The Charlotte 49ers and WCCB have agreed to a three-year deal to televise 49ers home football games, beginning with the 49ers' first game Aug. 31 against Campbell at Richardson Stadium.

The deal was brokered by the 49ers' media rights holder, IMG College.

“We have been working for several months now with WCCB to make these games available to those fans who aren’t able to get out to campus,” Charlotte athletics director Judy Rose said in a statement. “We are thrilled to grow a partnership with (executive VP) Jim Babb and WCCB. Their enthusiasm for our program was apparent from our very first meeting, and we are excited to have them on our team. To be able to televise each of our home games in our very first season speaks to the excitement surrounding our program, and we thank both WCCB-TV and IMG College for their work in making this happen.”

The television partners of Conference USA, which the 49ers will join as a football member in 2015, have first rights to Charlotte's home games, even in 2013 and '14. Should the CUSA partners select any Charlotte games in 2014, WCCB would have first rights to any remaining games.

Read more here: http://gmine.blogspot.com/2013/07/wccb- ... -home.html

RankinApp wrote:The Charlotte 49ers and WCCB have agreed to a three-year deal to televise 49ers home football games, beginning with the 49ers' first game Aug. 31 against Campbell at Richardson Stadium.

The deal was brokered by the 49ers' media rights holder, IMG College.

“We have been working for several months now with WCCB to make these games available to those fans who aren’t able to get out to campus,” Charlotte athletics director Judy Rose said in a statement. “We are thrilled to grow a partnership with (executive VP) Jim Babb and WCCB. Their enthusiasm for our program was apparent from our very first meeting, and we are excited to have them on our team. To be able to televise each of our home games in our very first season speaks to the excitement surrounding our program, and we thank both WCCB-TV and IMG College for their work in making this happen.”

The television partners of Conference USA, which the 49ers will join as a football member in 2015, have first rights to Charlotte's home games, even in 2013 and '14. Should the CUSA partners select any Charlotte games in 2014, WCCB would have first rights to any remaining games.

Read more here: http://gmine.blogspot.com/2013/07/wccb- ... -home.html

Not a huge surprise. WCCB is no longer the Fox station in Charlotte (WJZY is the new Fox station). They are now the station for the CW Network. I knew someone would pick up their games and it makes sense for WCCB to show something to counter WJZY, WSOC, WCNC and WBTV showing college football on Saturday from the major networks.

That's a nice deal for their program and fans considering the schedule and strong showing of interest (ie. attendance). Some 49er fans may miss games due to lack of seating this year and possibly next year. Being able to catch it on the tube could help to maintain their interest until the stadium is expanded. Hopefully Cobb can work a deal and land some regional coverage.

Can Cobb get the program in all the surrounding markets that he pitched from the study?

Ah the beauty of major media markets. Doubt any non-alumni will seek it out, but they could get some viewership from channel surfers or basic cable subscribers expecting Moesha reruns.

What's that? Rain in the forecast? Oh I guess I'll stay home and watch it on tv.

moonshine wrote:That's a nice deal for their program and fans considering the schedule and strong showing of interest (ie. attendance). Some 49er fans may miss games due to lack of seating this year and possibly next year. Being able to catch it on the tube could help to maintain their interest until the stadium is expanded. Hopefully Cobb can work a deal and land some regional coverage.

Can Cobb get the program in all the surrounding markets that he pitched from the study?

"Some 49er fans may miss games due to lack of seating this year and possibly next year." Translation: they can TiVo the game while they're in chapel hole sipping wine and eating cheese.

UNCC if you are not successful in football you should be embarrassed.

A local deep pocket business man has built your stadium and now a local TV network will pick up all your games.

This is like the kid they did anything to build a resume being handed everything. UNCC fans like to play the "slave name" card of UNC-CH holding them back, but every single step along the way to building a football program and gone their way.

Talk about being born with a silver spoon in your mouth.

We'll continue to lace up our boots and pack a lunch as we've always done.

Can see them doing this to build up attention for their program.
But do you really want to show them playing such crappy competition?
Will remind people they have a football program I guess.
Will it increase future attendance? Not sure, maybe.
Guess a lot of former UNCC alums will be reminded they now have a team they could go watch,
or just turn on the TV.

Saint3333 wrote:UNCC if you are not successful in football you should be embarrassed.

A local deep pocket business man has built your stadium and now a local TV network will pick up all your games.

This is like the kid they did anything to build a resume being handed everything. UNCC fans like to play the "slave name" card of UNC-CH holding them back, but every single step along the way to building a football program and gone their way.

