Charlotte Football......Somewhat OT

[bobber]

As rumored, Charlotte has gotten the go ahead from its administration to pursue football at the school. While they still have to raise a ton of money, I think they are pretty well on their way to having a team and eventually a stadium on campus.

Although plans are sketchy, the target date for fielding a team is 2013. I would assume they'd start at the FCS level (scholarship or non-scholarship is anyone's guess) but they eventually plan on FBS status.

For a southern school, especially one that is growing and ambitious like Charlotte, I'd say this step was inevitable. Good luck to them.

[Lurking Dog]

I would assume they'd start at the FCS level (scholarship or non-scholarship is anyone's guess) but they eventually plan on FBS status.

No d-i school can start out fbs.

This will be a scholarship program. But first, they need to raise the money. Not a done deal yet.

[Flyer Gramps]

From this morning's Winston Salem Journal:

JOURNAL STAFF AND WIRE REPORTER
Published: January 29, 2009
CHARLOTTE -- UNC Charlotte has announced details for football seat-license packages for its proposed football program, and where fans sit in a yet-to-be-built stadium will depend in large part on how much they pay.
The FSLs were originally offered at $1,000 per seat, and $1,000 seats remain available, The Charlotte Observer reported. But the finished plan offers two primary tiers of seating, Green and Gold.
Green Tier FSLs will cost $1,000 each for up to four tickets, and the money, which can be paid in four annual installments, must be paid in full by June 30, 2013. Gold Tier seats will be between the 30-yard lines and will cost $2,500 each. Gold Tier seats also will require a minimum annual contribution of $1,500 to UNCC's athletics foundation, starting in the 2013 fiscal year.
There are expected to be 5,500 Green Tier seats, 1,800 Gold Tier seats and 200 White Golf seats, primarily for corporations, in a stadium projected to seat 15,000.
The school now has subscriptions for about 5,400 tickets, from 2,078 applicants, the Observer reported. The FSLs don't include the cost of the tickets themselves. UNCC hopes to start play in 2013.

So it looks like to date they have a Welcome Stadium size crowd willing to pay for seat licenses. Don't know if this is a good response or not. It seems to me to be a tough economy to sell licenses but again we're talking Charlotte and those bankers & investment firms have little grasp on reality. Their firms are nearly failing but they continue to pay large bonuses so they don't lose their execs; so where would they go?

Anyway, as some posters who Lurk around here have said, it ain't a done deal yet until the bucks are promised and the way things are going this year, maybe the bucks have to be seen!

[UACFlyer]

The University of CT moved from scholarship FCS status to FBS over a period of about five years,.....then spent another ~ 3 years as an independent before being allowed to join the Big East. UConn's capital expenditures for a stadium and football complex were about $150 million not counting the land for the stadium, which was a gift.

This is a very, very expensive proposition, which is why so few schools play FBS football.

[Figgie123]

Trustees have approved the football plan. 40.5 million to build a 30,000 seat stadium and fieldhouse.,

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091211/ap_on_sp_co_ne/fbc_unc_charlotte_team

Figgie

[chriscage]

Big dollars and the scale of the stadium suggest scholarship FCS.

What conference is the best fit? :singer:

[ClevelandFlyer05]

I'd say their best fit would be in the Colonial Athletic Association or the Southern Conference.

[DetroitFlyer]

what conference really wants a temporary member? I would not be surprised to see them play as an independent until they move to FBS.... Still, a good game for Campbell and Davidson as they are starting up.

[UACFlyer]

Not many large (25,000 students) public universities are satisfied with FCS football. When details of the stadium are released pay attention to how easily it can be expanded.

The university may be playing it very carefully in order to get started, secure funding, etc. And it will take quite a while no matter what course they follow. But, the pot at the end of the rainbow for Charlotte is the Big East.

UNC is a national, doctoral reseach university....a good institutional fit with the Big East. There should no problem re "fit". What has to occur first though is years of FBS football as an independent at a level such that sliding into the BE does not water down the conference. Thus, UNC is in for a at least a decade of "warm up" prior to FBS consideration.


