Check out what they are doing in ATL to put fannies in the seats — cutting prices and bundling events.

Will Charlotte have to do something similar to make Uptown baseball remotely work? The good news is that the Panthers are not the basketcase that the Falcons are, the bad news is that the Hawks are coming off a playoff run and the Braves have historically had strong support.

One negative off-the-field wrinkle for the Panthers looms, however. Many of the good tailgating surface parking lots went ka-boom in order to build the Uptown Arts package and the NASCAR Hall of Fame. How are fans going to react to that this fall?

If the assumption is by not tailgating, then the Panthers will have to go out and grow a new segment of fans who do not want to tailgate to replace the ex-tailgaters who will be staying home to watch the game in HD.