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| - There are many times that I can be accused of not getting all the hubbub. This is one of those times. The Bojangles Coliseum (formerly Cricket Arena, formerly Independence Arena, formerly the original Charlotte Coliseum and almost the Victory Junction something-or-other), on the way to the east side of Charlotte, is a classic. An important designation when there are not too many of them left in the QC.
When the Charlotte Checkers bolted for the shiny new uptown arena, the place was left without a major tenant, which is a bit of a shame, really, because the Checkers rarely draw more than a few thousand, and the building can hold upwards of ten thousand - plenty for hockey in Charlotte, as well as arena football, the rodeo, concerts or any number of offbeat events.
Naturally you could also say that the Bobcats would not be as popular if they were not uptown - but reported attendance for the team is more than fifteen thousand. I went to some of those games (okay, one) and there was nowhere near fifteen thousand people in that building. Even counting season tickets would probably not get you close. For this, we went four hundred million in debt?
I get that people like the latest and greatest car, or to have a larger house than their neighbor, or a flat screen that you can see from space - but come on! This building is perfectly serviceable, even fifty-five years after it was built. The second Charlotte Coliseum was built, occupied and is now ground to dust. The same can be said about CityFair and the original Convention Center. Maybe we should learn to make use of these old ladies instead of just discarding - and eventually destroying - them.
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