I think DF is on the right track. UNC may want a football program. But a university like that doesn't want to be playing FCS football.

[m21eagle45]

Big dollars and the scale of the stadium suggest scholarship FCS.

What conference is the best fit? :singer:

I would have to disagree here. There are 30-40 teams in FBS that have just above 30k seats or below including most of the MAC schools, some of the WAC schools, and most schools in the Sun Belt. I think this shows that they just want to get a stadium built, and get the football program going. They would have atleast 5 years at fcs to raise money to add seating before becoming FBS.

[UACFlyer]

The Blue Hens have had one of the most consistently successful 1AA/FCS programs for many years;....and they average over 20,000 per game, well above most (maybe all?) MAC teams. the team has support....big time.

Yet I don't recall ever hearing any discussion about even the slightest interest in Delware playing FBS football. Surely they would have fan support; they have it now. But, to compete they'd have to drop about $100 million on capital improvements. In the climate for the foreseeable future few if any schools will able to do that.

An issue that is not often mentioned is the importance of faculty support;...it's a must. If the faculty rebels at the notion of spending millions on football it will not happen. That's one of UMass' problems.

Why not an issue at UConn? Here's why. The success of UConn basketball in the 90s was instrumental in passage by the legislature of a $ 1 billion dollar capital improvement program at UConn. The faculty were smart enough to know that never would have happened without the enormous popularity of the UConn Huskies. So, while upgrading football some years later was not a slam dunk, there was no significant faculty opposition. Moreover, the legislature approved a second $ 1 billion for capital improvements.

And timing means eveything. Could UConn pull it off in today's economy? No way!

[ClevelandFlyer05]

For what it's worth, I think the short-term goal of Charlotte ending up in FBS is overly ambitious and perhaps unrealistic. My guess is that they're going to have to spend some significant time "working their way up" and that may include an extended stay in a conference like the CAA or SC. If, and only if, they're successful on the field and off the field (and that's no given), maybe then they can entertain thoughts of moving to FBS. But it's not going to be an easy road.

On the flip side, we have another school that's implicitly saying that Division I FCS non-scholarship is not good enough for them. These are the types of schools/programs that our AD and the commissioner of the PFL need to be selling on the merits of this level of play!

[UACFlyer]

Cleveland, non-scholarship FCS football isn't good enough for the likes of Charlotte. UNC is a large public university with over 25,000 students. Few schools like that even play scholarship FCS football....it's just not in keeping with the size and image of the school.

The PFL is comprised of medium-to-relatively small private schools. Even Moorhead state is a relatively small state school, about the size of UD.

I recall when UConn was selling its reasons for upgrading to FBS one of the reasons was: "because large, major public universities play FBS football; and we are a large, major public university". Now, of course, not all "large, major" publics play FBS football; but among those that play football at all, most play FBS football. So in that context it's very easy to see where UNC is headed.

Schools act in what they perceive to be their best self interest;...they try not to let others influence them. But, if UD and/or the PFL could do so, the schools we would try to talk into non-schollie FCS football would be our peers, X, SLU, Marquette, Detroit. What a mid-West oriented conference that would be! We might even try to get schools like Villanova and Richmond to come to their senses and eliminate scholarships.

Won't happen. For any of the non-football peers mentioned above to decide to play football again would be a stunning development, most especially with the economy as it is.

[Flyer Gramps]

Public schools in NC are suffering a money shortage from the state. For 13 years, a not-very-long beltway around the NE side of the county has been put off by NCDOT and now it will be sidelined another 10 years while trafic to the new Fedex hub, Dell plant and soon Caterpillar plant will run through downtown. But this morning's W-S Journal tells the story of our Governor's latest bill sighning:

