Charlotte sports fans are starting to get older, but still have a long way to go

[Sam Mills Fan]

This dawned on me tonight when I saw the @BringBackTheBuz Hornets Twitter account go on and on about how awesome Drew Brees is and how all Panthers fans should celebrate him and his accomplishment.

It goes way beyond that though. Let me say upfront that if you personally don't fit this description then I'm NOT talking about you. Okay? Please read that and reread that. If you were loud throughout the game yesterday and didn't hug and buy beer for every Giants fan you saw yesterday, I'm not talking about you.

I was at the game yesterday (and paid for it with an awful October sunburn, screw you global warming). If you weren't there, let me blow up a myth from yesterday: there really were more Panthers fans in the stadium than Giants. By a significant margin too. There were still a ton of Giants fans though and the reason it seemed like there were more Giants fans was because almost all of them were LOUD. They knew how to make their presence felt. And despite being quiet throughout a big chunk of the game, many Panthers fans inexplicably got loud when we had the ball on 3rd downs. By my count, this is Year 24 of the Carolina Panthers and people are still making noise on 3rd down. 

That's just one game and one example though. We had opposing fan bases take over our stadium during the 15-1 year. Reddit named us as the fan base "most welcoming" to other fans to our home games. And don't even get me started on the Hornets. If you're not a Hornets fan, just know that Kemba Walker became the all-time franchise leader in points scored last season in a game vs. the Cavs, yet the applause was MUCH louder for LeBron James throughout the entire game with him getting MVP chants even by people in Hornets gear. It would be like chanting MVP for Matt Ryan in a game where Cam broke the all-time touchdowns scored mark for us. Tons of people remarked how incredibly respectful Hornets fans were of LeBron's greatness, but I was flat out embarrassed that our fans treated Kemba like an afterthought.

So I have a couple of questions: am I making too big a deal out of this and we're not as bad as I'm making us out to be? And, if you agree that Charlotte sports fans DO leave a lot to be desired when it comes to supporting the home teams, how can we make these idiot casual fans there for Instagram pictures less bad? Even though this is a transplant city, we still have that southern hospitality/Billy Graham side to us that I wish we could leave at the security checkpoints.

[Defend the Shield!]

Louder at more appropriate times, yes. More hostile to opposing fans, no. I don't want us to have a reputation like Philly or Raiders fans where people get beat up in the restrooms or knifed in the parking lot. Stuff like when Cam pulls down enemy banners is fine and we shouldn't just submissively let our building get taken over, but the idea that we need our fans to be intimidating, violent hooligans is stupid. If that's not what you're talking about, than whatever, but I've seen plenty of comments on here to that effect.

[Sam Mills Fan]

2 minutes ago, Defend the Shield! said:

Louder at more appropriate times, yes. More hostile to opposing fans, no. I don't want us to have a reputation like Philly or Raiders fans where people get beat up in the restrooms or knifed in the parking lot. Stuff like when Cam pulls down enemy banners is fine and we shouldn't just submissively let our building get taken over, but the idea that we need our fans to be intimidating, violent hooligans is stupid. If that's not what you're talking about, than whatever, but I've seen plenty of comments on here to that effect.

If you can point to a single part of that post that said I want us to be "intimidating, violent hooligans", I'll make some puppet accounts and pie you 50 times.

[toldozer]

I was at the game too. I don't think it was a significant margin. Unless all the giants fans bought seats on the visiting side (plausible I guess)  I sit at the 35 on the home side in the upper level.  The visitors side looked pretty embarrassingly even to me.  Also no one from the club level bothered to leave inside to sit in their seats. 

[MillionDollarCam]

The big issue will always be transplant fans. 

The Panthers have plenty of fans. I know social media is not exactly an indicative of how large a fan base is but a lot of teams use social media to guage how big and broad their fan base is. For example, the Panthers sit at 3M followers compared the Giants 1.3M on Twitter. This isn’t to say the Panthers are the more popular team but they very well may be.

HOWEVER, a lot of transplant fans live in the Carolina’s and for the most part they will pay an arm and a leg to see their team play just once (since it’s their only opportunity) as where the casual Panther fan and even the avid Panther fan may watch it on tv or decide to go to a different game later in the season.

This is not a Panthers issue, it occurs at Hornets and Hurricanes games as well. You don’t see it happen at college sporting events because most of the transplants adopt one of the triangle teams.

This will always be an issue for teams in the Carolina’s unless the teams become Patriot like dynasties.

[propagandamachine]

The NFL is going against Esports... why the NFL has not acquired the Esports franchises is beyond me. 

They also need to buy or build their own Soccer Franchises...and be serious about it. Frankly their product would be better than anything that is in Europe right now... and build a balanced product and the whole of Africa will come. 

I should know The premier league is like the Catholic church in the 1600's here .. meaning more $ than most of the team owners have ever seen in their entire lives. 

These are the young men and women the NFL needs badly... Games such as Clash Royale, Fortnite completely dismantle and take away 

"Mobile esports are a fast growing segment of a young industry, and the popularity of Supercell’s games has made the developer a driving force in the market. All eyes in the mobile space will be on the Clash Royale League as the North American and European divisions (two regions where Supercell generates at least a combined 47% of its total revenue from Clash Royale) kick off in August.

 

"

https://esportsobserver.com/supercell-clash-royale-2-billion/

 

This young crowd would rather sit home in - front of their  computer stream and get paid playing games rather than... sit there like their fathers and mothers 

 

 

[Jon4rd]

3 hours ago, Billy_T said:

http://www.tmz.com/2017/10/13/panthers-fan-punches-eagles-fan/

Naah, you're right, fans are weak.

