The teams · NBA

Charlotte Hornets

No Charlotte franchise carries more of the city's identity in its name. "Hornets" reaches back to the Revolutionary-era legend that a frustrated British commander called Mecklenburg a hornet's nest of rebellion — a story with no confirmed documentary source that the city embraced anyway, on its seal and its teams. The basketball franchise that took the name in 1988 promptly led the NBA in attendance from a market everyone had doubted, lost the city in the ugliest divorce in its sports history, and got the name back a decade later.

Today the visible face of the team in the neighborhoods is not the arena but the courts: the Legacy Project has been renovating public basketball courts in Charlotte's parks for a decade, and the Foundation publishes its grantees by name. That work, the calendar it runs on, and the whole leave-and-return arc are this page.

The game day

Not one day but several — the kind of day depends on when the league puts you on. Pick yours, build a plan, and take the times with you.

These are the typical times for this kind of day.

The default Hornets night, and the easiest big-league game to attend in this city — 41 of them, most starting at seven.

Build your day

Nothing picked yet — the whole day exports.

A calendar file needs a real date — it unlocks when the next home game is published.

  1. The Hornets Fan Shop opens an hour and a half before tip and stays open through the game — so on a seven o'clock it is trading at half five, comfortably before most people can get in. The arena's own A-Z guide: "On Hornets game days, the Hornets Fan Shop opens an hour and a half before tipoff and remains open throughout the game."

  3. Three general entrances: 5th Street, Trade Street, and the Belk Light Rail Entrance — which is exactly what it sounds like. You can step off the Blue Line and into the building without crossing a road. Courtside tickets use the VIP door at Trade Street. Entrances named on the arena's own A-Z guide.

  4. Spectrum Center allows only small bags, clutches, crossbodies and wristlets no bigger than 5 x 7 x 1.5 inches. That is dramatically stricter than Bank of America Stadium's clear-bag rule nine blocks away, and it is the single most common way a Charlotte sports night starts badly. The arena's own wording. The two venues are run by the same city and have entirely different bag rules.

  7. Tip-off. The arena's own guide says it plainly: "Most Hornets home games begin at 7 p.m."

End of the timeline.

Times with a solid marker are the club's own or read off an official page; the rest are modelled or reported second-hand. Check the club before you plan a drive around one. Questions about this kind of day.

A weeknight at Spectrum Center

Answered from the arena's own A-Z guide where it says anything, and marked plainly where it does not.

What time do doors open for a Hornets game?

The arena does not publish it. Spectrum Center's own A-Z guide lists the entrances, the bag rule and the Fan Shop's hours but states no door time, and third-party guides split between sixty and ninety minutes before tip. For a seven o'clock, six is the safe assumption.

The one game-day time the arena does publish is the shop's: the Hornets Fan Shop opens an hour and a half before tipoff and stays open through the game.

What is the bag policy — is it the same as the Panthers?

No, and this catches people out. Spectrum Center allows only small bags, clutches, crossbodies and wristlets no larger than 5 x 7 x 1.5 inches. Bank of America Stadium, nine blocks away, allows a clear bag up to 12 x 6 x 12 inches. A bag that is fine for football will be turned away at the basketball.

Both rules are published by their own venues. They are simply different buildings with different operators.

Can I get to the arena without driving?

Yes — more directly than at any other venue in the city. One of Spectrum Center's three general entrances is the Belk Light Rail Entrance, which opens off the Blue Line platform. You can leave the train and be inside the building without crossing a street.

The other two general entrances are 5th Street and Trade Street; courtside ticket holders use the VIP door at the Trade Street entrance.

Where is the best place to stand if you want to move around?

The Nest, upstairs at sections 216–218, where the upper concourse opens out over the floor. You can stand with a drink and keep a full view of the game without going back to a seat.

It was rebuilt in the arena's recent renovation with new concessions and lighting. It is described in arena guides rather than by the club, so treat it as fan knowledge.

What is the story with Hugo?

Two things almost nobody knows. He was created in 1988 — a full year before Hurricane Hugo hit the Carolinas, so the name came first and the storm made it awkward afterwards. And he was designed by Cheryl Henson, Jim Henson's daughter.

The name was picked from more than 6,000 fan suggestions for the franchise's first season. Hugo has won the NBA Mascot Slam Dunk Championship four times. Both facts come from Wikipedia rather than a club page.

Did Hugo really set an arena on fire?

Effectively, yes — but not in Charlotte. His trampoline-through-a-ring-of-fire dunk went wrong at a 2008 halftime when the crew used the wrong extinguisher: smoke through the arena, chemicals across the floor, a nineteen-minute delay, a cancelled halftime show and a league fine. That was the New Orleans Hornets, during the years the franchise and the mascot were in Louisiana.

Hugo returned to Charlotte on June 5, 2014, when the Bobcats reclaimed the Hornets name and retired Rufus D. Lynx.

Weekends and Sunday afternoons

What changes when the game is not a seven o'clock on a school night.

How is a weekend Hornets game different?

The building is the same; the city around it is not. On a Friday or Saturday the game is one of several things happening in Uptown, the 5th Street queue is the week's longest, and everything stays open afterwards. A Sunday matinee is the opposite — a younger crowd, an earlier finish, and an afternoon left over.

The Fan Shop's ninety-minute rule holds whatever the tip time, so for a 1:00 p.m. Sunday it opens at 11:30 a.m.

Is a Hornets game a reasonable thing to do with children?

The Sunday matinee is the one built for it — an early finish, and the mascot works a matinee crowd harder than a weeknight one. Hugo is a four-time NBA Mascot Slam Dunk Champion, which is to say the between-quarters show is genuinely a show rather than filler.

Is there anything happening outside the arena before a game?

The Johnson C. Smith University drumline plays outside before games — the HBCU on Beatties Ford Road whose marching tradition predates the franchise by roughly a century. It is worth arriving for and is not on any club schedule.

Reported by local coverage rather than published by the team, so it will not be at every home date.

Where to next

This is an independent city guide. "Charlotte Hornets" and "NBA" are used only to refer to the team and league; this page is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by either, and uses no logos or trade dress.