UNC Charlotte has cleared its final hurdle to start a football program in 2013.
Gov. Beverly Perdue this week signed a capital-projects bill that includes funding for the 49ers' stadium construction. It was the last ceremonial move needed to start a team at the Football Championship Subdivision level.
"We've done it," Athletics Director Judy Rose said. "To think that what was started way back with the initial feasibility study -- and even before that with the grassroots movement -- has now received the final go-ahead. It's extremely satisfying.
"This has not been an easy process, but nothing worthwhile ever is. There are no more ifs, no more votes, no more approvals. We will play football in 2013. It's a done deal."
Chancellor Philip Dubois first recommended football in 2008, and the board of trustees approved the move. The university has since been scrambling to raise $23 million to build a 15,000-seat stadium on campus.
The school of 22,000 students is one of the largest in the nation without football. The 49ers play in the non-football Atlantic 10 in other sports, and Rose is trying to get the football team in a league.
"This is a great time to be a Niner," Dubois said. "We hope that the entire community will make us their ‘home team' on Saturdays

[Flyer Gramps]

Well its football season at UNC-Charlotte, for the first time.

Probably ahead of a schedule some had imagined, but a new stadium will be full and a first-time team on the field against the Campbell Camels!

It is a hot ticket this game, not all students will see it - needed to win a lottery drawing! Of course an online scalper has $200 seats for sale!

About 7,500 game tickets were allotted to students, 6,800 season tickets & permanent-seat-license holders and 1,000 tickets for players families, opposing team fan's, recruits, sponsors and HIGH SCHOOL COACHES! [please don't say, "only 15,000 seats'? It was designed for quick future expansion]

Amazing speed this new football entrant; there were naysayers about them or how quickly they could evolve. But here they are, an independent FCS team that has already been accepted into an FBS Conference a couple years from now...how about that!

Oh, today's opponent, the PFL's own Campbell, has a new coach who is very familiar to us. Coach Steve Minter played his entire pro career with the Carolina Panthers. We don't play Campbell this season but those who do will find a harder hitting team with a 4-3 defense and a transfer; Liberty's QB from last year beat out the former Camel starter.

Go Camels!;)

[DetroitFlyer]

UNCC is a large school student wise. Not surprised that they will be FBS shortly. Nice game and good experience for Campbell.

[UACFlyer]

Wow! Was watching the Rice-Texas A&M game......defensive back hits a receiver going up for a catch...a hit you've seen 1000+ times.

Ref throws a flag citing the new "hitting a defensive player rule". The A&M player is ejected and will also miss the first half of A&M's next game.

A tough penalty sure to cause much controversy.

Interesting.

[Flyer Gramps]

49'ers beat the Camels 52-7 for their first win in an inaugural season after two years of practice.

[Chris R]

When you are financing stadium construction w/help from the governor, transitions are usually much quicker. Could never happen at UD.

The Charlotte/Campbell score doesnt surprise me. Charlotte is paying kids to go to school and play football. Campbell is not. Entirely different recruiting pond.

[bobber]

Still, this whole thing does make my head spin. The Charlotte football program went up with amazing...amazing...speed.

From 0 to 60 in the blink of an eye.

Any bets on when they announce they're going FBS?

[UACFlyer]

Most Priders know that Sports Illustrated is about to unload on Okla State in a five part expose of Cowboy FB. OSU is already girding for the onslaught, knowing full-well that what SI will expose is true....going back a decade.

Paying players, academic fraud, providing sex to HS recruits...and much, much more.

Miami is still awaiting its punishment.

In my opinion, when extensive violations like Miami's and OSU's are exposed and occurred over a very long time....a decade or more,...punishment on the order of what Penn St received is in order.

[Flyer Gramps]

The movie story about SMU - Southern Methodist University - was amazing and I bet things around big time football are worse now.

The Death Penalty is so hard to return from and it may have helped in that Texas league for a few years but something less drastic needs to happen more often.

Don't you wish the NCAA could act & punish faster?

[Flyer Gramps]

Still, this whole thing does make my head spin. The Charlotte football program went up with amazing...amazing...speed.

From 0 to 60 in the blink of an eye.

Any bets on when they announce they're going FBS?

Hi Bobber,

You didn't catch my mention of that earlier. Actually it was announced on May 4, 2012 that the 49'ers football will join Conference USA in 2015. This is the first time that a team was ever accepted into what is now FBS before they started play. In 2013 & 14 they are playing FCS Independent!

They may be even faster than your eye blink...hey?

[bobber]

Ooops...my bad.

My head is spinning even faster now.