Charlotte Bobcats Arena

[DanRNC]

I thought would have definitely had a sell-out for the season opener. I am sure a lot of those tickets were for the business set for the big event. The sell-outs for this team won't be for the Bobcats but for big name NBA stars like LeBron, Shaq, Kobe, etc. Also, if there was sponsorship I would think they would have announced this during the main stage event last night. Its amazing the apathy about b-ball in Charlotte but this was foreseen.

[AuLukey]

I thought would have definitely had a sell-out for the season opener. I am sure a lot of those tickets were for the business set for the big event. The sell-outs for this team won't be for the Bobcats but for big name NBA stars like LeBron, Shaq, Kobe, etc. Also, if there was sponsorship I would think they would have announced this during the main stage event last night. Its amazing the apathy about b-ball in Charlotte but this was foreseen.

[Skyline49er]

I think once the Bobcats get a high caliber player (Lebron, Wade, Nash) fans will want to come night in and night out to see that player. I do think that the Morrison, Felton tandem could one day fill the seats every night once they play with eachother for a while.

As for the game last night, 5 players scored in double figures and two players scored nine points.

[reverbandwhiskey]

I don't see why everybody worries about the sponsorship deal, sure it brings in a HUGE amount of money every year, but a lot of arenas and coliseums around the country don't have naming rights (i.e. the soon to be deceased Charlotte Coliseum.)

[Charlotte_native]

Hang on, since we paid to build the thing, shouldn't we name it?

[swh1972]

Some points that have been made with regard to attendance numbers not being very good have cited the team's poor performance. Another reason can be the lack of a marketable superstar on the team.

Take Cleveland for example. The season before LeBron James arrived 2002-2003, the average home attendance was around 11,500 per game. Last season, it was aver 19,000. Granted the team was getting better, but having that high profile star helps put people in the stands. This season, it's one of the toughest tickets to get in Cleveland.

Okefor, May, Felton, Morrison, and Wallace are good players, but none of them is a superstar (not yet).

[Idaho]

I think the "Lynn Wheeler Political Career Memorial Arena" would work well.

[monsoon]

Perhaps if we each chip in twenty bucks we could have the Urban Planet Arena

[cityboi]

Name it "The Crown" in reference to the Queen City.

[reverbandwhiskey]

Who actually OWNS the building?

[monsoon]

Who actually OWNS the building?

[reverbandwhiskey]

The City of Charlotte owns the building and all liabilities that come with that. However they have signed over complete rights to the use of the building to Bob Johnson of the Bobcats. He has exclusive rights to sell the space for any event held in the arena, and any profits from any event that appears there, such as a concert, go to him. Case in point, they wanted to charge the Charlotte Mecklenburg School system $19,000 (I believe) for each graduation held there this past spring. They backed off that requirement when the outrage in the community shamed them into offering the arena for free.

Not a bad deal is it? City builds a $300M facility then gives it to a private individual for his own personal use.

[flotown]

Jeter, thank goodness, got bood when they showed him on the screen.

[reverbandwhiskey]

In Boston or Philly, I can see. In Charlotte, on opening night of their 3rd year NBA team....the Bobcats?

Charlotte fans can boo when they get an MLB team.

Not that Jeter cares what Charlotte fans think. If only the Bobcats ever have a career franchise player who wins 4 titles.

Truly pathetic.

[monsoon]

Do we get the naming revenue?

[dubone]

There is a down side for Bob. He must take all the operating losses for the building, which the city used to pay for. And if the losses continue, and he never gains a profit, and he decides he wants to leave the city, he must pay for the entire arena. That's right.

The hotel industry's taxes pay for the bonds, and the city no longer has to cover operation losses for the building.

I'm not saying it was a great deal, but there were trade offs in the negotiations. Bob has big big bill to pay if he can't make a profit here. So far, he hasn't.

[atlrvr]

There will be a total of 170 events hosted at the Bobcats arena this year.....I'm assuming multiple uses in one day is counted as a booked event, but it would be a safe assumption the arena is used over 1/3 of the days.

