Xbox U.: UNC is building a ‘gaming arena’
Plus: 40 Over 40 judges named; City eliminating coin parking meters; Stonehaven resident not smiling over 'Keep Smiling' mailbox discovery
Good morning! Today is Monday, January 27, 2020.
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New center boosts UNC flagship as a hotbed for ‘e-sports’ as video games grow in popularity; student club has 800 gamers
UNC Chapel Hill is putting the finishing touches on a new video game arena for students that will try to position the school as one of the state’s leaders in the growing area of what’s becoming known as “e-sports.”
The Carolina Gaming Arena, under construction in the basement of a freshman dorm, will be 1,800 s.f. and will feature nearly 40 computers and nine gaming consoles including Xboxes, Playstation 4s and Nintendo Switches. It’s expected to open in March.
Lee Hyde, UNC’s director of resident services, explained to The Ledger that the idea for the new, state-of-the-art gaming arena originated with students, who saw interest in e-sports growing nationally but were concerned that the state’s preeminent public university lacked adequate video-game facilities.
“Instead of letting other schools pass us, we decided to get out in front of it,” Hyde says.
Not ‘unhealthy’: He said that UNC — where in-state tuition and room and board total more than $24,000 a year — isn’t advocating playing video games: “One of the biggest misconceptions is we are promoting gaming, trying to get people to game in an unhealthy way. We acknowledge they are gaming and are trying to make sure they do that in a positive way, in a way that fulfills them.” He added that the university will enforce time limits on the daily use of the gaming arena.
The cost to build it is in the six figures, he said.
Closer to home, there are other examples of video gaming taking off:
This month, UNC Charlotte’s e-sports club held a 12-hour-long gaming party. Students were asked to bring their own computers or game consoles to the student union, and the club provided catered pizza “to make sure you have the fuel to keep playing!”
The Charlotte Hornets announced last year that the team will field an NBA 2K team in 2020. It said creation of a video gaming team will bring “exciting, fast-paced and entertaining esports action to the fans of Charlotte.”
Catawba College in Salisbury last year added e-sports “to its athletic offerings,” and it provides scholarships and recruits students. The college’s dean said adding the program “allows us to meet our students where their interests are” and called it a “new and exciting intercollegiate sport.” It also has a gaming arena. Unfortunately, Catawba College was not ranked in the top 25 on the ESPN preseason e-sports coaches poll released this month.
A Charlotte group called CLT Esports formed in 2018 and has been hosting tournaments, according to an article last year in Queen City Nerve.
Internationally, e-sports is blowing up quicker than a Fortnite hand grenade: The number of fans, players, prize money and sponsorships are all surging, according to a recent report by Goldman Sachs.
Davis Martin, a UNC senior from Charlotte majoring in astrophysics, says completing the video game arena could be the first step toward establishing e-sports as a varsity sport at Carolina. (Insert your own UNC basketball joke here.)
Strong student interest: Martin, a Providence High grad who heads UNC Chapel Hill Esports, says his club is the largest student group on campus, with as many as 800 players participating in online games from their dorm rooms or apartments. There are 11 games with big enough gaming communities to have their own club officers heading them. The most popular, he said, is probably the battle game “League of Legends,” although the newer fight game “Super Smash Bros. Ultimate” is gaining traction.
“The club is a way to connect a lot of different people with similar interests,” Martin says. “It’s an easy way to casually have some fun, have a pastime.”
Game on: UNC is building a “gaming arena” where students can convene to play video games such as League of Legends (above, photo courtesy of Riot Games).
40 Over 40 enters final week; Wise millennial judges announced!
Friday is the deadline to get those nominations in for The Charlotte Ledger’s 40 Over 40 awards. We’re finding and honoring people who are making Charlotte a better place — even if they were born in the 1970s or earlier through no fault of their own. (Here’s the link to the easy-to-complete nomination form.)
The nominations have been pouring in, and let me tell you, our panel of under-40 judges is going to have its work cut out for it.
Today, we’re announcing the identities of those judges. They’re up to the task.
Shattering stereotypes: If we’re being honest, millennials are often maligned in local popular culture as attention-seeking, self-obsessed inebriates who take their dogs on e-scooters on the way to the latest avocado-toast eatery or axe-throwing bar. That stereotype obscures the reality that many are also doing the hard and vital work of raising families, excelling in careers and volunteering in the community we all love.
