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Charlotte Knights AAA Ballpark in Third Ward

dubone

By dubone
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kermit
kermit

Never seen more people at the ballpark than tonight for the Checkers. Edit: Checkers report that it was a sellout and 11,031 attended. Felt like more than that. Edit: per the CBJ  

navigator319
navigator319

Beautiful night. Accent and Barings/Kimpton looking great.      

videtur quam contuor
videtur quam contuor

The land under which the stadium was built was for a century or more an African American area of the (much smaller) city. The Isabella Wyche elementary school, the Third Ward recreation center and Goo

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83alphaunder Whistle-Stop

83alphaunder

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Having a team with the Hornets name back in Charlotte would be great. When Shinn moves the NBA team to Oklahoma City he might want a new name anyhow ...

Interesting, so I guess oklahoma is going to have two NBA teams, since I'm pretty sure Seattle already has plans for Oklahoma City. Not to mention, the hornets are ranked in the top 3, and in some cases number one, on most of the sports websites power rankings, I have a feeling attendence should get a little better eventually.

As much as I would love the hornets name back in charlotte for the baseball team, I wonder if that would have a negative connotation with any of the few true charlotteans.

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Raintree21 Town

Raintree21

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Being one of the few true Charlotteans, I think most would embrace the new Charlotte Hornets as a way to bring back the past and move George Shinn completely out of our lives. The Hornets were here long before Shinn. No one has mentioned the Charlotte O's though. I guess that would go against being a farm team of the Marlins (we're still one of their teams right?).

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CharlotteDave Whistle-Stop

CharlotteDave

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If Don Beaver and company were to become interested in trying to get the Hornet's name back, they could certainly go a completely different direction with the logo: Rather than the bug thing , they could go for the historical angle or the baseball angle, given the long baseball history the name has in Charlotte. The logo for the 1909 Charlotte Hornets was a bee hive.

Perhaps a few editorials in the sports page could help to get some people thinking about it.

Edited by CharlotteDave
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CharlotteDave Whistle-Stop

CharlotteDave

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A decent drawing of their jerseys:

chl56h.jpg

I like that logo and found this grainy old photo of the real thing. I saw several photos of it recently when I looked through some old Charlotte Observer archives at the main library. Speaking of that, I need to correct one historical tidbit I mentioned in a previous post concerning the original ballpark on Mint St. That park, Wearn Field, actually opened in 1908, not 1901 as I had said earlier. Before that, they played at Latta Park, starting in the 1890's, which is where Moonlight Graham played for the Hornets (1902 team photo) The article in the paper that day in 1908, talks of the team being driven through town on a streetcar accompanied by a brass band and most of the stores in town closing at 3 o'clock for the special occasion. Now hopefully, just a little over 100 years later, starting in 2009, we'll be seeing a similiar scene, except in this case the light rail will be taking the place of the streetcar. In 1908 the mayor threw out the first ball, but maybe this time, Jerry Reese can do the honors.

Babe does Mint St.

Edited by CharlotteDave
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CharlotteDave Whistle-Stop

CharlotteDave

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Things have been pretty quiet lately on the Knight's front, but there is this new article in the Business Journal. The full article isn't available yet, but it does mention their hopes of going after the ACC Baseball Tournament in the future and some news about parking.

Article

Given the ambitious timetable, still shooting for a 2009 opening, I'm beginning to wonder when the Knights are going to start construction. I do seem to vaguely recall reading something about an environmental study that would take about a month, so maybe that's the answer.

Edited by CharlotteDave
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Charlotte_native City

Charlotte_native

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^ I did read somewhere that the Knights actually anticipate playing in the new park sometime in 2009. To me that sounds like they aren't counting on an opening day in uptown.

Are the delays mostly because of the frivolous Reese lawsuits? Other than that I think they would be moving forward but Mr. Stubborn continues to try and drop roadblocks.

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HopHead City

HopHead

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Are the delays mostly because of the frivolous Reese lawsuits? Other than that I think they would be moving forward but Mr. Stubborn continues to try and drop roadblocks.

