THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 10, 1997 TAG: 9701100022
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A13 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Opinion
SOURCE: Keith Monroe
LENGTH: 76 lines
Does a professional sports franchise help put a city on the map. Two words: Panthers. Jaguars.
Of course, it helps if the team in question ends up with a shot at the Superbowl after only two seasons in the NFL - like the boys from Charlotte and Jacksonville. Thanks to that feat, the skyline of Charlotte as viewed from a blimp is suddenly a familiar sight on Sunday afternoon TV.
You can't buy publicity like the Panthers and the Jaguars have generated. They are the talk of the nation for knocking off familiar contenders like Denver and for giving a dose of comeuppance to the richly deserving Dallas Cowboys.
I admit a sports team isn't without a potential downside for a city. I grew up a Cleveland Browns fan in the glory days of Jim Brown and Lou ``the Toe'' Groza, so I was dealt a painful psychic blow when that unspeakable weasel, Art Modell, packed up the franchise and decamped to Baltimore. May the miserable Ravens have many more 4-12 seasons.
I have now officially switched my allegiance to the Carolina team, a state where I lived for 20 years. When I first resided in a couple of Piedmont cities in the early '70s, Charlotte was regarded as a kind of pushy nouveau riche Atlanta wannabe.
By contrast, Old Salem was genuinely old. Greensboro took pride in a notable revolutionary victory by Gen. Nathaniel Greene and the fact that it was Dolley Madison's birthplace. Raleigh was not just the state capital but the semi-cosmopolitan center of the burgeoning Research Triangle complex that harnessed the intellectual horsepower of Duke, Chapel Hill and State. Durham and Winston-Salem floated serene on a green sea of tobacco money.
As recently as 30 years ago, the so-called Queen City was regularly derided as the world's largest truck stop and its culture symbolized by Jim and Tammy's giant waterslide. But Charlotte has had the last laugh.
The confluence of interstate concrete that made Charlotte a mecca for truckers also helped it grow into a distribution center. And soon bankers also adopted the city. These weren't stodgy three-piece suiters but go-go bankers like Hugh McColl who turned the lumbering North Carolina National Bank into the leviathan Nationsbank - crossing borders and engulfing lesser competitors.
Charlotte was also helped by the folly of its neighbors. Piedmont Airlines was the homegrown product of Winston-Salem. But when the company wanted to make the Triad area its principle hub, Winston-Salem and Greensboro couldn't reach agreement. Each had a dinky, backward airport. Each wanted the hub. They fought. For years. Does any of this sound familiar to Hampton Roads?
By the time they got an airport built, Piedmont - soon to be USAir - was long gone. The go-getters in Charlotte had gotten their act together and built that hub. Numerous businesses have since chosen to locate in Charlotte rather than the still under-served Piedmont cities.
A rational governmental structure also permitted Charlotte to grow beyond its original boundaries into a regional powerhouse. By contrast, Virginia makes true regionalism fiendishly difficult to achieve when more than one municipality is involved - as local residents may have noticed.
So, credit where credit is due. Charlotte is on the map because it had a vision of its future and developed a plan to get there. It had leaders willing to take the ball and run with it and citizens willing to help fund the vision, a government willing to organize for change, the luck of becoming a transportation crossroads, the wit to exploit it and the capital to make it all happen.
It is also worth recalling that before the Carolina Panthers came the NBA Hornets. And neither would have happened if the region hadn't possessed aggressive business leaders with a lot of local pride and ambition. Both teams have succeeded not only because there was a critical mass of fans, but also of corporations prepared to pony up the bucks for seasons tickets and pricey skyboxes. They didn't come to Charlotte because of the Panthers; the Panthers came to Charlotte because of them.
Hampton Roads may turn envious eyes toward Charlotte and other cities that snare sports franchises, but that success didn't come overnight and didn't start with sports. It was the culmination of a long process. There may yet be a blimp in the future for Hampton Roads. But to compete, the region will have to do what it takes to get in the game. MEMO: Mr. Monroe is editor of the editorial page of The Virginian-Pilot.