Around Town

In today’s headlines: Who bought the old Bojangles’ Coliseum seats?

By Corey Inscoe
A customer is helped loading a group of three old wooden seats from Bojangles Coliseum to his truck on Wednesday, September 9, 2015. The few hundred people lucky enough to get Bojangles seats during an online sign up earlier this year arrived to pick them up on Wednesday.
A customer is helped loading a group of three old wooden seats from Bojangles Coliseum to his truck on Wednesday, September 9, 2015. The few hundred people lucky enough to get Bojangles seats during an online sign up earlier this year arrived to pick them up on Wednesday. Jeff Siner jsiner@charlotteobserver.com

They’re heavy, orange and some of them still have gum stuck to the bottom. But nearly 3,000 people signed up for a chance to buy them.

The lucky 374 people who were selected to buy the 832 old seats from Bojangles’ Coliseum started picking them up yesterday morning. As part of a $16 million renovation to the arena, the seats are being replaced with newer — and wider — ones.

The lucky winners paid $40 for a set of two and $45 for a set of three.

Who would buy old arena seats? According to a Twitter search, these people:

//><!--I wondered what people were going to do with these new-old seats, so I sent this tweet, hoping to get interesting ideas for man caves.//--><!

All I got was snark. Thanks, Twitter.

Oh yeah, I did get one good response.

In other headlines …

GOODBYE, FOOD TRUCK FRIDAY LOT: Well it’s official. A developer is under contract to buy the triangle of land in South End that’s home to Common Market and Food Truck Friday. Cousins Properties plans to build an East Coast headquarters for Dimensional Fund Advisors on the site. Possible good news: The companies have had preliminary talks with Common Market about possibly being an anchor retail tenant in the new building. The property needs to be rezoned, which could happen early 2016 with construction starting late that year.

[Related: What South End loses if it loses Common Market.]

GRIM STATISTICS: Five people were killed in Charlotte over the weekend in what CMPD officials believe were gang-related shootings, with victims getting caught in the crossfire. But grim statistics lie behind the violent weekend.

As of late Wednesday, CMPD had investigated 43 homicides so far in 2015,  more than all of last year. And there are still more than three months left in the year. Of the 43 homicides, 15 remain open for a 66 percent solve rate. That’s higher than the national average (65) but lower than last year (89).

UNDER INVESTIGATION: Charlotte U.S. Rep. Robert Pittenger is under investigation by the IRS and FBI, according to an Observer report over the weekend. They are investigating whether Pittenger improperly transferred money from his former business, Pittenger Land Investments, to his campaign. When he was running for congress in 2012, Pittenger gave his campaign more than $2.3 million in personal loans and contributions.

Pittenger, who returned to Washington D.C. yesterday, isn’t talking about it.

Photo: Jeff Siner/Charlotte Observer

This story was originally published September 9, 2015 at 9:10 PM with the headline "In today’s headlines: Who bought the old Bojangles’ Coliseum seats?."

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