Some excerpts (and a wide variety of opinion) from a Tar Heel board on Charlotte and football:
---- "UNCC is for all intents and purposes a commuter school. It has a large student body, but does not have a reputation for a large amount of alumni giving. They are not going to get in a major conference and will not get huge TV money. They are going to have to go out and raise it. And they will have to raise a lot more than just to fund a football program. Adding football causes a huge Title IX issue. They will have to add 2 or 3 womenâs sports and pay for them too.
So letâs say you can raise the seed money. You still have to drastically increase annual giving to make it all work. Here is teh rub. You have a school in the stateâs largets city that is growing like a weed. Still, basically anybody that wants to apply can get in. Administrators and Educators have to make a decison. Ther eis only so much money to go around. So do you want to remain a glorified community college with a football team or do you want to use these funds to enhance the academic reputation of your University so you can increase its selectivity? Which better serves yoru student body and community?
Bottom line is that the only way football at UNCC happens is if one or two enormous benfactors step up and fund teh whole thing start to finish. "
---- "some of the players in Charlotte have decided they want it. Therefore, I suspect it will happen. The leaders of Charlotte decided they wanted the NBA and were told it was not feasible. Then the NFL. Then a top of the tour golf tournament. The list goes on. Apparently, they have now decided they want a college football team. UNCC is the benefactor.
Money is always an issue, but will be addressed, imo. Friday and the like are respected, but irrelevant."
----- "Regardless of Spangler and Fridayâs feelings, football at Charlotte is going to happen! One can always find reasons to give why something will not work. However, Charlotte is committed on making football happen!
---- "I have seen the feasibility studies and I have to say the economics just do not add up. Of course, it has been done before. UAB and USF have had success in smaller markets than Charlotte. They are still not self sustaining economically however. Also, they have much larger talent pools from which to draw. "
---- "The PTBs at UNCC would be wise to shelf this for a couple years. Old Dominion is starting up their program and will play their first games in 2009. Thsi will be a litmus test for the region. I know Charlotte is a larger area, but it also has more competition for fans. It will be interesting to track how this works.
---- "Not surprised to hear this from Friday again. UNCC should do what is in its best interests as they see it; not how Friday and Spangler see it.
---- "Actually I think Charlotte could draw a talented group of athletes if they handle the situation properly. With less restrictive enrolment requirements they could attract some of the very gifted athletes that cannot get in to some of the other schools. Just look how long it has taken University of South Florida to be a viable and feared football team. This is basically due to their ability to admit athletes that had trouble being admitted to some of the other high profile schools. Charlotte is a great city to live and in a four state area could draw from a very talented pool of players.
---- We already have this option in NC. It is called ECU.
---- "UNCC should have a football program IMO, and UNCC alone should decide the issue. It is a large university with a good basketball program in need of football. Its on campus population is growing rapidly. The city of Charlotte most likely would embrace the program. Competition for recruits will make recruitment tougher but thatâs life. Why not allow the university to seek its own destiny?
---- "I could completely wrong, but I think there is a significant obstacle for UNCC to have D-1 type attendance figures. As Charlotte ha sgrown, people from all over teh region have moved in. There are a ton of folks in Charlotte that drive to Columbia, Athens, Clemson, Chapel Hill, Winston, Durham, Greenville, Blacksburg, Knoxville, and Charlottesville each weekend. I doubt UNCC having a football team would change that. I understand that there are people who did not go to college who might jump on the bangwagon. However, studies show that these people tend to be pro sports fans. And the dollar only goes so far. Finally, you have the Yankees that have moved down with the banks. It would scare the heck out of me to have to count on these people for anything. No doubt they could make 1-AA work and get 20K or so per game. But as far as big time 1-A football goes, I just donât see it.
---- "Attendance is one thing, but money wonât be a problem. The power brokers want college football in Charlotte, and they want 1-A football. I have heard they may start out 1-AA, but plan to go 1-A very quickly. They also want major conference alliance - I suspect Big East, but who knows. This push is about what Charlotte the city has to offer, not about a university, so the typical issues will be overcome differently, I believe.
---- "The point Spranger and Friday tried to make was not at all compelling. Their reason for Charlotte not having football is that more focus needs to be on academics. Big time sports has diminished the quality of higher education. When one of the faculty members asked Spangler why he was not beating the drum for UNC, State, and ECU to scale back its emphasis on major college sports Spanglerâs replied, âdo you know what happens when you stand in front of a locomotive? You get run over.â He proceeded to state that he was strongly urging Charlotte not to consider football because they do not have a locomotive. My understanding is those who were in attendance, were most unimpressed with the argument Friday and Spangler attempted to make. Some were even resentful.
---- "It is ironic that the largest city in the state and largest between Atlanta and Baltimore only has JCSU representing them on Saturdays. It will happen.
---- "But donât think it would take Charlotte several decades of being in 1-AA before they could make they jump to D-1. Think it would take about 10 years assuming they can build a winner in D-1AA in that time frame. (And I think they can.) The Big East just might like to have a punching bag in Charlotte if that was the only way for them get them up to 12 teams so they can get a championship game and a BIGGER TV contract.
---- "The only way they become a recruiting threat is if somehow they end up in a BCS conference like the Big East as I posted earlier; that is a long shot at best.
â "Dookâs rise in academics with student applications has risen with Coach Kâs time at Dook. Of course, TV exposure worldwide from sports is evil according to the Mayberry crowd.
---- "Didnât you get the memo? Basketball is different. The same rules donât apply with the Mayberry crowd because Football is somehow a dirty sport.
---- "If Carolina hasnât been able to win at football with a $50 millions athletic budget, top facilities, and solid fan support, UNCC has no chance. UNCC is basketball schools, that draws little interest in the Charlotte market and have below average fan support. UNC, dook and NCSU are the basketball powers in the Charlotte market. As for football, Charlotte is a Clemson, USC, UNC, VT, NCSU and ASU town. UNCC will not draw any interest from the local community outside of their alumni base, which are not interest in college sports.
---- "I admire Friday for all the good he has done over the years. The UNC system as it exists today would not be a reality without the guiding hand of Bill Friday. But that doesnât mean I have to agree with him when he is wrong.
