March 7, 2025
Spectrum Center (Capacity: 17,500)
Charlotte, NC
Charlotte Hornets vs Cleveland Cavaliers
Final Score: 118 – 117
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The goal of this trip was to see one of my favorite college basketball conference tournaments in Asheville. Before reaching that destination, I flew to Charlotte and spent some time in the Queen City. It earned that moniker because the city was named after Queen Charlotte, wife of King George III. More recently, “CLT” has been used as a nickname because of the airport code and this elicits a few giggles from the immature (raises hand slightly). Anyway, Charlotte sits in the south-central portion of the state in the Piedmont and with a population over 900,000, it is North Carolina’s largest city and the 15th biggest in the country. Lots of transplants come here and it is a city that is rapidly growing and expanding. Charlotte is a vibrant banking and business center, evident in the busy skyline that features plenty of tall buildings. The city’s first professional sports team arrived in 1988 as the Hornets began as an expansion team in the NBA. While at the start, they were popular even outside the area thanks to their cool teal colors and pinstriped uniforms, things didn’t initially go great on the court. Later in the 90s, the team often would finish between 4th – 6th place in the East and Alonzo Mourning / Larry Johnson / Muggsy Bogues helped field competitive teams. They never could get past the 2nd round in the playoffs though and in 2002, owner George Shinn moved the team to New Orleans. Thankfully, a replacement team followed a few years later and although Michael Jordan eventually became part of the ownership group, the team has often been terrible. Charlotte was known as the “Bobcats” for awhile, returning to the “Hornets” name in 2014 with all prior history retained. During their second stint in the city, Charlotte remarkably has made the playoffs just 3 times in 21 seasons, losing each time in the First Round. When I went to visit, the long run of ineptitude continued as they were 14-47. Games are played at the Spectrum Center, a place that opened in 2005 and replaced an arena (Charlotte Coliseum) built for the Hornets that lived for only 17 years.
Prestige Ranking: 3 out of 5
Location
The city center is known as “Uptown” and the Spectrum Center is located here, right on the edge of the skyscraper cluster. Charlotte is not exactly a hot tourist area, but there are certainly things that will attract some to the city and the majority of it is found Uptown. There are a pair of acclaimed art museums, there’s a history center about the city (Levine Museum) and finally, the lauded NASCAR Hall of Fame. Even if you are not into that sport, the HOF is a great place to spend at least a few hours with some interactive stuff. Out of all the athletic hall of fame’s that I’ve been too, this was one of the best. Everything is within walking distance to the arena. If you want some outdoor-sy stuff, there’s a few parks and also the National Whitewater Center, which includes more than rafting about 20 minutes outside the city. Back Uptown, there’s a fair share of restaurants as well, but Charlotte isn’t exactly a foodie destination with a distinct identity. Venture beyond the nearby unglamorous block (which has a Diner and Fast Food joints) to find upclass steakhouses and other trendy joints. My choice was somewhere in the middle of those genres as I opted for Mert’s, a southern soul food place.
Location Ranking: 7.5 out of 10
Accessibility / Parking
Charlotte is generally an easy city to drive around in. There will be traffic, but it’s not terrible comparable to other large metros. Interstates from all directions reach Charlotte and I-485 makes up the outer loop for the expanding footprint while I-277 mostly encircles Uptown. Pretty much any exit will get you to the Spectrum Center in the center of Charlotte. Parking can easily be found in several garages and lots across the city. A huge parking garage across from the arena is $15. If you don’t want the rush of people around when departing, you can go with “The Green” parking garage on College Street, which is an 8-minute walk. From here, I didn’t have any issues leaving. A mass transit option exists as an alternative to the automobile with both a streetcar and a light rail having access to stations right by the arena.
Accessibility / Parking Ranking: 7.5 out of 8
Exterior
Spectrum Center’s exterior is a combination of brick, steel and glass. The primary entrance off Trade Street features an indented opening with a plaza out front. This part of the structure includes a fair amount of silver paneling to go with some team/arena signage. Brick can be seen as you circle the facility and the brick / silver combo makes for an odd visual combination. Various nooks and crannies are abound.
