Bojangles’ Coliseum

I recently (last night) attended a concert at Bojangles’ Coliseum, Tool to be exact (with 3Teeth and Primus). The show was great. Tool put on a rockin’ show, so no complaints there. This review isn’t about the show, but rather the venue. So, now that that’s out of the way:
Let’s start with the good:
The acoustics were surprisingly good. Any bigger and the reverberation would have been too much for a metal concert. The crowd control was also good. Ingress and egress went fairly smoothly, in spite of the fact that there seemed to be only one entrance/​exit.
And that’ll do it for the good. On to the bad:
The show was general admission. Really? Whose bright idea was it to have a gen admin show when most of the venue is comprised of seats? Getting in and finding a seat was a huge headache. The ushers kept «ushering» us to move along the walkway in a hasty manner, and didn’t seem to care that it takes awhile to find open seats for a gen admin show.
SMOKING. While I’m tempted to wax poetic about the egregious behavior of smoking, especially inside a packed concert venue, I’ll refrain, as this is a review of the coliseum, not the behavior of the attendees. So, to that end, the security was sorely lacking in the enforcement of the VERY CLEAR NO SMOKING POLICY INSIDE OR OUTSIDE THE VENUE. It really was disgusting… and I say that as a previous smoker. Yes, I realize this is a concert, but I’ve been to other venues of similar size where security worked very hard to squash such odious and selfish behavior.
Finally, I got a bad taste in my mouth when I left my seat near the end of the show to get a drink of water. When I walked up to one of the concession stands (one of the free standing ones), I noticed they were shutting down for the evening. This is fine and understandable. I proceeded to ask for a cup with water… a simple request, considering the stack of plastic cups sitting on the counter. Rather than obliging, the response I received from the attendant was something to the effect of «no, we can’t take payment from anyone now since we’re shutting down.» So, I responded with, «What? A cup of water isn’t free?» at which point she looked at me like I had two heads. All I wanted was a cup with water. Even just an empty cup would have been fine, as I could have filled it up at the water fountain.
Will I attend another show? I honestly don’t know. I could deal with the gen admin thing, but the lack of NO SMOKING enforcement and sub-​par customer service would definitely make me think twice next time.

We’ve attended 3 Checkers games recently including the season opener. We really enjoy the size of the arena and new updates that were applied. The price for food is reasonable considering what we pay at Timewarner Arena. We have sat in 3 different locations and realize their isn’t a bad seat in the building.

Yes — parking leaves a lot to be desired and traffic direction is lackadaisical at best. However, I’ve come to love attending Checkers games because the games feel intimate and the fans are into it. It’s not a «scene,» and tickets and concessions are reasonably priced. Seats are great for watching games (relatively speaking, no it’s not the sofa cinema), the digital boards are good quality for replay and videos, and the sound for announcers and music leaves little to be desired.
Improvements needed? There does indeed need to be more adequate signage to improve traffic flow — vehicular and those on foot both outside and inside. Way finding is a real thing and there are people who specialize in it! And yes these way finding /​traffic control measure could and should take into account the very poor bathroom location and its ingress/​egress situation.

I am seriously disappointed in the traffic control and parking for the coliseum. Plan a lot of travel time of you plan to attend an event here.

This building is entirely too small for the amount of people that are allowed inside & the parking lot as well reflects the same issue. Driving in to park in the $ 8 (unmarked) 2 lane event parking lot added 30 to 45 minutes to get there. The women’s restroom has one door for in and out and is being held open with a giant trashcan. I don’t recommend utilizing this facility for checkers hockey and probably concerts too. #Nightmare
Ps. They have obstructed view seats (see photo)

