Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, October 27, 1993 TAG: 9310270184
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: CHARLOTTE, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
The big-league hopes of a region hinged on 28 NFL owners who met, endlessly it seemed, in a Rosemont, Ill., hotel.
But it was a delicious wait.
In Charlotte, NationsBank Chairman Hugh McColl Jr. presided over a rollicking party. As beer spilled across the marble floors of Founders Hall, a crowd of more than 1,000 followed developments on two large-screen TVs and smelled victory.
"I'm happy, just plain happy, happy for everybody - the city, the Carolinas, our city council and managers who really went out on a limb for us," said McColl, who was a key financial strategist for the Panthers. "I'm just glad it's all paid off."
Celebrations began hours before the NFL's 9:45 p.m. announcement.
More than 300 people who packed the cavernous Scoreboard sports bar in Matthews worked up the night's first Panthers chant by 7 p.m. Fans of the team-in-waiting focused on TV updates, frequently setting aside their french fries and beers to stand in their chairs and scream.
"I feel like I'm having a baby tonight," said Betty Whitehead of Charlotte, sitting with a table full of friends.
She and her four friends are Charlotte transplants who came from five different NFL cities, from Miami to Kansas City.
"We never want to leave Charlotte. We love Charlotte. And as soon as we get our own NFL team, we're here forever," said Linda Edman.
At halftime of the Charlotte Hornets' NBA preseason game against the Philadelphia 76ers, Charlotte Coliseum electrician Nathan Stroud slipped into the engineering office to catch televised news accounts.
"I'm real excited about it," he said. "We need football around here. We been needing it."
Tuesday held even more suspense than did Charlotte's entry into the NBA in 1987.
The Hornets won a recommendation from the NBA expansion committee, making final approval three weeks later nearly certain. While the Carolinas' NFL bid eventually emerged as a front-runner, success depended on what 28 NFL owners decided at a hotel.
And while the Hornets' expansion bid took a whirlwind two years, Jerry Richardson had pursued an NFL franchise for nearly six years, since he announced his plans in December 1987.
"It's amazing that these multimillion-dollar corporate executives make daily decisions and yet they can't decide on two cities to put a football team," said Kenneth Walters, 50, of Rock Hill, S.C.
Not lost in the early celebration was the economic impact an NFL team is expected to have on the region.
North Carolina Gov. Jim Hunt said Charlotte's selection will have "great economic consequences" and will help the entire state recruit new business and industry.
"That's going to put us on the map as much as anything that's happened to us," Hunt said. "The NFL is the major leagues."
McColl put it this way: "It's important to have our region and our city recognized as the growing and prospering place that it is. If we get a team, that's a confirmation of the way we see ourselves."
Apprehension put an edge on the excitement in Charlotte's Third Ward, the Panthers' neighborhood.
People in the Third Ward, a mix of longtime residents and younger condominium dwellers, worry about game-day traffic and parking and the development that will sprout around the 72,302-seat stadium.
"On one hand, I'm really excited about Charlotte as a whole being able to get an NFL team, as long as everyone benefits," said architect Darrel Williams, president of the area's neighborhood association.
No such worries a few blocks away.
Paul Garza, 28, took the day off from work as a USAir mechanic, donned a red San Francisco 49ers jersey and headed to the uptown Charlotte party. Garza spent $5,400 for two mid-level Panthers tickets.
"Football is the greatest sport ever invented," he said. "The thrill, the speed - God, it's hard for me to put into words. NFL, baby!"
by CNB