Visit Charlotte, NC

What events led to the development of present-day Charlotte, North Carolina? First agold rush, a boomtown bank town, and—did you know, a sports mecca, still gathering momentum?

Bank of America Stadium, home to the Superbowl veteran Carolina Panthers is literally builton top of a long-silent gold mine. Here you will find the story of Charlotte’s first bonanza—puregold, and it’s most recent one—sports mania.

Charlotte, the glistening metropolis of modern day, sprang from the dusty trails of an indiancrossroads—Trade and Tryon streets. In the pioneer days, Charlottetown first blossomed with a fast,furious and short-lived gold rush of 1849.

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The regiongained noticefrom theNorth andSouth for it’smild climate,

proximity to beaches and moun-tains, and beautiful treelines atoprolling pastures of green grass. Aboosterish, progressive set of localleaders also became an impetus forsolid, consistent growth.

And as modern sports andbroadcasting came along,Charlotte eagerly embraced thenewfound benefits that a goodteam and a loyal fan-base can provide toany locale.

In the early days ofACC basketball,Charlotte-basedRaycom sports broad-cast Tarheel, Wolfpackand Blue Devil compe-titions around theglobe. And a fledgling,Charlotte-based bankNCNB rolled out acampaign “ We wantto be the best bank inthe neighborhood”.And the world listened. NCNBbecame Nationsbank, and eventu-ally Bank of America. And justdown the street (Tryon street to beexact) First Union and Wachoviagrew and grew, and eventuallyformed Wachovia NationalBank—the 3rd largest bank in theworld. Through acquisitions andthe leadership of a former Marinenamed Hugh McColl, Bank ofAmerica had become the world’ssecond largest bank.

So here you can see how the“Never mix business with pleas-

ure” statement just doesn’t holdup.

The banks, the politicians, theresidents—most of them fans ofsports or at least their potential todrive local economy—decided thatthe good citizens of Charlottecould mix work and play.

Here’s a brief snapsot of sportsand their impact on the city thatworks hard, and plays hard.

B a s k e t b a l lCollege basketball has long had agrip on all of us here in the South.Grown men (and women) are

driven to fits of ecstasy and despairwhile watching the ACC orNCAA tournaments. Charlotte’sfirst foray into NBA basketballreached similar heights of enthusi-asm when the expansion team beatthe Boston Celtics in an earlyplayoff series amidst setting leaguerecords for attendance in it’s earlyyears. Charlotteans are by-naturepatriotic, joiners and competitors.We fell in love with MuggsyBogues, Alonzo Mourning, DaleCurry and Larry Johnson. Alas,love is a fleeting thing. Big money,

a rogue owner and a national spot-light ultimately proved to be theundoing of this spectacular, adren-aline-triggering professional sportsjuggernaut. But it gave us all ourfirst taste of blood, and set thecourse for the Queen City foryears to come.

S t o c k C a r R a c i n gIt’s hard to say that the biggest

draw in Charlotte sports now, andwell into the future is notNASCAR™. In fact, the numbersclearly demonstrate that for twoseparate weeks each year, there is

nothing else thateven comesclose. In Mayand October ofeach year,upwards of125,000 fansconverge justNorth ofCharlotte atLowe’s MotorSpeedway forevents that areunparalleled infanfare, mediacoverage and

life-and-death moments. While the cars are faster

than ever, the fanbase growingfaster than ever, it has not alwaysbeen so. The original Charlotterace track—located in neighboringPineville, was constructed ofwood, and burned to the ground.Years later Bruton Smith and H.A.“Humpy Wheeler” found them-selves running a whole new ballgame, with sponsors and heroicdrivers at Charlotte MotorSpeedway in Concord, NC.

Through numerous trials and

ABOVE LEFT Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson at Wachovia Championship 2006.ABOVE Charlotteans Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. visit NYC.


tribulations, the track garned racessuch as the Winston (now NextelCup) race, and became the hometrack of many of America’s mostsuccessful and famous race teams,including Hendrick Motorsports,and (). Now, hundreds of events areheld each year at LMS, includingthe Food Lion AutoFair, one of thelargest car shows on the planet. TheNextel Cup in May and the Coca-Cola 600 in October are fan anddriver favorites. Recent renovationsof the track have added excitementand there’s much, much more tocome with the unveiling of theNASCAR™ Hall of Fame inuptown Charlotte in 2008. If youwant all the NASCAR™ you canhandle, point yourself North on I-77 and visit Mooresville, Race CityUSA™ where you’ll find speed

shops, museums, and with any luckrun into your favorite NASCAR™driver.

B a s e b a l lOne of the oldest pro sports initia-tives in Charlotte is now the onlypro sports piece of the puzzle miss-ing. The quaint yet high-pricedneighborhood of Dilworth wasonce home to Crockett Park, homeof the Charlotte Orioles, farm teamfor the then A-list BaltimoreOrioles. Years later, after destruc-tion of the park and auctioning oflots for new home development init’s stead, a new, upbeat and enthusi-astic baseball operation sprang up innearby Rock Hill. The CharlotteKnights have enjoyed consistentoperations, fan support and occa-sional bursts of dominance in the

triple-A division. At this moment,various groups are strategizing tobring the Knights, and ultimatelyMajor League Baseball to uptownCharlotte. Although uptown land israpidly disappearing, if the past isany indication of future pro sportsadoption by the city’s developers,leaders and fans, you can count oneating a hot-dog mid-day and pre-tending to cheer on the stylishly-garbed Charlotte team in a state-of-the-art stadium against the Braves.

