Liberty
Charlotte’s Major League Soccer dream is officially dead
Funny how issues get put on the back burner in today’s 24/7 warp-speed news cycle. One of those was Charlotte’s bid for a Major League Soccer franchise, complete with a…
Charlotte Motor Speedway
Research Brief
Regulation
Local Governments, Investors Kicking Around Plans For MLS Team
I remember when Major League Soccer launched in 1996. It was just a handful of teams, and none of them were close to North Carolina. If you’d told me then…
Liberty
Lots of soccer coming to North Carolina all of a sudden?
A month ago, the Carolina Railhawks announced that they were changing their name to North Carolina F.C. and making a bid to join MLS. Last week, Bruton Smith, who owns…
Liberty
Bruton Smith won’t be happy
Seems that the N.C. Supreme Court has decided not to address his appeal of a lower court ruling that he and Charlotte Motor Speedway never had a deal with Cabarrus…
Liberty
Charlotte Motor Speedway shrinks
To 93,000 seats in 2015, down from 134,000 this year and from 171,000 seats in 2001. So it seems that NASCAR ain’t what it use to be — and isn’t…
Law & Public Safety
Unanimous Appeals Court panel upholds removal of former Durham D.A. Cline
A unanimous three-judge panel of the N.C. Court of Appeals affirmed this morning the removal from office of former Durham District Attorney Tracey Cline. Among other published appellate opinions released…
Liberty
Bruton Smith not moving CMS race
To Las Vegas. In 2014. Despite Smith having said in May that there was a 70 percent or 100 percent given that transfer would go down. No real surprise there.…
Liberty
NASCAR All-Star race apparently not so popular
Got an e-mail from Time Warner last week with this offer: “Add Time Warner Cable Sports Pass to your account by April 28th and get tickets to the May 18th…
Liberty
One from the cold day in hell department
Charlotte Motor Speedway bans smoking except in designated smoking lounges. There are a total of 10 such lounges at the speedway.
Liberty
Racing hurting for money
In Formula 1. From the BBC: If there is not enough external sponsorship out there to maintain the whole grid, where will the money come from to keep the sport’s…
Budget, Taxation & Economy
Convention Centers Suck Cash
There was an interesting piece in the Charlotte Observer yesterday about the Charlotte Convention Center, where the Democratic National Convention will be held next month. Like convention centers in many…
Liberty
Charlotte DNC organizers: We’re incompetent
Hard to put any better spin on the decision this late in the game by the DNC to move their Monday night festival thing from Charlotte Motor Speedway back to…