Exterior Ranking: 6 out of 10
Concourse
The ground-level entry is plain and tight before taking an escalator up to the main concourse level. Once you get past a crowded initial area, the spacing is decent as it is fine to move around. The décor again is a mix of brick and modern paneling, with various team coloring, logos and displays spicing up the character. Signage is good and a pair of escalators on each side bring patrons up to the 200-level. Spacing here isn’t as tight as seen in the upper concourse for other arenas. In terms of spots to sit and eat or relax, there’s a few of them, mostly within the concourse. A cut-out in the upper end of the Spectrum Center is the best spot for this because it is inside the seating bowl with a court view. This Pavilion was created as part of a renovation just months before I visited. It is the only spot that you can see inside throughout both concourses.
Concourse Ranking: 4 out of 5
Food
A recently revamped concessions menu supposedly added a diverse and local flavor to everything. It didn’t really show as I ventured to each stand and the offerings all pretty much could be found in Generic Arena, USA. There at least was a fair amount of things to try, including a sandwich section where they even had PB&J and Ham/Cheese. The BBQ spot (Piedmont Pit) had a Carolina flavor, especially with pork being offered in a Cheerwine based sauce. Chick-Fil-A is a fine choice too. I ended up with an old-fashioned hot dog and the size was average. For alcohol, there are plenty of cocktails to go along with beer and wine. I loved seeing that the Old Armor Beer Company had a “Stinger Ale” made for the team.
Food Ranking: 5 out of 8
Interior
Two decks of seating at Spectrum Center begin at the 100 level, where seating goes around the court in rounded rectangular fashion. Seating pitch is not the best as each row goes up at a shallow incline. Next up are various club sections that cover three-quarters of the arena and then a deck of suites sits above that. Because the 100s aren’t all that expansive, that general layout means the 200s aren’t crazy high. They are far though given the layout. Concourse openings feature three lower rows before stairs lead up to most of the seats and this area down below can thus have some glass and railing obstructions. Otherwise, the steepness is good. In terms of the blue-ish chairs, the backs are very upright. My poor posture self felt uncomfortable trying to sit back.
Interior Ranking: 7 out of 14
Scoreboard
When Spectrum Center first opened, the top of the scoreboard had an incredible mural of the Charlotte Skyline. That would instantly make it my favorite board of all-time. Sadly, it’s no more as it’s gone from the current version. Not that there’s anything wrong with this one and it does have a cool hive feature on the underside. It’s a cool look for a minimally used part of the board. Otherwise, we have four video screens with the side ones being in landscape mode and featuring a brilliant picture. The end screens aren’t too shabby either in both size and clarity. In addition, four video boards are in each upper corner and they feature player / team stats. One issue is that a giant speaker was in my way for seeing the screen that had player stats.
Scoreboard Ranking: 3.5 out of 4
Displays
I really don’t understand “art”. The plaza in front of the main entrance feature these tall columns that are made of brick, what look like swim tubes and then odd light fixtures. It’s supposed to represent the rich textile industry and create a sense of identity. Apologies as I don’t want to disparage hard work from an artist, but man, I just don’t see it and it leads to a “what are those?” as you approach. Outside of that, the Hornets theme is played up nicely here. To go along with logos and “Buzz City” signs, there’s periodic teal and purple coloring throughout the building. Interior lightning pre-game is a light mix of those two colors. Historical moments are displayed nicely on the concourse walls as randomly, you’ll find giant pictures and other minor mementos. Nothing too deeply informative, but the picture size helps. Inside, rafter banners are nearly non-existent, surprising from a player perspective but not so much from a team one. The only retired number is the #13 of Bobby Phills who tragically passed away from a car accident while a member of the team.
Displays Ranking: 3 out of 6
Cost
It’ll take awhile until the team becomes competitive to get a gauge of more representative costs. In the meantime, a Hornets game is a pretty good deal. In the 200s, a Friday Night game featured get-in prices of $25, which is near the lowest in the league. Towards the middle, the second deck has seats between $40 and $75. 100s are kind of absurd given 82 games per year as the cost is $113 to $313 for a non-club seat. The overall ticket ranking is #19 in the league. One thing that shouldn’t change too much is parking and pretty much all the lots are at a fair cost of $15. Concessions were: $7 for a hot dog, $16 for a Burger Basket and $9 – $12 for a beer.
