My statement was mainly regarding the use of state funds, which I believe Charlotte has taken too much of over the decades.
I was referring to Greensboro with that statement. Also, the Hurricanes are a home-grown sports team with one of the highest attendance records in the league. I saw a news story not long ago where a family mentioned that they moved here from out of state to be closer to the Hurricanes.
Sports wise, if you want another losing team in Charlotte thatās your prerogative.
How?? Charlotte gets a laughably small amount of support of any kind from NC. Our infrastructure is falling further and further behind the demands of the city as it continues to grow and thereās not much relief in sight other than MAYBE a regional line up to Davidson in a decade. Raleigh has seen improvements/expansion to 40, 440, and 540, as well as the investment towards the S-Line (I know a lot of that is federal though).
Iām glad that we at least have one consistently competitive professional sports team to root for in NC, but I donāt consider the Hurricanes āhome-grownā like the Panthers. It would be like if the Rays or As moved to Charlotteā¦over time Iām sure theyād be adopted by residents as our home team like the Hurricanes have been, but initially I donāt think thereās the same level of community pride gained from landing a team that moved because they wanted more public funding than their previous home city was willing to give them. Charlotteans very quickly took to the FC (even if theyāre not great), everyone walks around in FC gear which makes me think Raleigh would see a similar showing of support for an MLB team.
Iām not convinced around your argument that the Hurricanes arenāt homegrown. The Whalers franchise was essentially burned to the ground early on. We took their franchise spot, but Iād argue we didnāt take their fans and we didnāt take their history until very recently.
Homegrown doesnāt have anything to do with speed of adoption. The vast majority of people that are Hurricanes fans grew up here. Just because the area did not take to the team quickly doesnāt meant they werenāt homegrown.
Glen Wesley went to my church in Cary when I was younger. And you can bet your ass that we supported the hell out of him.