Charlotte 49er Students,
I am writing today to update you on football at UNC Charlotte as of April 13th, 2008. The Chancellor appointed a Football Feasibility Committee last February after you turned out in force, voting in the Spring 2007 SGA football poll to say that you wanted football and that you wanted to pay for it. The Football Feasibility committee reported back in February 2008 with a unanimous recommendation to kickoff in 2012.
Now the Chancellor is exploring the topic even deeper and will discuss some of his findings to the UNC Charlotte Board of Trustees in June and will likely present his yes or no decision at the September 18th Board of Trustees meeting. After seeing some of his initial work, he is delving into the topic and exploring how football has been implemented at other schools to ensure that a permanent decision on adding football will be a success. Any Charlotte football program may lose money on the balance sheet for a long time but I think Chancellor Dubois understands that we would lose that money to gain the community which a shared experience on a Saturday afternoon between 20,000 49er fans can be.
The Athletic Department has engaged leaders in the community and its own staff in generating plans on how to deal with a yes-to-football/no-to-football decision by the Chancellor and I have been impressed by their diligence on the issue.
A national football stadium consulting firm recently took a look at Memorial Stadium and determined that the upgrades would be expensive and ineffective for the future. Likely our best option is to upgrade the Belk Track facility as any long-term commitment to that facility would benefit the soccer programs and the track team. Even successful Division 1AA programs like App St. play football on a field with a track running around it.
Clearly these are exciting times for Niner Nation so stay posted for the latest developments.
According to the Chancellor’s timeline, we’ll know the final decision on Charlotte 49er football by the 3rd week of September, 2008.
Go Niners!
Cordially,
Justin Ritchie
Student Body President
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