Came Disguised as Empty Seats!

BOA Stadium
BobLee
September04/ 2015

I WAS WRONG.   I admit it.  6-7 years ago (Pre-Marvin’s Tweet) I used this bully pulpit to urge a bi-annual (every two years for those of you in Rio Linda) series between “The Carolinas” at Charlotte’s version of “Jerry’s World” – (Richardson not Jones).  It seemed like an ideal inter-conference donnybrook that would surely be “a tough ticket”.

BOA Stadium

It was not QUITE as woeful as this picture; but it was NOT “a tough ticket”….. but a VERY OVER-PRICED ONE!!! 

NOTE:  Neither is Alabama v Wisconsin this weekend at “the other Jerry’s World” in Texas.   Look for that one to have an empty upper level too unless Jerry dumps 1,000s of freebies across The Metroplex.   College Football continues to have “stadium attendance woes” as we first predicted was coming five years ago. ….  “Told ya so….”

Charlotte has long been a bastion of Tar Heel loyalists with Fat Rams aplenty at toney Quail Hollow CC and toney Myers Park CC and certainly enough rank/file and Wal-Marters in/around The Great State of Mecklenburg.   Plus, its within an easy down&back drive for mega bunches of Kenanites who would certainly trek to Jerry R’s World to wage grid war versus the much-despised Steve “Scoreboard” Spurrier.   ,,,, AND being only an hour or so from Columbia, surely the 80,000+ cock-eyed crazies that show up at Williams-Brice come rain/shine. or Texas A&M would certainly gobble up their ticket allotment and beg for more. ….. weeeeell…. not quite.

ANOTHER NOTE:  Much of the credit for the woeful turnout lies with the highway robbers of The Charlotte Sports Foundation who managed to make the term “gouge’em” seem dirty.  With mid-field “club level” ducats at $275/each even Johnny Harris and his deep-pocket pals had to think long and hard “is it worth it” with MANY deciding “nope”.  Shame on you Charlotte Sports Foundation gangstas.

Unless about 20,000+ came disguised as empty seats, last night’s season opener looked like a Belk Bowl match-up between New Mexico State and Canisius.   All that was lacking was the freezing drizzle.   The PR hacks will quote some BS attendance figure based on counting toes times “pi” but that Upper Level was as barren as a Lindsay Graham For President campaign rally.

…  AgentPAP SWMierce had the line of the night as he joined us in watching The Fighting Fedorians come up short versus the Spurrierites in The Battle of The Visor Boys.   As the camera showed all the emptys, Pierce dryly muttered:

 

“….. better call Peter Anlyan”.   That’s all.  Just “…. better call Peter Anlyan”

Blondie and I cracked up.  Those of you who for any number of reasons “avoid AgentPierce like the plague” don’t get it.   Allow me.

You probably know about Reverend William Barber’s world-famous Moral Monday rallies down at the NC General Assembly.   Pierce calls ’em “Bully Barber’s Hoot ‘n Hates” but we will use the more formal definition here.   So anyhoooo, several years ago Reverend Barber had an Extra Special Deluxe version that instead of the usual 75 demonstrators plus 115 area media hacks drew upwards of 6,000-8,000 (according to RPD officials).   Impressive in that “they” bused in most of’em from out-of-state courtesy of regional union thugs.   Lets not get into that.  That 6-8,000 filled up several blocks of Fayetteville Street and left the usual garbage-filled aftermath for the City of Raleigh to clean-up.

With 30 minutes of “OK, everybody back on the buses” the local Barber-lovin’ media busted out:

“AT LEAST 80,000, POSSIBLY AS MANY AS 100,000 TURN OUT TO PROTEST EEEEVIL REPUBLICANS…. so says Reverend Barber’s “logistical expert”.

The BBC, Reuters, Pravda and even the NY Times picked it up.  MASSIVE TURN-OUT IN RALEIGH…. ALMOST MILLIONS MARCH !!! …. says “a logistics expert”.Peter Anlyan

Leave it to Pierce and his vast network of street sources, within 30 minutes the “logistics expert” was identified as longtime Jim Goodmon toadie – Peter Anlyan.   Anlyan has performed numerous “hey boy” odd jobs for Raleigh’s #1 Limo Liberal for years…. and was now, at least for a day a “logistics expert”.  The whole shebang was a classic Flim Flam that still gets re-repeated by regional / global media.  Credit Barber and his henchman for a most successful Flim Flam.  The MASSIVE TURNOUT of AT LEAST 80,000 got Reverend Barber several other gigs around the country…. with his contract always including the special rider…. “I get to bring my own “logistics expert”.

So that’s what AgentPierce meant last night as he surveyed the bleak lunar landscape of JerryR’s World empty Upper Level.

The combined attendance at UNC’s last two football games …. The WhatTheHell Bowl in beautiful downtown Detroit last December; and last night’s Carolina v Carolina fete in Charlotte totaled “about the population of Rocky Mount & Wilson minus Elm City and Sharpsburg”…. or, as Peter Anlyan might say …. BAZILLIONS!

Yes…. I, BobLee, WAS WRONG.  Carolina vs Carolina in Charlotte was not “a tough ticket”.   Maybe the turnout will be better in Kenan vs NC A&T.  Maybe The Aggies travel better than the Gamecocks.

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