[monsoon]

There will be a total of 170 events hosted at the Bobcats arena this year.....I'm assuming multiple uses in one day is counted as a booked event, but it would be a safe assumption the arena is used over 1/3 of the days.

[uptownliving]

Wasn't the Milliniem Dome closed...as in not open at all when you visited it? If my memory serves me right it closed in December 2000 and is due to re-open in 2007 after being remodeled into a concert arena.

I think you do have a good point with the Dome vs. Eye argument and that is the Spikes vs Constant flow of people. The arena brings lots of people in spikes...not a constant flow. Whereas something like a farmer's market would bring people in a constant flow since it is open all day long. I don't think anyone on here is going to say that a farmer's market is a bad idea for downtown...in fact I think it would be nice to move on from the tired arena argument and talk about how we can make the farmer's market a reality.

[monsoon]

The 2000 exihibition closed at the end of 2000, but the dome was open. I was able to go inside an get some lunch at a place that had hundreds of tables and I was the only one sitting there. It has been used on and off for other events since the. It's been used for charity events, they planned to use it for the 2012 bid for the Olympics, and anything else they can find go go there. The subway station serves not only the Dome but the surrounding area.

[JC1]

"It's a testimate to how little sports venues do for cities."

Um, the Millenium dome wasnt built for Londons sports teams.

What was built for their sports teams is brand new Emirates Stadium which opened in July 2006 for Londons soccer team, Arsenal. Proving once again, the world over, there is no force that can create such pride and inspire such emotion as sports.

The Millenium Dome was a poorly pland project, not an arena in the center of a much smaller city guaranteed to have hundreds of events per year. In our city, we need the arena to lure an additional 19,000 people downtown that wouldnt have been down there that night if it werent for the arena. In London, there are already millions downtown. To go over to another section of downtown to see a dome for no reason does not make sense. They are completely different situations.

Do you really think that if something like the London Eye were proposed for Charlotte people would support it? Hell no. The vast majority of the people against the arena are against the baseball stadium, against light rail, and against progress in general. Check out the daily comments on Charlotte.com, people want to make this place Mayberry again.

[monsoon]

What was built for their sports teams is brand new Emirates Stadium which opened in July 2006 for Londons soccer team, Arsenal. Proving once again, the world over, there is no force that can create such pride and inspire such emotion as sports.

[atlrvr]

I'd say my assumptions are pretty accurate....the only events that occur multiple times in a day that I can think of are graduations and an occasional matinee of the circus and such events....we could figure it out exactly I'm sure, probably down to the hours that it is open, but I don't think that it will sway most people's opinion either way.

I would say that comparing it to Millenium Dome in London ignores the empirical evidence that in Charlotte, development is occurring around the arena. Within 1 block, there is EpiCentre, Ritz Carlton, "new pencil tower", Courtside/Court 6. Whether or not these developments can be attributed at all to the arena can make for plenty more pages of debate, but I doubt anyone can make a convincing case that there would be more development in that localized area if the arena had not been built.

[JC1]

I would say that the only thing that that proves is that people the world over are going to beotch and moan when anything big gets built, not just here in Charlotte. But the bottom line is, they got built anyway. All the whiners who are against it take the attitude, "it doesnt benefit me in any way, therefore why should we build it." Here's why, because its not all about "you." Its about society. The fact that gathering places for sports have existed for thousands of years and will continue to exist show that central gathering places in a city provide much more good for a city that bad for those who dont want them. If you dont like them, great. Dont go to the games. But when the rest of the city is having parades and in jovial spirits because a team is in the Super Bowl or just won the NBA Championship you can continue to mope around crying "we shouldnt have built it."

[monsoon]

^That is a matter of opinion. I will point out the majority of voters here voted against having an arena build downtown with public money. And on the earlier analogy about these people being against everything, I will also point out the majority of these same voters voted for a tax to build transit. I think that is a pretty good reading on how "Society" thinks about these things.