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Charlotte Sports Complex (Bojangles Coliseum area)


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I'd rather see my tax dollars go to streets/infrastructure, homeless shelters outside of uptown (lol), TWC arena upgrades, incentives to business and just about anything else before I see them go to this project.

This project - like Mr. Rogers controversial Trolley CHOO CHOO that was tore down and rebuilt - is very easy to demonize.

If its a good investment, then go for it.

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I'd rather see my tax dollars go to streets/infrastructure, homeless shelters outside of uptown (lol), TWC arena upgrades, incentives to business and just about anything else before I see them go to this project.

Pretty much agree with this.

 

The problem with amateur sports facilities is every city sees projects like this as a path to economic fortune. There aren't really enough major tournaments to keep all these facilities busy.

 

It's just like convention centers. So many cities build elaborate convention centers because they think they'll draw in tons of events and huge revenue, but many of them fail to do that because of the stiff competition.

 

This is a risk project. Improving infrastructure and providing incentives to business are almost never risks--especially if you structure the contracts the right way.

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I would be more concerned if amateur/youth related sports had little presence here. One of the biggest needs locally are indoor facilities for local sports organizations . Many groups in Charlotte have to use 3 to 4 different places per week, so the field house solves that need. These facilities generally have to have some gap financing just like the Meck Sportsplex, which is already popular locally & has attracted close to 30 tournaments in the 18 or so months it's been operating & that's just the first phase of the project

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^^Also remember the original concept for the Meck Sportsplex included a multi-use outdoor stadium with capacity of 7-10 thousand with the Eagles &Hounds as possible anchor tenants. It also included a indoor complex in the 7,000 range that would have been financed privately with the Checkers serving as the anchor tenant

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  • 2 weeks later...

Same here, very sad. It is in the same category as the Knights to me, I want to go to a game before or between going out for dinner and drinks. Watch their attendance drop dramatically. 

Checkers attendance has dropped dramatically at TWC, and is getting worse. This won't hurt them and stands to help their wallet going forward. 

And youth sports tournaments are a massive business market growing each year, if that is the focus of the complex it will do just fine.

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  • 3 months later...

^ the money is from hotel taxes so it must be spent on tourism / visitor promotion stuff -- it can't just be moved to the general fund.

 

(this is not to say I think spending multiple millions on the Chicken Box is a good idea or will somehow promote tourism)

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  • 1 year later...

New plans for the Bojangles’ Coliseum...

The Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority wants to join Bojangles’ Coliseum and Ovens Auditorium with a new multimillion dollar building called “The Link” to create a new entrance, ticketing area and storage space - http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article120498308.html

 

 

Link Rendering 2.jpeg

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How do you see the Coliseum bad for the neighboring community? Grier heights is the only area on the Monroe side of the Coliseum that is still rough, which is in itself in transition to 'Elizabeth heights'.The rest of the area is in the midst of some significant development with rising values. Otherwise you have Independence becoming a highway killing the old commercial areas, but new development following close behind all of that with the Coliseum Ctr rework the last big domino to fall. Any further improvement to the Coliseum should continue a turn around to this area with Monroe and Independence improvements completing. 

It would be nice if Charlotte's default solution to improvement wasn't just demo it and put something new in its place. We have one of the last pieces of history in Charlotte still standing in the Coliseum and I commend the city for trying to save and improve it and use it to spur development.   

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27 minutes ago, SgtCampsalot said:

Do we think this is good news? I see how the coliseum affects the neighborhoods around it and can't help but think that demoing it all would be best for the community.

I don't think demoing is the solution and in fact would rather see a double down...

Lay a street grid over the parking lot and run it from Ovens all the way to the Expo Center.  On the other side of that road I'd like to see a strip of places to eat/drink/etc with maybe a hotel or two.  Have all 3 of these elements feed off each other.  

If done right this could become a second conference destination for the region.  There are lots of smaller conferences or non-traditional conferences that simply are not a fit for a traditional convention center. 

