Does playing in North Carolina suck as a professional athlete?

[CRA]

1 hour ago, joemac said:

Of course there is.  Charlotte has plenty of young pussy, nightclubs, titty bars, jewelry stores and mansions.

young rich single athletes are still going to prefer the ones in Miami, Atlanta, NY, LA, etc.....because it's about more than that for them.  Whose going to be in those Charlotte clubs? Answer is nobody.  Whose going to me in the Miami ones? Other high profile people. 

but none of that is why our team sucks.  Guys play for checks ultimately.  And the majority of the league isn't a high profile super star single 22 year old.   And those guys get drafted. 

[USDepartmentOfSavagery]

Florida and Texas also have no state income taxes.

[travisura]

4 minutes ago, CRA said:

young rich single athletes are still going to prefer the ones in Miami, Atlanta, NY, LA, etc.....because it's about more than that for them.  Whose going to be in those Charlotte clubs? Answer is nobody.  Whose going to me in the Miami ones? Other high profile people. 

but none of that is why our team sucks.  Guys play for checks ultimately.  And the majority of the league isn't a high profile super star single 22 year old.   And those guys get drafted. 

If quality of night life had any correlation to team success, then the Jets and Dolphins wouldn't have been perennial losers for the past 3 decades, and Vegas wouldn't be sucking ass right now.

[CRA]

3 minutes ago, travisura said:

If quality of night life had any correlation to team success, then the Jets and Dolphins wouldn't have been perennial losers for the past 3 decades, and Vegas wouldn't be sucking ass right now.

Exactly.   The location of our franchise has nothing to do with why we suck.  The decision makers in our front office are the reason.   That's why good teams are good and bad teams are bad ultimately.   Most things aren't very complicated.  Why we suck isn't.   We have bad decision makers.  Starting with Tepper (and the scope here is just NFL football.  I give zero poos about how smart he is in other aspects.  He is a football idiot). 

[d-dave]

I think the grass always looks greener else where.  The hard work is figuring out how to make you own grass green.  (the metaphor - not the actual grass)  I've lived in Charlotte since 1985 when my folks moved from Lynchburg, VA to here.  After college, I came back because this is my home.  For some folks, there is an appeal to home, others don't have that same feeling and need a change.  Nothing wrong with that.

And it has zero to do with success in sports.  The reality for the Hornet and the Panthers is that they just missed out on those superstar players by bad luck or bad drafting.  When it comes down to signing a big time FA, sure, taxes make a difference, but at the end of the day they want money and maybe someone who can win.  We're not there in either case.

Maybe things will turn for one of the teams.  But it would be happening anywhere.  That's just the nature of sports.  Once you get a star, you need to hold on to them for as long as you can.

[joemac]

26 minutes ago, USDepartmentOfSavagery said:

Florida and Texas also have no state income taxes.

Yeah but at least in Texas they definitely make up for it in other areas.  Property taxes here are absolutely insane.  I pay 800+ a month in property taxes on my home. 

[MillionDollarCam]

17 hours ago, CRA said:

Would a 22 year old single dude w/ a lot of cash prefer Charlotte? Probably not.  They would prefer party hotspots. Would a married NFL player with a couple kids prefer it over a lot of the big cities?  Probably so. 

Where you are in life probably changes what NFL city you would rather be in.  

This is the only correct answer and you can tell what stage people are at in their life by their response to the thread.

A ton of Panthers, Hornets, and Hurricanes players never leave North Carolina after they retire because they realize that it’s a great state to raise a family in.

As you said, a 22 year old single athlete who wants to go out all the time probably isn’t going to love Charlotte or Raleigh but the 35+ year old retired athletes probably won’t ever leave.

Edited October 24, 2023 by MillionDollarCam

[GOAT]

@rayzor not panther related, more of a cost of living discussion. lounge time. 

[rayzor]

[Brooklyn 3.0]

1 hour ago, travisura said:

If quality of night life had any correlation to team success, then the Jets and Dolphins wouldn't have been perennial losers for the past 3 decades, and Vegas wouldn't be sucking ass right now.

No one is saying there is a correlation. They are saying people would rather be signed to play in those places than in Charlotte. I get that you guys love your state and city ... hell I lived in CLT for 18 years. But replace Charlotte with: Oklahoma City, Memphis, Jacksonville, Baltimore, Indianapolis, etc. Now ... defend in the same way.

[LinvilleGorge]

I feel like the stereotype that every pro athlete is a club hopping, night life living guy craving that big city party lifestyle probably only fits a fairly small percentage of the overall group and the older and more established in the league a guy is the less likely it probably is to fit him.

A lot of these guys aren't that different than the average guy. They just wanna go to work, get paid, and go home to their family.

[dave-o]

1 hour ago, d-dave said:

I've lived in Charlotte since 1985 when my folks moved from Lynchburg, VA to here.  After college, I came back because this is my home.  For some folks, there is an appeal to home, others don't have that same feeling and need a change.  Nothing wrong with that.

 

Thats crazy...  My family moved from Waynesboro, Va. in 1985 right after I graduated from HS..  They were originally from Lynchburg...  We were die hard Redskins fans up until the Panthers rolled in to town...

[travisura]

18 minutes ago, Brooklyn 3.0 said:

No one is saying there is a correlation. They are saying people would rather be signed to play in those places than in Charlotte. I get that you guys love your state and city ... hell I lived in CLT for 18 years. But replace Charlotte with: Oklahoma City, Memphis, Jacksonville, Baltimore, Indianapolis, etc. Now ... defend in the same way.

You got a source for this take, or are you just letting your personal biases drive your feelings on the matter?

Also, two of those cities don't have NFL teams, but I take your point, and to that point, I say that I could find enjoyment in any of those cities, especially with NFL money. 

[OldhamA]

18 hours ago, scpanther22 said:

if the south embraced walkable cities it would be better here by a mile 

 

This is a good point - I didn't have a car when I visited Charlotte last year (took the bus - and boy was that an experience...). All of the 'great' BBQ places were in the suburbs so completely inaccessible to me. I was very disappointed. 

As an outsider looking in (I've been to San Diego, LA, Santa Barbara, San Mateo, San Francisco, NY, Charleston, Savannah and Miami), Charlotte is a very beige city. It doesn't really have anything going for it, but it doesn't really have any massive downsides either - it just is.