Interesting Charlotte Experience

[clemmonsapp]

I have family at Charlotte. My wife and I wanted to support them for a game and spend some quality time with the kids. We went to the game against D-III Wesley College this past weekend. The difference between last year and this year was drastic.

First - We had to park very far away and the university charged $20 to park in their deck. We know how to tailgate, so we had a good time. There was no other tailgate in this entire parking area. There was a ton of unused parking between us and the stadium which you would think they would want to utilize, but it must be reserved for future boosters.

Second - I have to admit that I thought I would be able to buy cheap tickets outside since Charlotte is not having a banner season. My surprise was that there were so few people going in around kickoff that there were no tickets to be bought. I ended up paying $30 each for two tickets at the ticket office. I had now invested $80 to go to a game between a poor team and a D-III team!

Third - Attendance has fallen off drastically. I went to a game last year which was about 80% full. This game was not even half full. The stadium is beautiful but the environment is sterile. About the only thing they had going for them was a drum line that attempted to get the crowd engaged.

We sat in the sun and Charlotte won a surprisingly competitive game.

A few things were evident.
1) They are losing their students. Attendance and enthusiasm were not good.
2) The administration knows nothing about creating a positive environment. It reminded me of App in the 80's. Walking through empty parking lots reserved for absent fans does not create a fun and vibrant atmosphere.
3) They are pricing a product they hope to have rather than a product that currently exists. I am the casually connected fan they need. I am not going back to pay excessive prices for an inferior product. They should have promotional pricing to get butts in the seats! Charging that much for parking that you already own is a deterrent to future attendance.
4) If they do not install lights soon they are going to continue to slide. Noon games are not great for tailgating. I heard many times from students that their friends wouldn't get up or just didn't feel they had time to enjoy the tailgate so they skipped it.

My older son sent me this article from their student paper. It reminds me of what we need to guard against at App and of how fortunate we are!

http://nineronline.com/2014/11/student- ... ueen-city/

Oh well - in the end it isn't my problem, but Charlotte has a long way to go to become the juggernaut some of our folks predicted!

[mtnjax]

I agree with this assessment. I went to the JMU game and it was exactly as you described.

Although, I dont think anyone here predicted them to be a juggernaut. That was their fans. Funniest thing I heard on CLT radio was a host predicting last year that UNCC would be a better program in 5 years than App or ECU.

[Boone Goon]

I can't wait to roll into that stadium in 2019 and take it over like we used to Elon and so many other SoCon stadiums!!

[Rick0714]

Despite some of their fan's delusional rants on this board and others, I have always thought Charlotte would have support in terms of $ and fans after all their promotions and banner waving. At the same time, I'm not surprised. They wanted to have a schedule that would show they could win games, so the opponents are very lack-luster. Add in the start time issues, plus the fact that a large portion of the student body either lives off campus or are commuters, and there is not much of a formula for student support. In addition, they seem to be getting close to zero support from the Charlotte population. As stated above, they are not making it very easy to get area residents involved and excited about supporting the local team. I have met so many people at App games that have no affiliation to the school, but just love college football and see the atmosphere at ASU and the excitement as reason enough to get involved. One couple from Rhode Island that I met are Ohio St alumni and became interested in ASU after 2007. They winter in Florida and thought it would be neat to go at an App game on the way down. Now they are converts and while they rarely get to Columbus, they make a point to attend at least 1 App game every year, joined Yosef, bought season tickets and donate the tickets for the games they can't attend to local charities. Charlotte needs to get that clue. Atmosphere baby. If you don't have it, then CREATE it!

