Remembering the Charlotte Hornets 25 years later: The call that changed a city forever

As we continue to countdown to the observance of the 25th anniversary of the Charlotte Hornets inaugural game this upcoming Monday, we are taking a look back at the birth of the franchise, and how the city fell in love with the Hornets.  In part 1 of this six part series, we talked about how George Shinn made his millions as a self-made entrepreneur and how he assembled a band of renegades back in 1985 that would set out on a journey to bring Charlotte an NBA franchise.  In part 2 of this series, we'll talk about how Shinn impressed the NBA Board of Governors, and the call that would change the city forever on April Fool's Day, 1987.

How Shinn sold the NBA on Charlotte

After announcing his intentions to pursue an NBA expansion franchise, George Shinn and his group would have to do a lot of hard work in order for Charlotte to secure the bid. After Shinn and his group presented the league with a $100,000 check to make Charlotte's bid official, which was backed by First Union, the next step in the process would have to be a presentation to the NBA Board of Governors on October 20, 1986 in Phoenix, Arizona.  Commissioner David Stern knew that he wanted Charlotte to be in the fold for an expansion franchise.  At one point, there was 11 cities that were in the running, and Charlotte was always last in the pickings, according to Shinn.

Then, came the presentation to the NBA Board of Governors, and in that speech, Shinn addressed the Board of Governors about why he and his group wanted Charlotte to have an NBA team in the first place, and the reasons why fans wanted to support the team when it would begin play in the 1988-89 season.

In the speech, Shinn would say that Charlotte was on the rise as one of the fastest-growing cities in America with it's rapid population, and realizing that the one thing that Charlotte was lacking was a major-league sports franchise with the minor-league Charlotte O's baseball team(Shinn would later acquire the team in 1987) and UNC Charlotte's athletic teams being the only games in town back then. He would later say that the Charlotte group had over 10,000 ticket deposits from those in Charlotte that signed up to be on a waiting list to purchase season tickets for that first season, after the group launched its ticket drive in July of that year, with former Charlotte mayor Harvey Gantt being the first to purchase two season tickets at a Charlotte City Council Meeting on July 23, 1986 to kickoff the drive.

Shinn stated that Charlotte was already building the new Charlotte Coliseum, a modern-day state-of-the-art facility that would serve the franchise as it's major tenant, and during discussions he had earlier in the process with Martin Brackett, who oversaw the Charlotte Auditorium-Coliseum-Convention Center Authority as it's Chairman at the time, along with Paul Buck, who served as the Managing Director of the Auditorium-Coliseum-Convention Center Authority before retiring in 1988, they both agreed on good terms with George and went on to say that having a NBA team as the major tenant for a new facility would put the city on the map, as well as generating revenue for the new Coliseum as a whole.

And when the speech came to its conclusion, hall of fame coach Red Auerbach stood up and applauded, and he would hug him after he made his speech to the Board of Governors on that night in Phoenix.  A day later after the speech to the NBA Board of Governors, a columnist for The Sacramento Bee said that "The only franchise Charlotte is going to get is one with Golden Arches", referring to the famed logo for McDonald's. With Shinn's speech to the Board of Governors in the rear view window and the reasons why the league should consider giving Charlotte an NBA expansion team, all that was left was for commissioner Stern to decide if the "Queen City of the South" would make the cut for an expansion franchise to join the National Basketball Association for the 1988-89 season.

The new Charlotte Coliseum first opened it's doors on August 11, 1988, and it's 23,388 seating capacity would be one of the largest seating capacities in the NBA at that time.

Some of the NBA experts that covered the league during the mid to late-1980's knew that Charlotte would have a legitimate long shot to be in the running for an NBA expansion franchise, with the city being on the verge of the birth of the banking industry during that time with the city being the home of First Union(later Wachovia and is now Wells Fargo) and NCNB(later NationsBank and now Bank of America) and with the city's rapid growth in its population, making it one of the fastest-growing cities in the country during the mid 1980's, and in his speech to the NBA Board of Governors, Shinn did mention that his group had an "Ace in the Hole", and that was Charlotte was already in the process of building the "New" Charlotte Coliseum, a $52 million dollar state-of-the-art 23,000 seat facility located on Tyvola Road Extension in the western end of the city just off Billy Graham Parkway and minutes away from Charlotte-Douglas International Airport, at the time during the city's pursuit of an NBA expansion franchise.

Work on the new Coliseum began with a groundbreaking ceremony at the site on August 12, 1985, after Charlotte voters approved a bond referendum one year earlier in November of 1984, given the fact that the original Charlotte Coliseum(now Bojangles Coliseum), which opened in 1955 on East Independence Boulevard was beginning to show its age at the time of construction, knowing that it was lacking a lot of amenities such as an outdated sound system, concession space, luxury skyboxes, and lack of parking spaces, and when the building was completed in time for it's grand opening on August 11th, 1988 before a sold-out crowd, with an opening ceremony that featured a dedication by the reverend Billy Graham, and of course, the infamous scoreboard crash the following day on August 12, 1988, the new Charlotte Coliseum would have three unique distinctions that would set things apart from all of the other NBA arenas in that time: 

• The Charlotte Coliseum's seating capacity of 23,388 would be one of the largest seating capacities for an NBA team. 
• It would be the largest basketball-specific arena ever to serve as a full-time home for an NBA franchise.
• The new Charlotte Coliseum would have the distinction of not only being the largest sports and entertainment venue in North and South Carolina, but it would also have the distinction of being the largest sports and entertainment venue in the Southeast when it opened its doors in August of 1988.

The Call that wasn't no April Fool's prank

It was April Fool's Day, 1987, and it was the moment of truth for the people of Charlotte, and for George Shinn.  The culmination of a dream and a vision to bring an NBA franchise to Charlotte would be decided with just one phone call.  Then, out of the blue, David Stern called George's son, Chad Shinn and he would give the phone to his dad when he said "It's David.", and commissioner Stern said that "George, this is April Fool's Day, but this is no April Fool, you have been selected Number one." As that call by commissioner Stern would officially seal the deal for the City of Charlotte to finally welcome a major-league sports franchise to not only the city, but also to the states of North and South Carolina, as George Shinn's lifelong dream of bringing pro basketball to the "Tar Heel State" finally came true.

The other 3 cities that made the cut for expansion by the NBA along with Charlotte, North Carolina were Miami, Florida; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Orlando, Florida, as approved by the NBA Board of Governors on April 22, 1987 in New York City. Charlotte and Miami would be the first 2 teams to play in the 1988-89 season, while Minnesota and Orlando would begin play in the 1989-90 season.

I forgot to mention this in part one of our series about the Carolina Cougars role in Charlotte's hunt for an NBA franchise, that many of us here at the time thought we didn't have a chance to land an NBA team, but for those who grew up during the 1960's and into the 1970's we were one of three cities that served as the home for the old Carolina Cougars of the American Basketball Association, along with Raleigh and Greensboro, and it was one of the key parts of why George Shinn and his group wanted the NBA to have Charlotte in the picture of getting an NBA team.

In the next chapter of our series, we'll explain about why the "Spirit" name didn't turn out to be a good choice at first for the franchise and how Alexander Julian came into the fold to design the uniforms for the team.