I don't know for sure... but one could only assume that's the case. I did see that the O put another meaningless article on his dreams for an MLB team. I think that dream, at least for now with the Marlins, is dead b/c they are on the verge of getting approval for a $515 million retractable-roof stadium on the soon to be demolished Orange Bowl stadium site.

Edited by dbull75
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CharlotteDave Whistle-Stop

CharlotteDave

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Are the delays mostly because of the frivolous Reese lawsuits? Other than that I think they would be moving forward but Mr. Stubborn continues to try and drop roadblocks.

No, they've always planned to move forward despite the threatened lawsuits by Reese. Otherwise, they could have never even contemplated playing in 2009. They have said they've pretty much given up on having the park ready for opening day 2009 but that they hope to play there at some point during that season.

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JRNYP2C Hamlet

JRNYP2C

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Are the delays mostly because of the frivolous Reese lawsuits? Other than that I think they would be moving forward but Mr. Stubborn continues to try and drop roadblocks.

I think I heard this line in a movie once:

"He is evil. He must be stopped."

Seriously, I really wish the folks that are helping him keep his gallant fight afloat, financially, would realize the loss of their investment. The Knights are going to move forward regardless.

This is just another example of some idiot wasting the courts time and taxpayer money with frivolous lawsuits.

:angry:

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Andyc545 Burg

Andyc545

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Another boost for the stadium and uses besides the Knights happened today when ACC Commisioner John Swofford said that the new stadium would make Charlotte a very attractive site for the ACC baseball tournament.

Is 10,000 seats enough to host it? That sounds really great though. We're becoming quite the host here in the Queen City.

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Raintree21 Town

Raintree21

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Is 10,000 seats enough to host it? That sounds really great though. We're becoming quite the host here in the Queen City.

The 2007 ACC Tournament in Jacksonville averaged 11,865 people each day over the course of 5 days so I guess it would be pushing it. Although other venues in years past averaged much less attendance (around 5-6000 per day), there have occasional big spikes in attendance. I think it just depends on who is playing and their proximity to their home field.

I'm sure they could make arrangements to seat people in the grass on the embankments of the outfield if needed. Also, if they could land some guaranteed events that they know will constantly need a larger seating capacity, perhaps they could tweak the designs to add a few more seats.

Edited by Raintree21
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Justadude Burg

Justadude

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I'm sure they could make arrangements to seat people in the grass on the embankments of the outfield if needed.

This would be the way to go -- sell standing-room tickets the day of the game for the embankments and plaza areas. A lot of major league ballparks do this even when they don't expect to be at capacity -- the Braves for instance sell very cheap tickets to stand in the plaza areas at Turner Field. Just off the top of my head they could probably push attendance close to 12,000 depending on how much SRO space they include in the design.

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Charlotte_native City

Charlotte_native

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For those that didn't catch it, Jerry Reece, the guy filing lawsuits holding up the 3rd Ward plans for baseball / the 3rd Ward park / the redeveopment of 2nd Ward / and the new Brooklyn Village project, wrote a column in the editorial section of the Observer yesterday. His overall vision for making changes I don't agree with, but really it is just an alternative plan he has, not one that I really see as superior for a couple specific reasons. IF MLB wanted to come here, his plan would have a larger level of reasonableness to it. He wants to accomplish many things, and in his long list it is interesting how many of those things his 'plan' lists that he can't or would not have any control over (such as convention center improvements and changes and other public and private developments in the immediate area that he doesn't control or get to make choices about -- he also talks about 'trolleys like San Francisco and a trolley museum??).

He also continues to ignore the fact that no one in MLB claims to support his plans, claims to have any plans to move to Charlotte at all, or at least any time soon, so why invest in a massive expensive facility where no end user is out there? He still never discusses any supporters he has at all, no financial backers, and no developers who are buying into what he proposes.

If you just read his column it sounds visionary -- but you have to put on hold all knowledge of what is really going on with expansion of MLB and what is really going on in Charlotte AND what this one man is really capable of.

Edited by Charlotte_native
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