Talk about being born with a silver spoon in your mouth.

We'll continue to lace up our boots and pack a lunch as we've always done.

I doubt we would be complaining if we were as fortunate. I hold no ill will towards them based on their good fortune. I do hope once we start playing them that our series is as lopsided as ours is with Western. I have no doubt that this will evolve into a bitter rivalry on the field beyond what currently exists on message boards. But, I certainly can't fault them for taking advantage of their situation.

Oh don't be mistaken, they should enjoy it and you can bet I would want App to do the same in their position.

It isn't complaining, just stating reality. They have had every possible dominoe fall their way.

UNCC is very fortunate to be located where they are. If anything I would be upset with their leaders (as many of them are at Judy) for not being further along in the process. They could have been UCF right now, but timing is everything.

Big deal. Call me when there home games are re-broadcast on MTN.

WCCB is part of my local channel package on U-Verse in Boone. Kind of ironic that UNCC will get more TV coverage in Boone than App State.

Saint3333 wrote:Oh don't be mistaken, they should enjoy it and you can bet I would want App to do the same in their position.

It isn't complaining, just stating reality. They have had every possible dominoe fall their way.

UNCC is very fortunate to be located where they are. If anything I would be upset with their leaders (as many of them are at Judy) for not being further along in the process. They could have been UCF right now, but timing is everything.

We are very frustrated that we are just now getting football started rather than 10 years ago. There was a big push back in 2000 then 9/11 occurred and we were told the money wasn't there. I think what is frustrating to alot of our fans is that Judy and our Chancellor have taken the credit football when it really was the grassroots effort.

I will say Judy has done everything first class since we were given the go ahead for football.

Not so sure their position is all that great. Yes, they are in a large market, but they are going to have to compete for $ with an improving Panthers team and the return of the Hornets in their 2nd season, when UNCC's novelty has worn off. As far as WCCB and viewership, it will be interesting seeing the ratings opposite the ACC and SEC games (hmmm, UNCC-Chowan or South Carolina-Georgia?????). After the first couple of seasons, I just don't know what their non-student/alumni interest will be. Charlotte is a sports town that will support you, as long as it's the "in" thing to do.

After the initial hoopla, sooner or later they will have to live or die by the product they put on the field. That's when major market and corporate sponsorship means squat. Good luck to them, but Judy can only protect them for so long.

I'm becoming less and less interested in them. Sure I'd like to establish a rivalry, but why beg an upstart that has never scored a point. I'm more interested in a successful SoCon victory lap and taking the SunBelt by storm.

GO APPS

Saint3333 wrote:UNCC if you are not successful in football you should be embarrassed.

A local deep pocket business man has built your stadium and now a local TV network will pick up all your games.

This is like the kid they did anything to build a resume being handed everything. UNCC fans like to play the "slave name" card of UNC-CH holding them back, but every single step along the way to building a football program and gone their way.

Talk about being born with a silver spoon in your mouth.

We'll continue to lace up our boots and pack a lunch as we've always done.

You seem pretty level headed, so I want to respond to this. Yes we have been pretty lucky that everything has broken in our favor, but it did not come without a ton of work. The silver spoon line can't be more wrong. We didn't have a team and worked our asses off to make it happen. Many of us invested our own money in the push to football, bankrolling merchandise and ads to get the movement going. While Jerry's cash was certainly helpful, to say he built the stadium is also quite wrong. We had 5,000 people pay at least 1,000 just for the right to buy a ticket and that was before we even know we would have a team and then for an FCS program. An FSL campaign for football was unheard of for college football and certainly for FCS college football. Our students have seen a significant increase in student fees to help fund the stadium and program. So yes his generosity was nice, but the stadium and the program were happening with or without his money.

We didn't show up on campus with a program like you guys did, we the people of the university have busted our asses. Now you are right - once we hit a certain level things have really gone our way, but make no mistake there was no silver spoon in getting this thing off the ground. The challenges were so great that many of our own alums and students never thought it would work.

In the end though we don't have any excuses - you are def right there. A beautiful stadium that will be sold out from day 1 with expansion plans already laid out, some of Charlotte's biggest leaders behind us, the CUSA arrival in 2015, TV deal, BCS experienced HC, DC and OC, better recruiting than at least I anticipated, over 100,000 living alumni and a very large alumni population in the Charlotte Metro area - all of these things really set the stage for us to be successful. To the poster above - we don't have to have a huge part of the Charlotte market to suddenly becomes huge 49er fans. We need our large alumni base to really own us, which up to this point has not occurred at an acceptable rate given how large we are. Once that happens we will be able to start pulling in some of the casual fans in the metro area.