If you live in Charlotte, you have probably heard about the $ 16 million dollar renovation of Bojangles Coliseum and the Charlotte Checkers «return» there as their home rink. Technically no AHL team, including this version of the Charlotte Checkers had ever played there (the team that played here was from the ECHL, a lower-​tier league with not very good hockey). So the renovations are decent and I will list the good and then the bad.
The good:
Nice new scoreboard that worked well after a few kinks (it showed that the Checkers had a 50 minute penalty to kill in the first period).
Most impressive to me was the new lighting. When the ECHL team played here it was pretty dark.
Four electronic ribbon boards, one in each corner.
Upgraded sound system.
Most seats are good but there are a few with obstructed views (see photos from other 11÷7÷15 review).
New, wider seats to replace the wooden ones, complete with cup holders
.
Relatively inexpensive concessions ($ 6 – 8 for a craft beer depending on size; brisket sandwich for $ 10 from Queen City Q — reasonable, $ 3 for a bottle of soda).
The bad:
$ 8 for parking. A game ticket is $ 13 so you basically are almost paying for another ticket to park. Unlike uptown that had $ 5 parking, validated parking, and even free street parking, you pretty much have to pay to park here. Traffic still backs up bad onto Independence but they got everyone in quickly (use Monroe Rd/​Briar Creek to avoid this — also easier to get out this way).
Concourses are narrow and cramped with lines for concessions and bathrooms long and overlapping. Very long line for women’s room. Cannot walk around entire upper concourse to get to all seats.
The new plastic seats are better than the wooden ones but are still hard and uncomfortable except for the extra room. Bring a cushion if you have back issues.
Only saw the usher to stop people from entering when the puck is in play for a few minutes in the first period. One or two people were standing for no reason during a lot of the game and blocked our view. No staff was nearby to warn them. I understand standing when everyone is but people should not be doing it when everyone else is sitting. I did not pay to see the back of someone’s head.
No restaurants are walking distance from the arena; however Plaza Midwood is less than a five minute drive and has a lot of great restaurants.
Overall, this is a better building for hockey than TWC Arena and is a good fit for a minor league team. They did a good job with the improvements. Really the only major negatives are the location that makes it difficult to access, the price for parking, and the narrow concourses. The best thing about it is the real, live organ player. It is also a good fit for the Charlotte Checkers who no longer have to practice in Indian Trail, play at TWC Arena, and have their offices in the Epicenter. Although they lost the first game, the Checkers are a first class organization and provide a great game experience. Other than parking, it’s reasonably priced quality entertainment. It’s definitely an improvement over what it used to be and it is worth going to see a game here but there is still room for improvement.

I went to this venue yesterday for a concert that had Keith Sweat and among other R&B artists. 1^st time I ever attended this place. And can I tell you, any other concerts hosts here, they can count me out. Very disappointed. Seats were cramped. Aisles are also small. Anybody who is a bit «swoll» will have a hard time in those chairs. Sound system is shady. Marking for sections are confusing.
But I’m most disappointed with the staffs, ushers and security! The staffs are not approachable. Like they hated their job. The ushers are the worst. Both young men whose «supposely» helping us find our seats would just point. Twice the gentleman point us to the wrong section. Wouldn’t walk anybody to their seats. Full of attitudes! And doesn’t seem like they really want to be there. By the time we found a young lady usher, she walked us to our seats. There were someone else sitting there. She turned and said they’re in your seats and walk off. Oh may I add, the whole row. Everybody is on the wrong seats. Security was no where to be found. Every body just sits where they feel like and the rest have to fend for themselves because nobody’s there to correct the rest whose decides they will sit where they feel best for them. No won’t go there again!

I can only hope that one day they will upgrade the sound system in this place especially if they’re going to continue having concerts here. I have attended several events here and the sound for concerts is almost unbearable… loud and muffled and it’s been that way for years. The other events have pretty decent sound, no complaints, but it’s something about those concerts that will prevent me from spending another $ 1 on that venue.

So many different pluses and minuses so I will lay it out here.
Parking: Five stars. We got there early and parked seconds away from the door. Huge plus, especially because it was raining. We were also in and out of the parking lot after it was over. How often does that happen?
Food: Minus five hundred stars. No acceptable food choices. Do not even try. They had Bojangles (of course) and some crappy pizza and other junk. Over priced of course. Not even close to a vegetable or fruit in the entire place.
Seating: We had seats in the pit so did not sit in the old chairs other reviewers have discussed. They did not look comfortable from afar though.
Noise Level: Super loud. Bring earplugs if you want to hear the next day and for your ears not to ring for a week.
Security: Was pretty non-​existent until the main act came on which sucked. People were smoking and pushing people around pretty bad until they showed up.
Overall, not too bad but not too good. If you don’t eat here it is a pretty good place to rock out.

