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| - I LOVE my Panthers, and have been attending their games since I was a high schooler and my parents bought PSLs in '95. I would love to rate them 5 stars based solely on being a fan.
THAT SAID.
We have fallen on some hard times. I know there are a lot of Northern transplants into the Carolinas (NC in particular) and a lot of people are still loyal to other teams. However, it is depressing going to games and seeing more people dressed in other jerseys than there are Panthers jerseys!
Every team has its ups and downs. We have had our fair share of downs, but that is to be expected as one of the youngest (player age AND franchise age) teams in the league.
My 3 star rating has nothing to do with the team itself. I love my team. However I am a bit embarrassed by the ownership situation. Hearing rumors that they already want a new stadium (ours is only 15 years old and really, what have you done to deserve it?) and adding in the fact that we introduced the whole PSL scam, thereby assuring profits to Jerry R and eliminating any need for him to provide a decent product, is an embarrassment that is only lightly tamped by the fact that other teams have started to follow our (terrible) example and treat their fans just as badly.
Also, requiring any kid over the age of 12 months to purchase their own ticket? RIDICULOUS. Even 500-level tickets are $60-70. Many 1-year-olds can't even WALK, do you really think they need an entire seat? Their parents are going to end up holding them. I took my son to his first Panthers game when he was 2 months old. At the time the ticket age was 2 years. Now it is 12 months. WTF is that.
Instead of moving in an anti-fan direction, we should do the opposite. See all those empty seats every week? Why not implement a BOGO instead. For every adult ticket sold, one child aged 8 or under gets in free until the stadium is full. Bragging about a "91 game consecutive sellout" streak is a joke when a quarter of the seats are empty at the start of the game. This is the time to build our fan base for the future, and that means starting with the kids, not ripping off a bunch of older PSL owners in the middle of this terrible economic situation.
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