Our judging panel is an impressive and responsible bunch: The judges come from all over town and include small-business owners, loving parents, finance whizzes and nonprofit volunteers. In fact, if another publication in town were to launch a contest recognizing three-and-a-half-dozen or so people aged 39 and under, our judges would likely be strong contenders.
To save space in this newsletter, The Ledger is listing the names and bios of the judges on our website, which is the home for public records and bonus materials that don’t always fit neatly into a newsletter format. (Click here)
This week, please spread the word about 40 Over 40. Share it on social media. Get those nominations in. And we’ll put these talented millennial judges to work.
Best of Nextdoor: ‘Keep Smiling’ in Stonehaven
Today’s supporting sponsors are T.R. Lawing Realty Inc. and The McIntosh Law Firm/Carolina Revaluation Services:
In brief:
Wells Fargo sales pressure: A 100-page complaint against Wells Fargo execs released by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency last week detailed for the first time some behind-the-scenes emails and practices related to the bank’s fake accounts scandal. One employee complained to the CEO’s office in 2013: “I was in the 1991 Gulf War. … This is sad and hard for me to say, but I had less stress in the 1991 Gulf War than working for Wells Fargo.” The report also said that in one case, employees were warned “that if they did not achieve sales goals, they would be ‘transferred to a store where someone had been shot and killed’ and if they did not make enough appointments they would be ‘forced to walk out in the hot sun around the block.’” (Full OCC complaint here, summarized by Bloomberg)
Job growth: Hiring in North Carolina was flat in December, but on the year, the state added nearly 94,000 jobs — the fifth-strongest job growth in the nation. (Wells Fargo)
Workplace fatalities rise: The North Carolina Department of Labor recorded 53 job-related deaths in the state in 2019, the highest since 2011. Falls accounted for 17 deaths, while “struck-by incidents” accounted for 15. Nearly half were in the construction industry. (N.C. Department of Labor)
No more coin parking meters: The city of Charlotte plans to eliminate the last of its coin-operated parking meters in uptown and South End. A contract expected to be approved by the City Council tonight would replace the 410 coin-operated meters with smart meters. The city says there are 1,427 metered spaces in the city, and nearly 1/3 are coin-only.
Lucrative internships: Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan says the bank’s commitment to pay workers at least $20 an hour includes everybody: “So this quarter, then, March, all the teammates at Bank of America will start at $20 or more. Even if you’re a summer intern, even if you’re a high school kid, you start at $20.” He made the comments on Fox Business Network’s “Mornings With Maria” on Friday, according to a transcript provided by the network.
New mixed-use: Spectrum Cos. is building an eight-story apartment tower at Mint and Carson streets in the “Gold District,” a block off Morehead Street toward South End, the company said. It will have 303 units, a 4,000-s.f. rooftop terrace and 11,500 s.f. of ground floor retail “that will focus on food and beverage and services.”
In memoriam: Phil Van Hoy — distinguished employment lawyer, outspoken conservative, big Duke basketball fan — passed away over the weekend. A prolific letter-writer to the Observer, he was a partner at the boutique law firm he co-founded, Van Hoy, Reutlinger, Adams & Pierce in Dilworth. He died unexpectedly at his home on Saturday at the age of 72. (Legacy.com)
Correction
Friday’s article about OrthoCarolina’s marketing strategy should have said that the company is the third-largest private orthopedics practice in the country. (Because of a typo, the article said “county” instead of “country.”) Apologies.
Taking stock
Unless you are a day trader, checking your stocks daily is unhealthy. So how about weekly? How local stocks of note fared last week (through Friday’s close), and year to date:
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The Charlotte Ledger is an e-newsletter and web site publishing timely, informative, and interesting local business news and analysis Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, except holidays and as noted. We strive for fairness and accuracy and will correct all known errors. The content reflects the independent editorial judgment of The Charlotte Ledger. Any advertising, paid marketing, or sponsored content will be clearly labeled.
The Charlotte Ledger is published by Tony Mecia, an award-winning former Charlotte Observer business reporter and editor. He lives in Charlotte with his wife and three children.