When not being used for conference space I think just having places to eat/drink next door to Ovens/Bojangles' will greatly improve the draw for events there.  I was speaking to a friend about Checkers games and he mentioned this is why they don't go anymore now that they moved.  Even though the move allowed them to not compete with the Hornets for Friday/Saturday night games...the lack of food/drink before made it not worth it.

 

 

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5 minutes ago, lefty23 said:

which is in itself in transition to 'Elizabeth heights'.

I have seen this mentioned before, and technically Grier Heights isn't going anywhere.  Elizabeth Heights is more of a two street sub-division within Grier Heights. I actually live in Elizabeth Heights.  It is all new homes built by JCB Urban (which is the same people behind Saussy Burbank), and great for the neighborhood as it has a mix of income cap restricted housing and middle income housing, but all good neighbors and influences on the neighborhood.  That said, it isn't a full transition to "Elizabeth Heights".  Elizabeth Heights is just parts of two streets (Orange and Heflin).

Regarding Bojangles, as someone that lives close by I don't want it to be demo'd.  I agree with cjd5050 that I would like to see more done.  Personally, I would like the city to try to connect the Coliseum area to Monroe better in someway.  I live really close, but don't even think of it as being in the same neighborhood.  Particularly if the silver line eventually runs around the Coliseum I think it would make a ton of sense to add some connectivity and urban development around Monroe and running over to the Coliseum.  If done right, it could allow for some revitalization in some of those areas that are looked down upon currently.

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15 minutes ago, cjd5050 said:

I don't think demoing is the solution and in fact would rather see a double down...

Lay a street grid over the parking lot and run it from Ovens all the way to the Expo Center.  On the other side of that road I'd like to see a strip of places to eat/drink/etc with maybe a hotel or two.  Have all 3 of these elements feed off each other.  

If done right this could become a second conference destination for the region.  There are lots of smaller conferences or non-traditional conferences that simply are not a fit for a traditional convention center. 

When not being used for conference space I think just having places to eat/drink next door to Ovens/Bojangles' will greatly improve the draw for events there.  I was speaking to a friend about Checkers games and he mentioned this is why they don't go anymore now that they moved.  Even though the move allowed them to not compete with the Hornets for Friday/Saturday night games...the lack of food/drink before made it not worth it.

Something like this

 

Layout.jpg

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49 minutes ago, SgtCampsalot said:

Do we think this is good news? I see how the coliseum affects the neighborhoods around it and can't help but think that demoing it all would be best for the community.

It was once the largest self supporting dome in the entire world. Are you fudgeing crazy? Its a landmark.

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I figured my intent would be more apparent; I'm just an advocate of finer-grained places rather than instances of one big catalyst project, usually resulting in the community around it not have any local "wealth retention" or places of business. Charlotte wanting to be world-class will mean an inevitable amount of big-huge-major things, but having grown up on this side of town I've been hoping for it to go away for a long time; it feels like a vestige of the suburban expansion era.

If they could turn the many parking lots into a more coherent grid layout I'd be content. That Briar Creek Rd exit ramp region is a huge mess on event nights.

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MY opinion is that the facilities have very little impact on surrounding neighborhoods (positive or negative) currently.  As stated by RDF, the arena has historic value and CANNOT be razed.  Like American Legion Memorial, it must be preserved.  Therefore, the options are to let it deteriorate slowly or enhancing it for increased economic impact and benefit to the community.  I love the idea of adding hotels, restaurants and retail.  Light rail will definitely be a game changer.

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2 minutes ago, JBS said:

MY opinion is that the facilities have very little impact on surrounding neighborhoods (positive or negative) currently.  As stated by RDF, the arena has historic value and CANNOT be razed.  Like American Legion Memorial, it must be preserved.  Therefore, the options are to let it deteriorate slowly or enhancing it for increased economic impact and benefit to the community.  I love the idea of adding hotels, restaurants and retail.  Light rail will definitely be a game changer.

Well put.

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