Everything to know about UNC football coming to Charlotte to play 49ers, and more
On Sept. 6, 2025, Charlotte will host North Carolina in what is undoubtedly the highest-profile home football game the 49ers have ever had.
At 7 p.m. that Saturday in Jerry Richardson Stadium, a capacity crowd of around 18,000 — about a quarter as many people who could have conceivably fit into Bank of America Stadium — will watch the in-state battle. It will be new UNC coach Bill Belichick’s first road game as the Tar Heels’ head coach, as well as new Charlotte coach Tim Albin’s first on-campus home game.
“In my opinion, this is the biggest marquee opponent that we’ve ever had at our stadium,” said Mike Hill, the 49ers’ director of athletics.
I’d agree. So, with a little less than three months to go, I asked Hill a bunch of questions Wednesday about the UNC vs. Charlotte football game, including the one that fans keep asking me: Was a move of either the day or the venue for this game ever considered?
The answer to that one:
Yes and yes, which is further explained below. We also talked about the recent upheaval in college athletics and what it means to the 49ers. Hill’s answers are edited for brevity and clarity.
Q: Your normal stadium capacity is listed at 15,314. How many seats can you fill with fans for the UNC game?
A: It will be just under 18,000 seats. We’re planning to add an additional 2,500 temporary seats to the stadium for this game, because there has been such incredibly high interest. We did a similar thing back in 2018 for the Appalachian State home game, and we packed it.
Q: I see that the general public can’t buy single-game tickets for the Charlotte-UNC game. You can currently get them only as part of a three-game flex plan or a full-season ticket package. Will single-game tickets for that game ever go on sale?
A: It’s unclear. At this point, we’re just relying on the season plans and the mini plans. We took the same approach last year when we hosted East Carolina and sold the game out. We did sell a few singles, very late, for that one when ECU returned a few tickets, making them available to our own season-ticket holders and our alumni association members.
So we’ll see how the season plans and mini plans play out over the next two months or so. If we have anything left, we would then go to market with that.
Q: Did UNC want you to move the Sept. 6 date of this game?
A: Yes. And we did try to work with them. The game will be five days after they play TCU on a Monday night, which is a big opener for them…. So they’ll be on a short week, right? And we don’t have a short week. In fact, we have a long week because we play on Friday (Aug. 29, when Charlotte and Appalachian State open the season against each other at Bank of America Stadium).
… We did try to work with them and with the ACC to find a different date that we could have played the game (later in September was the most likely option), if we could have a different opponent in Week 2. We did not want to play Appalachian State in Week 1 and then have an open date.
So we explored that… The challenge was that our conference didn’t have any league opponents that they could offer to us to play in Week 2. So we ended up keeping the game as it was.
Q: On a similar note, did you explore moving the game off Charlotte’s campus to a larger stadium?
A: We considered it — for a few minutes.
We’re already opening the season at Bank of America Stadium in the Duke’s Mayo Classic. That App State game is going to have a fantastic crowd as well. And while, certainly, we could have moved to a bigger venue and sold more seats, there’s an incredibly high value that we place on having North Carolina play on our home campus. It really generates enthusiasm and excitement for our season ticket plan. And so that’s why we elected to go that route.
Q: The UNC at Charlotte game is only on ESPN+, as opposed to ESPN or ESPN2 or one of the more familiar networks. How did that make you feel?
A: Disappointed. From my perspective, that’s really very surprising. But those are decisions that the networks make, and that’s how those things work. At least six of our 12 games will be on national television this year. It’s ironic that this isn’t one of them. I would have bet the house that it would have been.
Q: You’re about to start a major football stadium renovation, increasing your permanent seating to 18,100. Is that going to affect anything for the UNC game?
A: No. We’ll be able to play without our capacity being impacted during construction. There will be some “pardon our dust” moments this season. Gate 2 will be affected. But there won’t be any major modifications to Game Day for the North Carolina game.
This project we break ground on in August will be complete after the 2026 football season, so roughly 18 months, give or take…. We don’t want to overbuild…. The ultimate goal is to certainly get over 20,000 (in capacity), and down the road push to 25-30,000.
Q: With the judge approving the “House vs. NCAA” settlement, how will that impact the Charlotte athletic program?
A: The settlement being approved is a good thing for the industry, because we’ve been paralyzed for months. At least now we understand what the ground rules are… My analogy is that we’re still in the storm. I think we’ve maybe passed through the eye of the storm. We’ll still have more on the backside to deal with. But the good news is that at least we have some clarity.
Q: Schools can now directly share revenue with their athletes. The cap on overall payouts this year is $20.5 million, for the entire athletic program. What will Charlotte’s payouts to athletes look like?
A: Our conference passed a minimum standard requirement for all members of our league: $10 million over three years. We’re going to meet that standard (an average of $3.33 million per year), and our expectation is that we’re going to exceed it.
Now let’s be real. The (full $20.5 million cap) is for the Texases and Ohio States of the world. But in our conference, we’re confident we’re going to be in the upper third of our league in football (in revenue shared with athletes). Same goes for basketball.
Q: Some colleges will undoubtedly cut Olympic sports or slice into the athletic staff to compensate for their increased expenses. Will Charlotte?
A: That’s not on the horizon here at Charlotte… We just don’t have the same number of staff as a Big Ten or an SEC school. We’re pretty lean… It’s certainly not in our plans to make any major staff cuts or to put sports on the chopping block.
Now I do think that that is going to be a consequence of the settlement, and you’re going to see some of that… But we’ve won more conference championships in the last two years in the league than any other school, with eight…. We’re punching above our weight, and we don’t want to injure those sports.
This story was originally published June 12, 2025 at 5:15 AM.