[moehler]

well things should get better for them, conference USA is requiring lights by the beginning of next year, so, atleast in theory, they can start games later in the day, which should help with attendance and tailgating, I also hear they are considering decreasing tickets for the student body, and making them available for the general public, which again, should help with attendance. But, your right, they do have some real problems, the student body just hasn't embraced the concept of attending football games, and its not going to get any better for the next 2 or 3 years while they are getting their asses handed to them every week. I think unrealistically, they believed Charlotte would go nuts supporting the program, and it just hasn't happen, bottom line is your not going to get diehard, App, Carolina, State fans to switch their loyalities and stay in Charlotte instead of heading to Chapel Hill, or Boone on a Sat afternoon. Honestly, their talent is low FCS, next year, when they make the move up, I doubt they win one game, in fact, they probably are going to get blown out almost every week, not good when your trying to build a fan base, and get students onboard. Finally, since they are moving up, they probably are going to expand their stadium just to meet minimum requirements for FBS programs, that means a lot of money spent on a 20,000 seat stadium where only 5 or 6 thousand shows up, not good.

[manonabuffalo]

Most of the non-delusional parts of their fan base say expanding the stadium is a bad idea. I agree with them, if you can't even get 4,000 students out of your 28,000 strong student body to show up to games with tickets they already paid for....you got major issues.

They say they aren't a soccer mom commuter school anymore, but every indication is that is the still the case.

[Gonzo]

The tone of that NT article and of their fans on message boards is what you'd expect from such a spoiled (and tiny) fanbase. This is a program that's had everything handed to them from day one. They get millions from Jerry Rich to build a stadium; their area code lands them an FBS conference spot etc. Is it any wonder they're standing there with their hands out, waiting for someone to drop a good football team and a great gameday atmosphere in their laps?

No one expected any different that's what's happening with the UNCC football program other than their delusional fans.

Georgia State 2.0

[clayton]

Georgia State Part 2?

Georgia State looked OK(ish) against lower level FCS/D2 teams in their first couple of years. Then, got crushed by the CAA and is now getting crushed by the Sun Belt.

[moehler]

I don't think its a case whether or not they should expand the stadium, but rather, they really don't have a choice, conference USA didn't bring them on board to have them playing in a 12,000 seat stadium for the next 10 years, Ill bet part of the deal was, you expand the stadium to meet FBS standards, what that time frame is, I don't know. but they aren't going to let this continue, they got tv contract negotiations coming up in a few years, looks bad when one of your members is content playing in a max seating of 12,000.

[MAD Doctor]

There are multiple reasons why the atmosphere is like this: due to Charlotte playing FCS teams for their first two years, the opponents are usually not enticing to watch.

The truth is that they are embarrassed that these "not enticing" teams are cleaning their clocks. I suppose they figure that if they don't watch the team getting stomped, then it didn't really happen. They envision themselves competing with ECU and the ACC in their 2nd year, and can't face the current reality of losing to Gardner-Webb and most FCS teams.They thought their precious little CUSA invite meant that they could just leapfrog years of hard work, paying dues, and history. Judy can only protect them from the harsh realities of Division 1 Football just so much.

[moehler]

Im not as hard on them as some of you guys are, I will admit they really got on my nerves last year, coming on this board, boasting how they were going to kick our asses, and basically acting like once the ACC saw how great they were, that it was only a matter of time before the ACC begged them to join, so it has been nice seeing them brought down a peg or two. But the realty is, if our positions were reversed, alot of our fans would have acted the same way, we are no better no worse than them, when it comes to unrealistic expectations of our teams.

[JTApps1]

One of my co-workers is neighbors with a UNCC grad who has season tickets. He has two extras so he has invited my co-worker to several games each year. Last year they were all excited and talked about how fun it was, and said they were getting there at 8am to tailgate before every game. I asked him a week ago if he had been lately or was planning to go and he just laughed and said he wasn't wasting his time to sit in the cold and watch that bunch. The kicker is he gets to go for free with his neighbor. If UNCC can't get people who were excited last year to show up for free this year then they are in trouble.

I would say playing in CUSA would give them a boost, but how many of their fans who aren't really football fans will show up to see them play most CUSA teams?

[Appsolutely]

Nothing takes the place of tradition...not even money.

