Culture
Pat Yasinskas of ESPN.com observed that while there is "a bit of a wine-and-cheese atmosphere at Panthers games ... there is a strong core of diehard fans who bring energy to Bank of America Stadium. Charlotte lives and dies with the Panthers because there aren't a lot of other options in the sports world". In 2004, NPR reporter Scott Jagow observed that the Panthers' Super Bowl appearance in 2004 represented the arrival of Charlotte onto the national scene, despite the crowd's "wine and cheese" reputation. The Panthers are also supported in South Carolina; Nikki Haley, the Governor of South Carolina, declared July 30, 2012, "Carolina Panthers Day" in South Carolina, saying that "when it comes to professional teams, the Carolina Panthers are the team that South Carolina calls their own". Sports Illustrated graded the Panthers as having the tenth-highest "NFL Fan Value Experience", attributing much of the fan atmosphere to the team's newness when compared to the established basketball fanbase. They noted that while visiting fans often outnumber Panthers fans at home games, this is partially because many of Charlotte's residents are "transplants ... from NYC, Philly, Atlanta". They also observed that the stadium has scattered parking lots, each of which has a different tailgating style. Some have fried chicken, pork, or Carolina-style barbecue, while others have live bands and televisions. Pickup football games in the parking lots are common, but fans tend to "behave themselves", in part due to blue laws that prevent the sale of alcohol before noon on Sundays.
Read more about this topic: Paul Janus
Famous quotes containing the word culture:
“Any historian of the literature of the modern age will take virtually for granted the adversary intention, the actually subversive intention, that characterizes modern writing—he will perceive its clear purpose of detaching the reader from the habits of thought and feeling that the larger culture imposes, of giving him a ground and a vantage point from which to judge and condemn, and perhaps revise, the culture that produces him.”
—Lionel Trilling (1905–1975)
“The white dominant culture seemed to think that once the Indians were off the reservations, they’d eventually become like everybody else. But they aren’t like everybody else. When the Indianness is drummed out of them, they are turned into hopeless drunks on skid row.”
—Elizabeth Morris (b. c. 1933)