with the fabric of the center city anywhere that is a good thing, without qualification.

[rancenc]

New soccer complex breaks ground in Pineville.

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/finance/news/charlotte-soccer-academy-breaks-ground-145142730.html

[eastsider]

That story is 10 years old.

[KJHburg]

I wish our sports teams would go back to this.  This is the most successful pro sports team in NC the Hurricanes.

Canes End Regular Season Having Sold Out Each Home Game | Carolina Hurricanes (nhl.com)

[kermit]

The Gastonia Atlantic League Baseball team is still nameless, they say they will audition possible team names in each of the first seven homestands. The first name (May 14-19) will be:

Makes me think of MoonPies, Sundrop  and Fish Camps. Its a 3 out of 10 for me, but I don't hate it.

I am impressed they were able to find new ownership and get things going for this season.

Edited April 22 by kermit