Sports in Charlotte

[nowensone]

As much as I hate to see our state lose any "prestige", I think this is a good thing.  For one, to cement the idea that the ACC is an Atlantic Coast conference, not a North Carolina conference, which enhances the idea of Atlantic over the traditional North and South, and also because the spotlight away from NC will mean any return years down the road will be a nice surprise as any of our larger metros will have grown considerably and offer a different and bigger kind of flavor.  It will certainly give Charlotte time more than any other to host an iconic game with lots of entertainment/pictorial focus.

[Urbanity]

^I think that's a good perspective.

[HopHead]

The ACC Tournament going to Brooklyn or Madison Square Garden is a much bigger deal to Greensboro than Charlotte. While North Carolina has most all of the history of the ACC, the tournament hasn't been in Charlotte since 2008 after being a fixture here in the 1990s and early 2000s. I know Charlotte was looking at bids for the tournament when the current contract is up after the 2015 tourney, but the city probably would only get into the rotation of hosting it. Is it nice to have here? Sure. But considering the ACC tournament was more of a fixture in Greensboro, I think the loss to NY would be a bigger blow to them. Especially considering all the money they've invested. Nowsense does make a good point though. If it does go to NY for a few years, it would give the city the chance to reevaluate its options. 

[MilZ]

"But they're tryin' ta take mah baby!"

[Niner National]

Wonder if the city will bid on the CUSA tournament in the future?

 

Charlotte, UAB, Western Kentucky, Middle Tennessee, Marshall, and Old Dominion are all a fairly easy drive to Charlotte (7 hours or less) and chances are the league champion will be coming out of the eastern division more years than not. ODU, UAB, Charlotte, and WKU are all old Sun Belt Conference-mates back when that was a respected basketball conference. All four have a pretty good history of success and decently large fan bases. Marshall has a lot of alum in Charlotte.

 

It will never equal the ACC tournament, but if done right it could be fun.

[Urbanity]

X-Games had their first site visit to a candidate city yesterday and frankly I got to repeat my earlier hunch that Detroit has got this one.  Besides their ad campaign which I think is brilliant, they've been noted as having the most active social media campaign.  

 

To top it off, the venues are downtown and pretty iconic: Ford Field, Joe Louis Arena.  They also had a welcome part at a major Downtown park/plaza with skateboarders, a concert and nearly 5,000 people in attendance.

 

I think the gritty/decay image of Detroit is exactly the kind of image the X-Games want.

 

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130529/SPORTS07/305290326/Detroit-s-X-Games-bid-impresses-ESPN?odyssey=tab{sodEmoji.|}topnews{sodEmoji.|}text{sodEmoji.|}FRONTPAGE

Edited May 29, 2013 by Urbanity

[ScottCLT]

As much as I'd love to see the X Games come to Charlotte, I think Detroit really deserves this one.

 

[nonillogical]

Yeah personal selfish wishes aside, I always thought Austin was a better contender than us for this, and Detroit has really gone out of their way to impress and make a good case for it. 

[ah59396]

That makes Detroit looks awesome.  I love it.

[15895]

Impressive!

Our bid is in such a sterile, boring, cookie cutter environment. Though it'd be cooler if they put out some makeshift palm trees and through out some dirt & gave that Desert/west coast look.

(I have to say the skyline shots of Detroit made me drool)

[Norm2]

Our official video to try to land the X Games just.....sucks!

[15895]

Our official video to try to land the X Games just.....sucks!

I haven't seen it. Does the camera fly around BS/Concord Mills Blvd. zooming in on Walmart & Lowes?

[ah59396]

The video is essentially just that, with rock music in the background.  We didn't even try.

[ah59396]

Also, while I'm here:

 

The Eagles play the Chicago Fire at Winthrop tonight.  That's pretty awesome.  Wish I could go, but it's NHL game 7, and I'm a Blackhawks fan.

 

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/05/28/4069341/eagles-ready-to-face-the-fire.html

[RVA2CLT]

Also, while I'm here:

 

The Eagles play the Chicago Fire at Winthrop tonight.  That's pretty awesome.  Wish I could go, but it's NHL game 7, and I'm a Blackhawks fan.