F o o t b a l lOne Super Bowl appearance andmultiple play-off appearances by thecurrent Carolina Panthers outfit,and early underdog wins against theAikman-Smith-Irvin Cowboys haveshocked the world and endeared thecitizens of Charlotte. Football, a


more expensive proposition forboth Universities and pro owner-ship alike, took awhile to get afoothold in the Carolinas. But that’snot for a lack of effort, or team suc-cess. The original CharlotteHornets was a rag-tag, hard-hittinggang of collegiate castaways andinjured pros who wound up sellingtheir uniforms in lieu of salariespromised. But interest was high,and lessons were learned.

Another decade, another team,same venue—The Charlotte Baronsdonned pads and in spite of winningseasons, a spotty attendance, poorand under-financed managementand inconsistent competition fellprey to the same fate that the XFLwould experience a decade later.Football it seems, requires morethan a fan-base and money. Itrequires a fan-base, lots and then

lots more—money, professionalmanagement, quick and oftenpainful decision-making, luck andchemistry. The latter is perhaps theelement which creates the drama,the heroism, and the very fever-pitch experience that drives thegame of football and the NFL to it’snow unparalleled heights of interestand profitability. The CarolinaPanthers organization promises alifetime of On the horizon: a col-lege team for the University ofNorth Carolina at Charlotte.

G o l fWealth, a booming real estate mar-ket and a culture of sports fanaticspoints directly to the landscape ofgolf course communities you nowfind encompassing Charlotte andthe surrounding areas. After suc-cess as a conduit to bring theFinal Four to Charlotte,Luquire, George,Andrews—a local adver-tising and PR agencypaired with JohnnyHarris and friends (own-ers of Quail HollowCountry Club and GolfCourse) to land a stop onthe PGA Tour. In keepingwith tradition at the club,they presented a world-classevent the first year, andhave ever-since been her-alded as the model for allPGA events. Once again,Charlotte movers and shak-ers spared no expense, ral-lied regional enthusiasm,and applied genuine south-ern hospitality—resultingin another win with pro-fessional sports, done right.

H o c k e yThe Carolina Hurricanes

have literally taken the NHL, andthe world, by storm. The StanleyCup—held firmly in the grasp ofthe South—seemed outlandishmerely a decade ago. Yet the enthu-siasm and longevity of the CharlotteCheckers franchise and the tran-sient population of the East Coastproduced an environment thatcaught the attention of investors in

Raleigh, NC


and Charlotte. And in short order,you have the World ChampionCarolina Hurricanes.

W r e s t l i n g , Crockett (remember Crockett Parkabove?) was responsible for thebroadcasting of one of the first tele-vised sensations of the sportsworld—WorldChampionshipWrestling. You maynot remember TonyAtlas (also Mr.Universe severaltimes), Tiger Conway,Two-Ton, The Sheik,Jimmy Snuka, anddozens of others whoblazed the trail forHulk Hogan, TheRock, Stone Cold andTheUndertaker,but nativeCharlotteanswatched themdevelop theformat cur-rently dubbedsports enter-tainment eachweekend atlocal studios.They bor-rowed fromMuhammedAli and others, but to be sure, theywere the true pioneers of modernprofessional wrestling. GeneAnderson, one half of theMinnesota wrecking crew, moved toCharlotte, and along with a handfulof others, catapulted Ric Flair,Ricky Steamboat, Arn Anderson,The Four Horsemen, TheWarlords, Magnum T.A., LexLuger, and dozens of others to

national fame. As a nativeCharlottean with proximity to thisanomaly behind-the-scenes,onstage, and inthe aftermath, Ican confirmthat while thissport is fre-quently script-

ed, it’s participants are exceptionalathletes and risk life-and-limb eachtime they don the tight, often-glit-

tered garb that is part-and-parcel ofthis unique spectacle of the sportsworld.

B o x i n gDid you know thatLowe’s MotorSpeedway PresidentH.A. “Humpy”Wheeler is a formergolden-gloves cham-pion? That mayexplain why you’llsee his face at FightNight in Charlotteeach and every time.Over the years,Charlotte has pro-duced many events,

drawing well-known names ofthe boxing world. But recentlyCalvin Brocke, a nativeCharlottean, topped all previousrepresentations with his six-round challenge of VladmirKlitschko at Madison SquareGarden. A nervous start begat aslugfest and despite a sixth roundTKO by Klitschko ultimatelyyielded an after-fight statementby Klitcshko to HBO’s LarryMerchant as follows: “Calvin is achampion. He hits hard. He isthe best fighter in the heavy-weight division (besides myself)”.Hopes are high that Calvin willreturn to challenge for a belt,and enthusiasm for boxing inCharlotte remains on the rise.Smart money says that a champi-onship bout will be held in theinfield of Lowe’s MotorSpeedway.

S P O R T S I N J U N ESo you’re in Charlotte, it’s Summer,how can you be a part of the sportspandemonium?


Visit Charlotte, NC

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