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Right now student tickets are free. I can't imagine that student tickets are free at other schools, what is everyone's experience? I did freshman year at Notre Dame, and we had to buy season tickets in addition to standing in line before they were all sold.

Student tickets are "free" at most schools. They're not really free though as students pay like $800 yr in fees to support athletics.

 

Some SEC, B1G, and even ECU make their students buy season tickets on top of the athletics fees they already pay, but it certainly isn't universal even at those schools. I think ECU is the only school in NC that does that though, but the tickets are really cheap for students.

 

Most schools offer free tickets to students through a lottery system.

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Stadium Journey posted a rave review of Jerry Richardson Stadium in their latest edition.  Even University City got a few props (albeit they were immediately followed by remarks about poor walkability and complex transit/access.)  The only down side to their review was the cost of tickets for them being a FCS team right now.  According the review, the tickets for Charlotte games are higher than any other FCS team in the state.  Yet they're still selling out...

 

http://www.stadiumjourney.com/stadiums/jerry-richardson-stadium-s1735

 

I'm sure Jerry Richardson Stadium is very nice and all, but a 4.3 rating while Carter-Finley gets a 4.0?  In my opinion, the site loses some credibility with that.  Sorry.

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I'm sure Jerry Richardson Stadium is very nice and all, but a 4.3 rating while Carter-Finley gets a 4.0?  In my opinion, the site loses some credibility with that.  Sorry.

Haters gonna hate I guess...  It isn't so much size or grandeur that they're basing these scores on.  The numbers are based on far more things than just how pretty or how big a stadium is.  If that were the case, Michigan Stadium wouldn't have just gotten a 4.4.  If you read the review for Carter-Finley, the stadium actually gets a great review, as do the fans.  It just doesn't average out the same.  I wouldn't read too much into it.

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I was there the weekend before last, and the descriptions on the site are accurate. It's a great small stadium. And I must say that the feeling you get when pulling into campus from the Tryon entrance is amazing! You see the jumbotron right in front of you...you know you are headed for football game. We tailgated for 4 hours before the game, and no problems with beers or grills on campus. They never said a word to us, and we weren't trying to hide the brews at all. Prices and quality of the food/beverage onsite were really great. Probably half of what you would pay at a Checkers, Bobcats, or Panthers game. Refills of souvenir cups are just $1, so it's worth spending the extra $1 to get one when you first get a soft drink. I can't imagine that any seat has a bad view. I had a great experience there, even though my 49ers got their ass beat!

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Haters gonna hate I guess...  It isn't so much size or grandeur that they're basing these scores on.  The numbers are based on far more things than just how pretty or how big a stadium is.  If that were the case, Michigan Stadium wouldn't have just gotten a 4.4.  If you read the review for Carter-Finley, the stadium actually gets a great review, as do the fans.  It just doesn't average out the same.  I wouldn't read too much into it.

 

 

I don't think it's "hating".  I kinda chuckle at the idea of a stadium that is 7 games old having a "5 star" atmosphere.  When I think 5 out of 5 atmosphere on a stadium, I think of some storied, unrivaled stadium that fans and players of opposing teams fear to enter.  

 

Likewise U city getting 4 out of 5 stars as a neighborhood.  I mean, what gets 2 out of 5 stars for neighborhood?  Baghdad?

 

It's a great new stadium and a huge win for Charlotte, but it's hardly the ranking it's receiving.  It needs more time.

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Stadiums are all ranked on their own and not compared to others. They're ranked more on how fan friendly they are than the actual atmosphere of the stadium, although that does play in. Also keep in mind these stadiums are reviewed by different individuals, so what one likes, another may not. As far as fan friendliness goes, Charlotte's stadium is pretty good. Lines at concessions are short, parking is close to the stadium, concession prices are cheap, and there is never any traffic getting into or out of the game. Things have run very, very smoothly.

 

This is just a privately run site that relies on a small staff (of mostly volunteers I believe) to provide information about stadiums. It shouldn't be taken as anything more than that.