Guarantee you this guy is spawn from a Jets or Eagles family and there's a reason opposing fans don't go into those stadiums and take away the home team advantage (not that the Jets have had any "advantage" in a long long time!)

Useless to dwell on it though....Panthers fans won't even boo, certainly aren't going to hold opposing fans accountable, no spine.

To be fair, the guy called that young man a ****. I probably would have punched him too if he threw racial slurs at me 

[heelsnum1]

Home fans will always be quieter than the away fans.  Away fans are pretty much all die hard fans, hence the fact that they travel to see the game.  The reality is that many home fans were given tickets by their friend, company, etc. and they just aren't as hardcore.

[raleigh-panther]

Fans travel to support their teams now, it’s a fact  it is not going to change 

The Roaring Riot represents our team too traveling, yes

I'm sure those stadiums don’t appreciate heating ‘Keep Pounding’ either 

sometimes it is cheaper to travel even with airfare and markups  than to pay the cost of attending a game  in of those behemoth stadiums in NY or Dallas   

Sometimes it’s just an established team  with a following

or people who say, which I hate more ‘I’m a Panthers fan except when team x is playing here’

psls are both a blessing and a curse but it’s not going away, it assures a sellout, it assures no local blackout forPanthers fans who can’t or won’t buy a ticket

as far as being a friendly stadium, that’s as it should be  support your team  if you have a problem, text security particularly as most of these people are drunk   

We don’t need to be Philly or Oakland   I support my team but they are multi millionaires  I don’t need to be a jackass at the stadium   It’s a game 

 

 

[Anybodyhome]

As soon as the game was over I was headed to see the Hurricanes beat the NY Rangers 8-5 in the highest scoring hockey game I've ever been to. In that respect, Carolina was 2-0 versus NY on Sunday. 

However, from my very cushy seat in the club level at PNC, the Ranger fans were plentiful and loud, but, every time someone started a "let's go Rangers" chant, there came the "let's go Canes" chant right behind it. 

Thing is, with hockey fans anyway, there is an appreciation for the nuance of the game. Hockey fans don't call out their own players ('you suck!!") and you're more likely to see opposing fans complimenting a particular play by the other guy if it was warranted. Only time you really see fans going at each other or getting into the refs is when there's a blatant hit or missed call. Completely different fan experience.

[ericr0319]

okay so I went to the game and it was my first there. had a blast. but yeah, I was in the club level, home side (339). the visiting club level looked EMPTY. Also, not a lot of giants fans around where I was. besides the one he smacked the guy behind me at the end of the game and ran off with his scumbag new yorker friends/fans. 

my real question, is the away club level always empty? even the upper deck looked empty. i didnt think it was even hot, but maybe i had the benefit of the shade. 

[PanthersBigD]

Yes, you're making too big of a deal out of it, but this is a message board, that's what people do here. Have you seen that Rivera is on the hot seat???

[App Panther]

17 hours ago, Sam Mills Fan said:

This dawned on me tonight when I saw the @BringBackTheBuz Hornets Twitter account go on and on about how awesome Drew Brees is and how all Panthers fans should celebrate him and his accomplishment.

It goes way beyond that though. Let me say upfront that if you personally don't fit this description then I'm NOT talking about you. Okay? Please read that and reread that. If you were loud throughout the game yesterday and didn't hug and buy beer for every Giants fan you saw yesterday, I'm not talking about you.

I was at the game yesterday (and paid for it with an awful October sunburn, screw you global warming). If you weren't there, let me blow up a myth from yesterday: there really were more Panthers fans in the stadium than Giants. By a significant margin too. There were still a ton of Giants fans though and the reason it seemed like there were more Giants fans was because almost all of them were LOUD. They knew how to make their presence felt. And despite being quiet throughout a big chunk of the game, many Panthers fans inexplicably got loud when we had the ball on 3rd downs. By my count, this is Year 24 of the Carolina Panthers and people are still making noise on 3rd down. 

That's just one game and one example though. We had opposing fan bases take over our stadium during the 15-1 year. Reddit named us as the fan base "most welcoming" to other fans to our home games. And don't even get me started on the Hornets. If you're not a Hornets fan, just know that Kemba Walker became the all-time franchise leader in points scored last season in a game vs. the Cavs, yet the applause was MUCH louder for LeBron James throughout the entire game with him getting MVP chants even by people in Hornets gear. It would be like chanting MVP for Matt Ryan in a game where Cam broke the all-time touchdowns scored mark for us. Tons of people remarked how incredibly respectful Hornets fans were of LeBron's greatness, but I was flat out embarrassed that our fans treated Kemba like an afterthought.

So I have a couple of questions: am I making too big a deal out of this and we're not as bad as I'm making us out to be? And, if you agree that Charlotte sports fans DO leave a lot to be desired when it comes to supporting the home teams, how can we make these idiot casual fans there for Instagram pictures less bad? Even though this is a transplant city, we still have that southern hospitality/Billy Graham side to us that I wish we could leave at the security checkpoints.

 

Little known fact: The sun will still burn you regardless of what the temperature is and how that may or may have not been impacted by climate change. Sunscreen can prevent these burns though, apply liberally to the skin; do not ingest orally. 

[The NFL Shield At Midfield]

i did see a lot of people in giants gear who brought their kids to the game and in a bunch of cases the youngins were wearing panthers stuff.