Cost Ranking: 6.5 out of 8
Fan Support
I had low expectations coming in given the 14-47 record that the home squad sported and initially, that was justified with a low number of fans at the start. Slowly though they trickled in and eventually about 70% of the arena was filled. Note though that a surprising chunk were Cleveland fans, something I didn’t expect in Charlotte. Getting into NBA paid attendance is a pointless effort given inflated numbers and variable building capacities. It’s fair to say Charlotte is not a top place in the league in terms of being crazy for the team. The state is much more into college basketball and even if the Queen City doesn’t sport a team in a Power Four conference, there still is much love for the college hoops with plenty of alumni (don’t forget we’re also close to the SC border and thus Clemson / USC). The Hornets just don’t resonate beyond the local area and even at that, Charlotte is lower on the totem pole in a city of transplants. One thing to keep mind though is that they were able to get their team to return after a jerky owner moved them and that’s a testament to fan base being here. Winning will get a group of bandwagoners interested and the Hornets have not even been able to tap that group yet. For now, the fan base has plenty of Tweens who went bonkers every time LaMelo Ball touched the ball. Charlotte probably is somewhere in the lower third of NBA Team “fandom” and that comes from a general feel from around league fan circles and the number of followers / contributors on social channels.
Fan Support Ranking: 4.5 out of 8
Atmosphere
The sound of bees buzzing after each made shot are little things that my corny self appreciates at a sporting event. Color and character leads to a good setting and the crowd did their part to bring some energy. They were cautious in getting too invested given the state of the team, but once it became apparent “hey, we actually could win this!”, they really got involved. Making “De-Fense” chants, raising the noise level after each basket, getting on their feet when it mattered….I was generally impressed. My one complaint: All the fans that went up and down the stairs in the upper deck. Ushers weren’t there to hold them back until breaks in play and it became annoying for someone who likes to sit on an aisle seat.
Atmosphere Ranking: 9.5 out of 14
Other Stuff
There was a guy outside the arena that was blowing long balloons for the kids, all free. A nice touch to get the little ones excited and having a good time…..What’s not a nice gesture: they confiscated my water bottle as I came in. Yeah, I know they aren’t allowed, but most times I can sneak it in…..Each stair at the beginning of a section has directional arrows for seat and section number. So helpful!……The team is known as the Hornets because the city was described as “a hornet’s nest of rebellion” during the Revolutionary War…..The now extinct Charlotte Coliseum is interesting in that it only survived 17 years and it was lauded as the biggest NBA arena ever built. Seating capacity was a whopping 24,000, yet there were hardly any money-making luxury suites, which were a thing at that point in time……Hugo The Hornet is Charlotte’s mascot and it’s a good one. Entertaining and kid-friendly. There’s also “Super Hugo”, which is a more humanized version in spandex. However, he only showed up with like two minutes left in the game.
Game
The game wasn’t one that I was ga-ga over as the terrible Hornets came in off a record by losing their last three games by 131 points. Meanwhile, Cleveland was on a 12-game winning streak. Yet, how does Vegas know! The line was only -14.5, which made me scratch my head and in fact it was close much of the way. Much of that was thanks to Miles Bridges who had a career high 46 points. There was a stretch early in the second half when everyone thought “here we go” as the Cavs built a 13-point lead. But, Charlotte hung in there. The Hornets actually took the back the lead and it got up to nine with 3:30 to go. Buzz City was just that. Yet, Cleveland scratched and clawed as they pecked their way back and thanks to some really dumb shot selection by LaMelo Ball (who has a terrible jump shot), the Cavs went up four with 16.1 seconds left. It was a foul fest from there and Donovan Mitchell was the culprit. He went 6 for 6 as Charlotte stayed in it, but with 4.1 seconds left, he missed his last two. Miles Bridges had a chance to win it with a halfcourt heave, coming up just short. Cleveland’s 51 free throw attempts were its most since 2007, causing this game to take 2 hours and 40 minutes.
Stadium and Arena Visits 