 

Also, I might give Baghdad more stars than UCity.

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  • 5 months later...

Spring game next Saturday (it's also rugby alumni weekend).

 

Date              Home/Away Opponent Record Score Comment

Thu, Aug 28   away           Campbell 1-0 52-7    

Sat, Sep 06   HOME          Johnson C. Smith - -

Sat, Sep 13   away            North Carolina Central 0-1 13-40    

Sat, Sep 20   away            Elon - -    

Sat, Sep 27   HOME          Charleston Southern 0-1 14-36 Niner Nation Family Day  

Sat, Oct 04   away             Gardner-Webb 1-0 53-51    

Sat, Oct 11   away             The Citadel - -    

Sat, Oct 18   bye      - - -    

Sat, Oct 25   HOME           James Madison 0-1 7-34 Homecoming  

Sat, Nov 01   bye      - - -    

Sat, Nov 08   HOME           Coastal Carolina 0-1 25-50 Military Appreciation Day  

Sat, Nov 15   HOME           Wesley College 0-1 28-35    

Sat, Nov 22   HOME           Morehead State 1-0 61-17        

                     Record vs Opponents 3-5 (Score: 253-270)

Edited by rugger62
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  • 1 year later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Glad to see we bounced back pretty well from the MTSU whoppin, but we can't move the ball effectively. More frustrating to me than our QB situation is that in the first half, Kalif Phillips was tearing up the D, but they kept sitting him & trying to pass in the spread. He ended up with 29 touches and 165 yards, so I guess they saw the light in the 2nd half, but GD it was frustrating to see him on the bench for 1/2 of our snaps in the 1st half. The rest of the season is probably going to be long as the top teams in the conference are going to be hunting bowl games.

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Unfortunately had to miss the game on Saturday due to a wedding, but the turnout was great and we didn't get blown out. If we had even a decent QB, I think we could probably get 5 wins this season. Our QB play is embarrassing. Even worse, we turned down 4 star QB transfer Riley Ferguson last year. He was in the running for the starting job at Tennessee last summer and then abruptly left the team. We wouldn't even talk to him. He said in the spring Charlotte was the only place he wanted to go. Now he's at a JUCO putting up ridiculous numbers and getting interest from other SEC programs. Worse decision our coaches have made so far IMO.

Anyway, here are some photos of the FAU game:

 

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The tailgating changes that were made this year have really improved student engagement. Official attendance for FAU was 17,444, which is 2100 over official capacity. I expect all the games except UTSA to be sellouts for us this year, so I hope we're planning to discuss expansion this offseason. We can add seating in increments of 5,000 without having to destroy anything, so it can be up and ready for the next season. I'd really like to see us get to 20,000 just so we don't have the smallest stadium in FBS football.

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I think the stadium was designed to expand up to about 40,000, though I don't know what kind of timeline UNC Charlotte has in mind for that.

I haven't really seen it mentioned anywhere, but this was the first game "under the lights" at this stadium.

Yes, 40k. It could be expanded to 40k in a single offseason, but there is no chance we do that. I would be surprised if we ever hit 40,000 seats honestly.

 

Attendance is falling around the country, even at major programs. The TV experience is just so much better these days, not to mention virtually every game is televised, so a lot of people simply aren't going as often. Going to 40,000 would be foolish. There are only 5-10 programs outside the top 5 conferences that consistently put over 30,000 butts in seats. I'd like to see us go to 25,000 max, and just focus on creating a great game day experience that people want to come to.

In the event that we sign a team that would realistically put 40,000+ butts in seats to a game, we have BoA at our disposal. We already have home and homes with App, UNC, and Duke on the schedule (although they're all many years away), so clearly they're not concerned with the stadium size. I'm really hoping we eventually get into a rotation where we have 1 in state ACC program at home each season. Charlotte is an important recruiting market for them, so that should help. Rumor is a Maryland home and home may be on the horizon as well, but that hasn't been confirmed yet. 

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  • 1 year later...