For many years all I said was give us a shot. We get the commuter and no spirit label all the time and given some of our past history I understand why. Ask yourself what kind of label App would have without football? Would you have the spirit and image you do now? If you can think clearly then the obvious answer is no.

This is our chance to make a statement and change our culture. All the pieces are in place now - let's see what happens. We don't have to be world beaters out of the gate, we just have to be solid and make sure that the game experience delivers.

Say what you will but UNCC has done a lot of things right in the startup of their program. Time will tell if they have the right coaching staff in place to take advantage of their good start. Like any program (including ours), win and they will come, lose too much for too long and they won't...that's true of most college and pro programs and fan bases. The TV contract will certainly not hurt and could be a big help in regional recruiting.

I don't mean to discredit any efforts their fans have made.

My point is if you don't have similar results to what ODU has had I personally would not view the project as successful.

NWA,
Imagine if App never had a basketball program and then one day decided that they should get one. Then, out of nowhere, the ACC offered them an invitation for basketball because they wanted to expand into a small market. App had never played a game but suddenly, they were ACC bound. Think of how it would feel as a UNCC alum, who had experienced the success of a final four and Metro/CUSA championships, and also suffered through the Hal Wissel era and living within the ACC shadow. Then, APP fans were boasting of how they were starting off their program in better shape than you were after all your years playing basketball.

This is not meant to be a perfect analogy, so spare me the analysis, but try to understand the root of the animosity. It's not jealousy over your school or program; just the realization that sometimes hard work, success, high attendance, and even championships are trumped by the same "It's a business" approach that has creeped in to college athletics.

And while I agree that football has done wonders for our image and school, Appalachian State University is so much more than you realize. It has outstanding academics, rich traditions, an incredible picturesque setting, a true college town environment, and a sense of family that transcends even football.

MAD Doctor wrote:NWA,
Imagine if App never had a basketball program and then one day decided that they should get one. Then, out of nowhere, the ACC offered them an invitation for basketball because they wanted to expand into a small market. App had never played a game but suddenly, they were ACC bound. Think of how it would feel as a UNCC alum, who had experienced the success of a final four and Metro/CUSA championships, and also suffered through the Hal Wissel era and living within the ACC shadow. Then, APP fans were boasting of how they were starting off their program in better shape than you were after all your years playing basketball.

This is not meant to be a perfect analogy, so spare me the analysis, but try to understand the root of the animosity. It's not jealousy over your school or program; just the realization that sometimes hard work, success, high attendance, and even championships are trumped by the same "It's a business" approach that has creeped in to college athletics.

And while I agree that football has done wonders for our image and school, Appalachian State University is so much more than you realize. It has outstanding academics, rich traditions, an incredible picturesque setting, a true college town environment, and a sense of family that transcends even football.

Oh I understand 100%. Same reason I am sure it is killing Southern Miss or Cincy and UCONN - all of these conference moves are enabling teams with lesser resumes to leap frog others all based on metrics that have much less to do with field success. We know we are lucky - I just want it clear that a significant amount of work got us to this point. Also keep in mind that the only reason we ever left CUSA was not having football, so it makes sense that once that sport was added that we would return to a conference that we previously were charter members of. Same thing could have been said if we had ended up in the SBC since we are charter members there too.

Yes, App offers a lot as does Charlotte. My wife grew up in Boone and I had plenty of friends go to App, heck I have been to plenty of App football games and I worked for an outreach ministry that helped poor folks in the mountains, some of whom were in and around Boone so I am well aware of what App offers. My point is that football trumps everything. The one piece of the puzzle is massive. Take away football and you may still have all of that but the passion and the people that identify will be far less. I don't want to get into a pissing contest between the two - because as I have said on many occasions, that each school is great in it's own right and that it is awesome that the UNC system allows high school students to select schools that are best fits for them personally. I visited App - wasnt a fit for me, but it is for plenty of other folks. I expect App will do pretty well in the SBC and at some point we will meet you on the field! The good news is that game will be on chanel 18 and the 49er sports network so you can watch the contest on tv in boone

Saint3333 wrote:I don't mean to discredit any efforts their fans have made.

My point is if you don't have similar results to what ODU has had I personally would not view the project as successful.

Agree, while ODU''s record will be difficult to duplicate if we aren't close to them as far as overall success (wins, support, etc) then we have missed something and failed to execute as well as we could have.