![]() With many seats doubling in price, the 'Cats season-ticket base dropped from about 9,000 to 5,800, and the continuing absence of Bobcats games from over-the-air television - a remnant of the TV deal they signed with Time Warner Cable - has kept the local populace more apathetic than enthusiastic. Season Two was defined, at least locally, by the fan backlash over steep ticket price increases when the Bobcats moved from the old Charlotte Coliseum to the new uptown arena built with taxpayer funds. Jordan bought a piece of Johnson's businesses, which include a Bobcats franchise that has stuck to its guns on the three- and four-year roster building plan that it entered the league with, while stumbling through the business side of the equation over its first two years of existence.Īn ill-conceived regional television network crashed and burned in the Bobcats' first season, cutting heavily into the bottom line of a business that Johnson believes should already be profitable - or at least break-even. ![]() "I don't want to be out there like a used-car salesman." That's not what I'm all about," Jordan told the Sports Business Journal last month, his only public comments since draft night last June. "I'm not going to be in a dog-and-pony show where you throw me out there and people buy tickets because I'm part of the franchise. Jordan has made it clear to majority owner Bob Johnson that he wants the focus to be on the product, not on himself - especially after he said he felt "used" by the Washington Wizards when he took his first stab at being an NBA executive. But only on his terms.įor now, he lurks in the shadows when he's not peeking in on television from his home in Chicago or getting an intelligence report over the phone from Bickerstaff, the coach and general manager shepherding the NBA's newest franchise into its third season of existence. But none of that is happening.įor now, he's the invisible man, but still The Man - the guy who has final say on all personnel decisions, the guy Bernie Bickerstaff now has to run things past, the guy who ultimately might become the face of this heretofore faceless franchise. ![]() You'd expect him to at least make a cameo in the witty "Get Closer to the Bobcats" television ads being shown on local television. You'd expect his image to be plastered on billboards across town. Jordan hasn't said a word to the local media in 3½ months, and he couldn't have stayed much further from the spotlight during training camp, sitting high up in the stands for a couple of practices and a scrimmage at the UNC-Wilmington gymnasium, speaking to a few players individually but never once addressing the team as a group. Michael Jordan and Bernie Bickerstaff talk on a daily basis, but usually by phone. If you thought he was going to become the face of the Charlotte Bobcats after purchasing a piece of the team, think again. CHARLOTTE - Michael Jordan doesn't live here, doesn't work here and is rarely seen or heard here.
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