Don't look now, but Charlotte has won two of its last three football games and only lost last week's game by one point.  They benched Kevin Olsen and put in Hassan Klugh as the starting quarterback a couple weeks ago and it seems to be working out pretty well for them.  Best news is that he is a freshman so they may finally have someone to build a program around for the next few years. 

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9 hours ago, cltbwimob said:

Don't look now, but Charlotte has won two of its last three football games and only lost last week's game by one point.  They benched Kevin Olsen and put in Hassan Klugh as the starting quarterback a couple weeks ago and it seems to be working out pretty well for them.  Best news is that he is a freshman so they may finally have someone to build a program around for the next few years. 

Beating Marshall, despite how awful they are this year, is a big deal for UNCC.  Congrats on their first real win.

 

i say real because I don't count beating one of the F_U Florida schools or Ga State as real FBS victories.  Those are glorified JUCO programs.  

 

Marshall was the real deal back in the late 90' and early aughts.  Program defining win for UNCC.

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On 9/28/2015 at 2:02 PM, tozmervo said:

I think the stadium was designed to expand up to about 40,000, though I don't know what kind of timeline UNC Charlotte has in mind for that.

I haven't really seen it mentioned anywhere, but this was the first game "under the lights" at this stadium.

Sadly the odds of smaller football programs like UNCC becoming big enough to warrant a 40,000 stadium is pretty slim these days.  The gap between the haves and have nots is only increasing.  If the day arrives where the Power 5 break away from the NCAA...it would be almost impossible.  

That said, I do love how UNCC 'future proofed' the stadium for future expansion.  What I would love to see rather than building more seats is to build large multi use buildings on the sides of the stadium.  This would make the stadium much bigger but also ensure it was used 365.  This is what Notre Dame did with the Crossroads project.   They added 3 massive buildings on the sides and bottom of the stadium but they will mostly be used for classrooms and other student spaces.  

I would love to see a massive building on the western side of the stadium that filled the gap between the stadium and the EPIC building.  You could add some seats and some luxury suites but you could also add space for all students and maybe move the Dept. of Kinesiology there or another school?

 

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On 10/24/2016 at 8:54 AM, cjd5050 said:

Sadly the odds of smaller football programs like UNCC becoming big enough to warrant a 40,000 stadium is pretty slim these days.  The gap between the haves and have nots is only increasing.  If the day arrives where the Power 5 break away from the NCAA...it would be almost impossible.  

That said, I do love how UNCC 'future proofed' the stadium for future expansion.  What I would love to see rather than building more seats is to build large multi use buildings on the sides of the stadium.  This would make the stadium much bigger but also ensure it was used 365.  This is what Notre Dame did with the Crossroads project.   They added 3 massive buildings on the sides and bottom of the stadium but they will mostly be used for classrooms and other student spaces.  

I would love to see a massive building on the western side of the stadium that filled the gap between the stadium and the EPIC building.  You could add some seats and some luxury suites but you could also add space for all students and maybe move the Dept. of Kinesiology there or another school?

 

Yeah, I simply don't see 40,000 being realistic either. I think 22,000-25,000 is a good number. We have some good home and home series coming up over the next decade (App, UNC, Duke, Maryland) that will all sell a lot of tickets. 15,000 simply isn't enough to host marquee games and I'm sure there is some sort of hand shake agreement there will be more seats by the time the ACC/Big 10 programs come to town. Fortunately, NC has a lot of mediocre college football, so the in state schools in power conferences will actually play us at home. That would never happen if we were a south carolina school trying to get USC or Clemson to come to town. 

 

On 10/22/2016 at 11:45 PM, cltbwimob said:

Don't look now, but Charlotte has won two of its last three football games and only lost last week's game by one point.  They benched Kevin Olsen and put in Hassan Klugh as the starting quarterback a couple weeks ago and it seems to be working out pretty well for them.  Best news is that he is a freshman so they may finally have someone to build a program around for the next few years. 

Klugh is a redshirt sophomore. Still nice to have him for two additional years though. He looks good.