[AppState89]

I agree with this assessment. I went to the JMU game and it was exactly as you described.

Although, I dont think anyone here predicted them to be a juggernaut. That was their fans. Funniest thing I heard on CLT radio was a host predicting last year that UNCC would be a better program in 5 years than App or ECU.

The host left out THREE VERY IMPORTANT words..... --->>> here is what he meant to say, "UNCC would be a better program in 5 years than App's or ECU's CLUB FOOTBALL TEAM".

[appvette]

One guy on their forum was talking about their big 38-33 point win over DIII Wesley College and said "The turnovers made it look closer than it really was". So I checked the box score and saw that UNCC had 3 turnovers vs. Wesley's 2 turnovers. Also noticed Wesley outgained them 530 to 419 yards lol. Looks like UNCC was lucky to pull this one out haha!

[AppGrad78]

Let me ask this hypothetical question:

Let's say that Alabama-Birmingham is forced to drop football and is kicked out of Conference USA. Since there no longer is a financial motivation for any G5 conference to be at 13 schools (or 14 for that matter), CUSA decides to go to 12 schools. Assuming CUSA navigates through the extremely difficult process of ejecting a conference member, let's say -- hypothetically -- Charlotte gets the boot. (This is highly, highly unlikely, but just for kicks let's say it happens.)

Should the Sun Belt pick up Charlotte, a school with desirable demographics that is smack-dab in the middle of App State's sweet spot but also 10 years away from having a competitive FBS football program?

[WVAPPeer]

Let me ask this hypothetical question:

Let's say that Alabama-Birmingham is forced to drop football and is kicked out of Conference USA. Since there longer is a financial motivation for any G5 conference to be at 13 schools (or 14 for that matter), CUSA decides to go to 12 schools. Assuming CUSA navigates through the extremely difficult process of ejecting a conference member, let's say -- hypothetically -- Charlotte gets the boot. (This is highly, highly unlikely, but just for kicks let's say it happens.)

Should the Sun Belt pick up Charlotte, a school with desirable demographics that is smack-dab in the middle of App State's sweet spot but also 10 years away from having a competitive FBS football program?

I would say yes - still would like to see JMU instead

[Saint3333]

UNCC will not be as good as quickly as their alumni wish, but I don't see them being GA ST. 2.0 either. It will take them a couple of years before they finish .500 in CUSA and they know this, hence the start date of our series.

I would welcome being in a conference with any G5 member and/or any FCS public with over 15k students south of DC and east of Mississippi.

[AppGrad78]

Let me ask this hypothetical question:

Let's say that Alabama-Birmingham is forced to drop football and is kicked out of Conference USA. Since there longer is a financial motivation for any G5 conference to be at 13 schools (or 14 for that matter), CUSA decides to go to 12 schools. Assuming CUSA navigates through the extremely difficult process of ejecting a conference member, let's say -- hypothetically -- Charlotte gets the boot. (This is highly, highly unlikely, but just for kicks let's say it happens.)

Should the Sun Belt pick up Charlotte, a school with desirable demographics that is smack-dab in the middle of App State's sweet spot but also 10 years away from having a competitive FBS football program?

I would say yes - still would like to see JMU instead

I'd take Charlotte in a heartbeat.

• -- What's the adage about keeping your friends close and your enemies closer? We're going to compete with UNC-Charlotte for students and athletes regardless of the conference(s) we play in. Why not formalize the arrangement?
  
  -- UNC-Charlotte almost certainly would give the Sun Belt a local bowl tie-in.
  
  -- We'd gain a boost in media attention in the markets we care most about.
  
  -- A truly drivable road football game every other year.
  
  -- Potential for a huge rivalry. (The 49ers could become our new Catamounts.)
  
  -- Charlotte has excellent baseball and soccer programs, and isn't too far removed from its salad days in men's basketball.

[WVAPPeer]

agreed --- 78