Bob Johnson can go do unspeakable things to animals.

Checkers (ECHL) share an arena that was overpaid for by tax payers with the (Johnson's) Bobcats.

Bob Johnson decided the have a Horse show for his daughter here in Charlotte ( she will be competing, I hope she loses) when the Checkers will most likely have a PLAYOFF game.

So, what do they do, move this potential game to a practice arena that seats 2k on benches.

I am a season ticket holder, and this is the biggest slap in the face, to move a professional team sport PLAYOFF game to a practice facility.

This crappy butt arena wasn't even built right, will only seat 12k for a hockey game ( and the "multipurpose" score board was placed not a center ice like every other "multipurpose" arena, and 18k for a basket ball game ( which now Charlotte can't host a NCAA tourney because it is too small ).

So go Explict Word yourself Bob.

18,000 is too small?

The last one was 24k for basket ball.

Yes, Charlotte used to get a lot more big tournaments, like the ACC tournament, regionals for the NCAA tournament, and as an up and coming city would have been in a position to host more Final Fours and such, if they had a big downtown arena.

However, unlike a week in week out seasonal game, big tournament games are in high demand and the people that run them want to pack in the fans, so at 24k you wouldn't even be on the high side, so at 18k, you'd be at least 10-12k below some of the larger venues. Multiply $80 or so by 10,000 additional seats and you can see why this is an issue.

Like the Alamo Dome where the final four was hosted last year:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alamodome

Here are some record attendances:


I didn't even quote the RECORD attendances, which are over 65,000 people, but most of those were football related, in which case we do have Panther stadium where we've held successful college big games before, but I highlighted some of the bigger basketball events in the 40,000+ range.

So, if you had a versatile 30k seater for example, you'd get some of the bigger regional tournaments, bigger better concerts, etc.

I agree w/ the OP if they did that to the checkers and their fans. I've been to the practice facility for a pre season warm up before and there is nothing there to speak of, and to host a playoff game there would be insane. Scheduling of mixed use space is critical to make it all work, and it's no surprise to me that they have showed this level of incompetence based on past decisions...

Karz

Uh the Alamo Dome is mainly for football or so I thought

That said never saw a reason to demolish the Charlotte Coliseum

Well, someone questioned why it was small at 18k, and the Alamodome hosted the final 4 last year, so I happened to know that and it was an easy reference. I'm sure if one had nothing but time, they could research the last 10 final fours and see how many people the host facilities hold, I'd bet most of them hold more than 18k, that's all I was trying to say.

i too am a checkers season ticket holder, at least i was before i was deployed overseas. My parents are still STH, have been since 93'.

Moving to the bobcats arena was, IMHO, ove of the bigger mistakes that they CC made, besides maybe kurt seher.