Olsen is probably very talented, but he's a really bad fit for our offense. Mullen is a terrible offensive coordinator that doesn't know how to be successful by adjusting his scheme to the players he has. Klugh fits his system, Olsen did not. Hopefully Olsen takes the opportunity to transfer down to FCS where he can play immediately next year. He will do well in the right system.

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13 minutes ago, Niner National said:

Yeah, I simply don't see 40,000 being realistic either. I think 22,000-25,000 is a good number. We have some good home and home series coming up over the next decade (App, UNC, Duke, Maryland) that will all sell a lot of tickets. 15,000 simply isn't enough to host marquee games and I'm sure there is some sort of hand shake agreement there will be more seats by the time the ACC/Big 10 programs come to town. Fortunately, NC has a lot of mediocre college football, so the in state schools in power conferences will actually play us at home. That would never happen if we were a south carolina school trying to get USC or Clemson to come to town. 

 

Klugh is a redshirt sophomore. Still nice to have him for two additional years though. He looks good.

Olsen is probably very talented, but he's a really bad fit for our offense. Mullen is a terrible offensive coordinator that doesn't know how to be successful by adjusting his scheme to the players he has. Klugh fits his system, Olsen did not. Hopefully Olsen takes the opportunity to transfer down to FCS where he can play immediately next year. He will do well in the right system.

I thought Klugh was a freshman...My mistake.

As for stadium size, I think somewhere in th 28000-30000 range will be just right for Charlotte (about the same size as FAUs stadium).  If they ever make it to where they are consistently playing .500 or above football year after year-maybe with a bowl game here or there-I think there will be enough interest from students and the local community to attract ~30k per game.  Hell they missed being 4-4 by one point at the FIU game, so they are almost a .500 football team already.  

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  • 2 weeks later...

Another program defining win...first school in C-USA history to defeat both Southern Miss and Marshall on the road in the same season.  Southern Miss was a 17-point favorite and Charlotte won 38-27.  

They've won three of their last four and become bowl eligible with two more wins.   Charlotte may have a respectable FBS program in the making.

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13 hours ago, cltbwimob said:

Another program defining win...first school in C-USA history to defeat both Southern Miss and Marshall on the road in the same season.  Southern Miss was a 17-point favorite and Charlotte won 38-27.  

They've won three of their last four and become bowl eligible with two more wins.   Charlotte may have a respectable FBS program in the making.

Shame we blew the FIU game. Gave up a 13 point lead with like 6 minutes left.That would put our path to bowl eligibility on a much more certain path. We are a better team than Rice, so I expect one more win for sure, but utsa and middle Tennessee are both pretty good teams.

We should have been starting Klugh all year. The kid is a very good young QB.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Sadly we blew another home game this week verses Rice. A bowl isn't off the table but is much harder to attain at this point. Charlotte's football team is on the rise but blowing games against inferior opponents at home certainly doesn't make people want to come back. Some coaching changes are probably needed in order for the program to reach the next level.

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1 hour ago, DavieNative said:

Sadly we blew another home game this week verses Rice. A bowl isn't off the table but is much harder to attain at this point. Charlotte's football team is on the rise but blowing games against inferior opponents at home certainly doesn't make people want to come back. Some coaching changes are probably needed in order for the program to reach the next level.

I read that the attendance for the Rice game was underwhelming.  Was that the case?  or just poor reporting?  If so, what do you think is driving the attendance issue?  That was arguably the biggest game in Charlotte's history.

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10 minutes ago, ah59396 said:

I read that the attendance for the Rice game was underwhelming.  Was that the case?  or just poor reporting?  If so, what do you think is driving the attendance issue?  That was arguably the biggest game in Charlotte's history.

Rice - 14,306
FIU - 13,939
ODU - 12,589
Eastern Michigan - 15,080
Elon - 15,807

Seems to be in line with the attendance to other games this season.  Granted this is the box score reporting so I'm not sure if that's sales and a lot of people no showed.  But numbers alone don't support that reporting.

Edited by SouthEndCLT811
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