Bojangles Coliseum has this retro feel that I normally love, but the venue falls short of my expectations.
I came here once to watch an ice show, which I was super pumped about. Our seats were somewhere near the middle, which gave us a decent enough view of the ice. However, this place is super cramped. We barely had enough room on the row to get to our seats without tripping. The worst part of it all was the hard, uncomfortable chairs. They are the old wooden, narrow chairs with hard metal armrests. I am a full-​figured person, and it was quite uncomfortable to sit in these seats. After I left, the sides of my hips ached badly from sitting there. My friend who attended was average-​sized, and even she complained that the seats were not comfortable and too tight, with her hips barely fitting in the seat. The lady who sat next to me was quite disgruntled and ended up elbowing me a few times.
I like that they offer Bojangles food in the Coliseum, but it costs like three times as much as it does at the restaurant. I’m not sure I would buy it for that price.
If they manage to ever fix the seating situation, it might be a good place to catch a show. After all, they do seem to have a decent amount of parking and a convenient location. However, they need to work on making it more comfortable in there before I will think about going back again.

i really dug this place. one of the old time spots that still rocks. reminded me of tha hampton coliseum. they don’t make em like this no more. great acoustics for being built in ’55, and very intimate. made Tool sound even better. if you can, grab a show at this spot.

Old, worn down and unorganized, but good size venue.
We got lucky here. We got seats though tickmaster and clicked best available which ended up giving us handicap accessible, cushioned seating in «The Circle». The majority of the seating was old, wooden fold down chairs that did not look comfortable at all. The «box» seating also had cushioned chairs, but that section was quite a bit more expensive and rather limited. The entire facility could use a face lift. Parking was also a bit of a mess and confusing. I’m glad we came in the winter. i imagine this venue gets pretty hot during the summer.
The neighborhood the arena was in felt a little shady as well. Definitely stay in uptown if you can, which is only 10 minutes away and a straight shot from the venue. We used
and got the Omni for $ 80 a night. Great hotel and location for that price.
The only reason I’m giving it 3 stars instead of 2 is due to the venue size. It’s smaller than many arenas, which gives you good views of the show and better acoustics.
We will definitely try to hold out for shows in the newer, Time Warner arena in the future though.

There are many times that I can be accused of not getting all the hubbub. This is one of those times. The Bojangles Coliseum (formerly Cricket Arena, formerly Independence Arena, formerly the original Charlotte Coliseum and almost the Victory Junction something-​or-​other), on the way to the east side of Charlotte, is a classic. An important designation when there are not too many of them left in the QC.
When the Charlotte Checkers bolted for the shiny new uptown arena, the place was left without a major tenant, which is a bit of a shame, really, because the Checkers rarely draw more than a few thousand, and the building can hold upwards of ten thousand — plenty for hockey in Charlotte, as well as arena football, the rodeo, concerts or any number of offbeat events.
Naturally you could also say that the Bobcats would not be as popular if they were not uptown — but reported attendance for the team is more than fifteen thousand. I went to some of those games (okay, one) and there was nowhere near fifteen thousand people in that building. Even counting season tickets would probably not get you close. For this, we went four hundred million in debt?
I get that people like the latest and greatest car, or to have a larger house than their neighbor, or a flat screen that you can see from space — but come on! This building is perfectly serviceable, even fifty-​five years after it was built. The second Charlotte Coliseum was built, occupied and is now ground to dust. The same can be said about CityFair and the original Convention Center. Maybe we should learn to make use of these old ladies instead of just discarding — and eventually destroying — them.

Formerly known as Cricket Arena, Independence Arena and the original Charlotte Coliseum, this building is a classic and not too many of its kind still around.
In Charlotte where it’s hard to see history preserved, this is one of my favorite old buildings in the city.
It was a great place to see the Charlotte Checkers play before they moved to the TWC arena uptown but it’s still a great place to see a concert. I think the acoustics are better here than at the new arena.
This arena is a gem and I hope it stays around for a while.