What About the Yankees?

No, not "yankees" as in all of us carpet-bagging northerners flocking here--the real Yankees. The Bronx Bombers. The greatest, most successful sports team that ever was.

I lived my entire life, including my college years, within 60 miles of Yankee Stadium. It was very comforting. So when we decided to head south, one of the things I knew I'd miss the most was going to the stadium. I figured I could get the YES network on satellite though, so I'd at least get to watch the games on TV. Well, I was wrong. The evil HOA where we first lived didn't allow satellite dishes. Seriously. They were deemed "unsightly." Now, those rules were probably written in the '80s when a satellite dish took up your whole yard and looked like something you bought from a NASA garage sale, but I was stuck.

As an alternative, I signed up for the MLB internet package, which let me watch the Yankees on my laptop. Not ideal, but at least I got to see the games. Most of them, anyway. Except the 19 - 20 games the Yanks play against Baltimore every season. You see, the Baltimore Orioles are the local American League baseball market in Charlotte. It doesn't matter that they are 440 miles away. They are the closest American league team and thus blacked out by MLB rules from the internet package. Ok, well, if they're the local team they must be on TV somewhere, right? Wrong. They were the first year we got here, but Time Warner Cable no longer carries MASN, the Orioles network, so I don't get those games at all. On the plus side, the Mets aren't on TV here either....

As for other sports, we have the Carolina Panthers in the NFL and the Charlotte Bobcats in the NBA right here in uptown (what everyone else would call "downtown") Charlotte, which is cool. The Panthers are huge here. I'm a NY Giants fan, but I have adopted the Panthers too. I know, I know...sports bigamy. But it's fun to go to the games. Because Charlotte is a smallish city, it's very accessible and getting to the stadium and the arena is a breeze. Because Panthers Stadium is right in the city, you don't have a huge parking lot to tailgate in like at Giants Stadium, but the atmosphere is still fun and there's a lot to do in the immediate area before games.

The Bobcats aren't quite as popular yet, for a variety of reasons, but mainly because of a lingering bitterness towards the ownership of the previous NBA franchise here, the Hornets. The Hornets were beloved and their owner took them away. Also, there was a referendum or something on building the new arena, and even though the citizens voted against it, it was green lighted (politics) anyway. So the fans aren't flocking to see the 'Cats yet, which is a shame because they have an exciting young team that should get better this year, and the arena is great.

There is also minor league baseball here with the Charlotte Knights. They currently play in South Carolina, right over the border, but there is a big push under way to move them to Uptown as well.

One thing I wasn't used to up north is the popularity of college sports down here, especially football. It's almost a religion. We're smack in the middle of ACC country and the SEC teams are close too. Charlotte doesn't have a big time college sports program of it's own (the UNC Charlotte basketball team plays in the A-10 conference and is over-shadowed by UNC, NC State and Duke, even though they are 2 hours away). The University of South Carolina and Clemson University are within 90 minutes of Charlotte and have huge followings here as well. Sure, people used to look at me a bit funny when I wore my Rutgers hat, but after we came into Chapel Hill and whipped the Tar Heels last season and went on to national prominence, my alma mater gets a little more respect now.

So, all and all, Charlotte is a pretty good sports town. The fans are a little reserved, especially at Panthers games. The season-ticket holders, especially in the lower-bowl seats are known as the "wine and cheese" crowd and have a reputation for leaving at half-time if the game isn't close. But I think my yelling and screaming GOTTA SUPPORT THE TEAM!!!!! may catch on just yet....

-Matt