The Bobcats "want Wednesdays to be the new day to party," with the hope that "young people will turn a mid-week basketball game into a full night out," according to Andrew Dunn of the CHARLOTTE OBSERVER. The team is "spending $18,000 advertising on the city’s light-rail trains and forming partnerships" with several restaurants and nightclubs located at Charlotte's EpiCentre retail complex near Time Warner Cable Arena. The Bobcats "hope it will boost attendance on a day when it is generally much more difficult to fill seats." Team President & CEO Fred Whitfield said that he "charged the marketing department with coming up with a plan to boost attendance on Wednesdays soon after the team received its schedule," which includes a franchise-high 13 Wednesday home games. Bobcats Senior VP/Marketing Seth Bennett said that a weeknight "will skew more to young professionals or college students," and that the new Wednesday night promotion "reflects that." Dunn notes the promotion allows fans to "buy a ticket online, starting at $10." Fans can then "use that as your ticket to get on the light rail to uptown for free, hopping off at the stop between Time Warner Cable Arena and the EpiCentre." Many restaurants in the area "are offering free appetizers with your meal if you have a ticket." Once inside the game, fans participating in the promotion "can buy bottomless popcorn, $4 beers and a $10 T-shirt." Also included is a return trip on the city's light rail train, as the ticket is "good all day." Meanwhile, Whitfield said that the Bobcats have "added 2,000 new season ticket holders, and had a nearly 80 percent season ticket renewal rate" (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 12/4).
