Charlotte Football Announces 2 Phased Stadium Expansion Plan, Eyeing ~50k Capacity

[Drew]

Seems incredibly ambitious given 1. How young the program is and 2. The current environment. This is supposed to happen in two phases though, and we're all familiar with how phased stadium expansions go:

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[Drew]

 

[Dooooooomed]

Trying to impress NotMadAresco.

 

[Storrs South]

Not to throw stones from a glass house, but why? They had 1 sell out last season at a current 15,000 person stadium and I see this not so flattering piece from less than 2 years ago that even talks about their attendance woes:

In 2017, Charlotte’s average attendance in 15,314-seat Richardson Stadium (smallest in FBS) dropped to 11,903 (a 16 percent decline from 2016’s average of 14,192), fifth lowest among 129 FBS teams. That included an all-time low of 8,330 in the season finale against Florida Atlantic. Overall, college football attendance has been in decline, according to numbers through 2017, although not nearly at the rate of Charlotte’s last season.

About 2,500 temporary seats have been added to Richardson Stadium for Saturday’s game and next week’s showdown with Appalachian State. But, while the Mountaineers’ game is a sellout, tickets remained through Friday for Fordham.

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/college/article217636865.html

 

[Adios]

I see 30,000 seats, not 50,000.

 

[BlueDogs]

Hey, good for them. Fortune favors the bold.

 

[huskymedic]

I see 30,000 seats, not 50,000.

On top of the current capacity of 15k.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

Charlotte's political leaders are very ambitious and see themselves as the next Atlanta. They already have a pro football and basketball team and are scheduled to get an MLS team in the near future. Rumor is if MLB does expand, Charlotte will be one of the finalists for a franchise along with Portland, Las Vegas, and Montreal. As the city was 'left out' of the state's higher education landscape with UNC and NC State (along with Duke) in the Raleigh /Durham area, there is a huge push to make UNCC the next 'big' UNC state school and athletics is just one aspect along with in increased focus on research dollars (and hence business dollars), potentially upgrading UNCC's medical school to a stand-alone college instead of a branch of UNC's medical school, and the formation of a UNCC law school.

 

[Goatmeat]

Good for them. At least they are looking toward the future instead of regretting the past. UConn should take notes.

 

[TJT]

Charlotte sacrificed their once good basketball program for 2nd rate football. Neither program has had much success since. 49ers hoops is 72-112 since it fully joined CUSA for football six seasons ago. The only winning year was six years ago and the last two seasons have had only single digit win records. This downfall happened even with lower basketball league competetion.

 

[Adios]

Charlotte sacrificed their once good basketball program for 2nd rate football. Neither program has had much success since. 49ers hoops is 72-112 since it fully joined CUSA for football six seasons ago. The only winning year was six years ago and the last two seasons have had only single digit win records. This downfall happened even with lower basketball league competetion.

With a football stadium of 45K seats, I am pretty sure they have aspirations higher than C-USA. Can it be achieved? Remains to be seen. NC does have 4 P5 schools, as is.

Besides, how many athletic departments are aiming for autonomous status these days? The whole AAC, Buffalo, the Mountain West, etc.