Will we one day look back to the departure of Bobcat President and CEO Ed Tapscott as the first sign the Bobcats would not succeed in Charlotte? Time will tell. But this is not the kind of move an NBA team makes a few weeks ahead of the NBA draft.
Tapscott’s contract ran through the end of June, yet after a team ownership group meeting yesterday it suddenly became imperative that Tapscott assume a reduced role in the organization. That certainly sounds like a fall-guy situation.
The team continues to dance around the fact that they simply priced themselves out of the Charlotte market when they moved Uptown. Worse, the city is full of tales of inept marketing pushes from the Bobcats trying to push a product as exclusive that not that many people see as exclusive. Season ticket prices have been reduced downward for next year, but still remain 25 to 30 percent higher than Charlotte can comfortably sustain.
Team officials have also moved to cut back on the overt hip-hop vibe of the games, which was evidently causing some heartburn among the Skipper Beck set. But that is a minor issue compared with the value question.
Now, Bob Johnson was installed one of his non-basketball guys in the Bobcat CEO job. Let’s see how long that lasts. And if I’m a city of Charlotte official, I’d be very worried if a new arena suddenly sprouts up in the Tidewater Virginia area.