 

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2013/05/28/4069341/eagles-ready-to-face-the-fire.html

 

 

Better yet...  Carolina Railhawks play LA Galaxy today in Cary!

 

I love US Open Cup, so many good and rarely seen matchups this week.

[nonillogical]

Our official video to try to land the X Games just.....sucks!

Oh man, I just looked it up...what a travesty! It actually begins with clips of the other 3 better videos and makes a lame attempt at dissing their cities. Definitely makes us look out of touch and conservative...

 

This is what comes to mind: http://25.media.tumblr.com/74494b1e7563a5a7fdd8ca3235ee93e2/tumblr_mmksquTDiT1s5lf2ro1_500.gif

[Urbanity]

Our official video to try to land the X Games just.....sucks!

 

Agreed!   No soul to it and what was with the race cars every other shot (at least it felt that way)?!  It's like they didn't know what they were bidding for!

And for crying out loud - they used a skyline shot where the Duke Tower was still under construction - not once, but twice! 

 

The Official X Games Charlotte Bid Video - #XGamesCLT

Edited May 29, 2013 by Urbanity

[HopHead]

Yea, not gonna lie... Our X-Games video is pretty... Meh. Nothing about it convinces me that the games should be in Charlotte. We know there's so much more to our city and region than racing. They needed to showcase that. Really dropped the ball on that one.

[Mobuchu]

Oof, so glad the begining said "Concord", but still wish Charlotte's name wasn't anywhere in that video.  :/

[RugbyPike#11]

Detroit should also have cooler summer weather than either Charlotte or Austin.  Good for them.

[ah59396]

Alright, I have to vent a little more about this x-games video.  Who in the *heck* was in charge of this atrocity.  I just had a couple people from my work watch the Detroit one and ours, and one of the guys turned ours off halfway through because it was so "cringe worthy".  

I'm not saying, by any stretch, that the x-games are on par with the Olympics, or whatever else we look to bid for in the future.  But if this is the best the city could muster for something that at least could bring us some decent national publicity, I have little faith in them ever bringing anything else here other than a bread cooking convention.  What a joke.

 

#rantover

[MilZ]

They could have just showed clips from a couple years back of nitro circus and Travis pastrana racing in NASCARs around uptown. Would have been way cooler and voided the image that rvs and trailers are more numerous than hotels. Just an idea :/

[ScottCLT]

Alright, I have to vent a little more about this x-games video.  Who in the *heck* was in charge of this atrocity.  I just had a couple people from my work watch the Detroit one and ours, and one of the guys turned ours off halfway through because it was so "cringe worthy".  

I'm not saying, by any stretch, that the x-games are on par with the Olympics, or whatever else we look to bid for in the future.  But if this is the best the city could muster for something that at least could bring us some decent national publicity, I have little faith in them ever bringing anything else here other than a bread cooking convention.  What a joke.

 

#rantover

Probably the same people that came up with "Charlotte's Got A Lot." Is that even proper grammar? If you said "Charlotte has got a lot" that just sounds weird. Shouldn't it be "Charlotte has a lot?" Even that sounds unenthusiastic, though more gramatically correct. Sorry, that went into a rant. I hate that marketing campaign.

We need a new marketing team. Who knows how long it will be before they release a video like App State's "Hot Hot Hot" and just embarrass the crap out of us.

[15895]

^ instead of Charlottes Got a Lot, I think it should be "Queen City Charlotte" or "QC Charlotte"(or something with reference to queen city)

So sick (it's gotten better) of people not taking advantage of our growingly nationaly known nickname "The Queen City". Lots of newspapers since the DNC use our nickname Queen City. That's our brand: that's our identity. Market it!

Edited May 31, 2013 by AirNostrumMAD

[MilZ]

^Im off topic... But I've always joked with friends about uncc changing to qcu versus u of clt or clt u.

Edited May 31, 2013 by MilZ