Was the game in Columbia?
I hear they have a pretty good women’s team there.
Fowler was his usual condescending self. He knows not of what he writes unless it’s the ACC. Give us more Hunter and less Scott. Thank you.
Edit: I see that one is unable to comment on the article while the O “improves their system” 
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I told you guys in another thread.
You’re wasting your time with the Observer.
If they didn’t cover us properly in the past 25 years plus why in the heck do you think they are going to now?
I used to subscribe to the actual physical paper and dropped it cause their coverage of us stunk.
And when they did cover us it was in the lens of condescension as you mention above.
I haven’t given them money in a long long time and I don’t intend to now.
They blew it.
And you don’t need them. There’s plenty of ways to find out what’s up with the teams without them.
I’m sure Langston Wertz is as nice guy. But he doesn’t have the power to change the way they cover us. And they never will change.
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The Fowler article reminded me a lot about how much we have sucked.
I agree, a Hunter article NEVER would have came across like that.
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If Fowler was any good at his craft, he would be working for a real news organization instead of the lowly observer
Nobody thinks more highly of Scott Fowler than Scott Fowler.
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Scott is a columnist. He gives his opinion. Hunter is not a full time employee but someone we hire by the story to write previews and profiles etc
Langston, thank you for coming on here. The activity alone says a lot. And, I respect your approach. You have my attention.
The CO and 49ers are better together than alone. However, the coverage needs to reflect promotion not condemnation. Over the years, there appears to have been a lot of back handed compliments toward our university.
49er Nation, let’s give tho O a fair chance. We can use their help in getting us to the next level. Our continued success gives them something to cover on a local basis.
Charlotte is desperate for local sports success. We can be that with a resurrection of basketball and the progression of football. How about our baseball, softball, and soccer? Our stadium is scheduled to be expanded in the near future. Halton arena is being enhanced and renovated. And so much more.
The Charlotte Observer can help promote our program if they would get over their ACC bias and negative perception of our university. We can exist together.
Langston, thanks again for your efforts. Count me in on giving the Observer a 2nd chance but I am looking for “fair value exchange.”
Thanks again!
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Well said 49er9er.
A lot of bad history with CO here but time to move on.
Appreciate the effort Langston, keep it up.
I think we could both use each other.
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Yeah Fowler’s latest article gives another backhand to us, calling the AAC a one-bid conference. Like thanks man, that’ll really help fuel the support for the school athletics
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Same old crap. I’ll give LW the benefit of the doubt that he actually is trying but guys like Fowler it the same old attitude. They feel that for some reason we’re not worthy of their time or effort. Nobody should be surprised.
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I can tell you we don’t have an ACC bias. No one in Charlotte much covers the ACC anymore. I can tell you that ACC stories do better here than the ones about our local schools, and some of that is certainly do to the fact that we’ve not covered them regularly for 3-5 years, but even when we did do, the audience was not there. I wasn’t really involved at the time, but I did see and note the analytics.
I have long believed we can both can win — The Observer and Charlotte — in this sports world thing. I tried in the fall with football but I didn’t come in here. That project didn’t work well on our end.
The two stories we did this week didn’t do too well either but the social media stuff seemed to get a lot of attention. But we need folks to tap the links in the social. That would make a difference. But we’ll keep going a spell and see what happens.
Ultimately, on our end, if the audience is there, the coverage will only grow. I know y’all would like to see a full time beat writer. Shoot, I would too. We just have to be able to show our corporate folks in California the audience is there to warrant it. I see some people are posting ways to get around the paywall and all that, but I’m trying to think long term.
Again, our our end, what gets us to the North Star is audience and subscribers. Y’all can say what you want about it, but in the business model I work in, that’s the gig. This is not about 1995 or 2005.
I’m talking, right now, 2024.
I can’t change the past.
Trust me, though, with a little help, we can change the future. Real talk.
Scott came on his day off to cover the game and I sat beside him. He really liked the crowd and the emotion and said there’s a real chance you can go dancing. He pointed out how the program got to how it was. I’m not tied into Charlotte like y’all are, but I thought that was no different than the types of things he writes about other schools. He almost always turns the mirror around.
I mean, ask David Tepper. Scott has a whole word for his actions: inTEPTitude.
They don’t exchange Christmas cards.
Honestly I thought bringing out the big gun would show that we are genuinely trying to do this thing. Scott also went to a football game in the fall.
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Wow…a local sports columnist actually graced the only D1 school in his city, with his presence at a game…ONCE. We feel so honored.
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I was rankled by this comment that previously you could hear conversations 15 rows away. How would he know, since he isn’t a regular attendee? Additionally, that is just not true. Charlotte basketball crowds have been smaller since the glory days, but they are never quiet.
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TWICE!
Langston, I generally appreciate you making an attempt, and totally understand where you are coming from in that you are no longer a local owned paper and have to show the corporate people that their investment gives them a return. Its the demise of local and regional papers especially in the sports section.
Heck the Salisbury Post use to send a reported to every single high school football game and basketball game in the county. It was the best high school coverage in the state bar none in my book. Now its Mike London as the only guy and pretty sure if he wasn’t around there would be minimal coverage. Not being involved in the industry I have often wondered if some people sitting in an office far away have said “oh lets cut a couple sports guys people don’t need all that coverage”, failing to realize that is why allot of people continued to pay.
I get that some of the posters here don’t want to understand that the industry is not what it was twenty or even ten years ago. Heck they were willing to buy a paper then, but now they want to find way to get it all for free and some seem to think it should be that way.
What I want to see though is more consistent coverage of games and post game articles. Not just of basketball, but of the athletic department in general.