The Athletic layoffs

I remember those old Hornets games at the Charlotte Coliseum. The atmosphere was electric. I think we were glad just to have a team.

 

Sam, it's a banking nexus. People in Charlotte are from all over.

Some of them were Redskins fans before the club arrived.

This franchise has fielded good teams over the years but not a lot of sizzle.

We will never really know, but I wonder how a Duke basketball game would do head-to-head against the Panthers, ratings-wise.

 

This is MUCH better.

Yes, Charlotte has plenty of people who grew up somewhere else. But people are also cruel to places who have too many townies for numerous reasons. Can we pick one that we won't endlessly criticize?

While the guess here is that some fans converted because the region finally had its own team, there are others who will never forgive the Panthers because it's not always a given Washington is a priority for the affiliates to pick up for broadcast. Still hearing those gripes 25 years later.

Completely agree that most of the better Panthers teams do not necessarily appeal to casual fans because their better teams had strong defenses and usually the offense kept the ball on the ground when it wasn't completing short passes to move the chains. Effective, efficient and a winning formula ... but not a lot of sizzle.

Duke basketball vs. a Panthers game could easily go either way. Thing is, as the college markets should have learned by now, is that under the umbrella of a fractured college market lies one professional team. Also ... are both Duke and Chapel Hill in the top five nationally? Is the Panthers game in December as the losses pile up as they did last year after David Tepper had already fired Ron Rivera? Or are the Panthers playing the Cowboys at home again in the playoffs, while Duke is hosting a bottom-rung ACC program?

Also, one more thing to consider. Charlotte is much more of a pro market. The Triangle is about its colleges. The Carolina Hurricanes wisely figured that out, urging fans to put away college allegiances and pull for the region's one hockey team.

 

I think Twitter followers are a national audience and the Yankees are like the Cowboys and have a bigger following than the Giants outside the NYC metro area. One thing I found interesting was in 2018 when the Daily News purged their sports staff they only kept one baseball writer for both teams but had individual staffers for both football teams. That seemed to me to be an indication of the relative interest in each team.

The News did add an additional baseball writer for the 2019 season.

 

There's significantly less Duke interest in North Carolina than there is Panthers, even though college basketball is more popular here than football. But if you're using Charlotte as the example of people from all over the country moving here, Duke is even more so -- and fewer stay of them stay in state after graduation. Great school, but it's more of an international brand than a local one.

 

I went to Indiana University, graduating in 1984. At that time college basketball was king as the Colts had just moved. Currently is there more interest in the Pacers or in IU and Purdue basketball.

 

I blame Crean for that. Crean likes him some Crean. I’m not sure the new guy is all that different.

 

I grew up in the same area at the same time but in my neck of the woods, the Yankees were still a big deal and still, most of the time, the most compelling team in the area. Most Yankees fans my age aren't old enough to really remember the '77-78 titles, but they possess the institutional arrogance required of Yankees fans (my wife is a Yankees fan who says she SUFFERED before 1996. SUFFERED) and thus were conditioned back then (and now) to believe the history was their own. Plus, until 1989-92, they were always in the mix--the '85 team was fucking great but finished second w/98 wins. And of course, Steinbrenner made them relevant with his insanity. The Red Sox had their core, but their history of heartbreak made it hard to win over newcomers. The Mets were beyond irrelevant until 1984 and made big inroads with kids for a few years, but by the time the Yankees were turning south, the Mets were skittering back to irrelevancy and thus turning the Yankees back into the default team.

 

Boogaloo Shrimp-

Watching a team give Alvaro Espinosa 500 at-bats is an uncertain ring of suffering, I will grant your wife that.

Mets fans laughed until they saw their team give Joe Orsulak 400 ABs out of a power outfield position a few years later.

I would contend the Mets' wannabe dynasty was so much more fun- often for the wrong set of reasons.

 

I've posted this before, but when I have visited my daughter in France, I see many bros who probably could not identify a baseball wearing Yankee caps. Never seen one wearing a Mets cap. The Yankees are the symbol of New York to many who've never been there.

 

Not really wrong on Crean. Great recruiter, mediocre coach. But the downhill slide of the IU basketball program began with the awful hire of Kelvin Sampson.

 

Damn. My HS beat Joe Orsulak my senior year. I was the beat reporter for the town weekly. Covered our perfect game, too.