Bank of America Stadium

Lore & Background

The Panthers organization considered several possible sites for the stadium's location before choosing the Charlotte center city site. Part of the site was occupied by the historic Good Samaritan Hospital. As part of the preparation for the 2019 Equal Justice Initiative Community Remembrance Project, Charlotte historian Michael Moore determined the site was also significant as the location of the city's first known lynching in 1913. One alternative was near NASCAR's Charlotte Motor Speedway and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte in northeast Mecklenburg County. Another was at the intersection of I-85 and US 74 in western Gaston County. A popular option was to locate the facility near Carowinds amusement park, with the 50 yard line being on the state border of North Carolina and South Carolina.

In Their Own Story

The roof was half-open, the Carolina sky a bruised purple above the south end, and the air smelled of charcoal and hot dogs from the concession stands. A kid in a size-small Panthers jersey—too big for his shoulders, the number 23 barely visible—pressed his face against the glass of the concourse, watching the players jog out of the tunnel in their black helmets, silver stripes catching the stadium lights. His dad had a cold Dr Pepper in one hand and a folded program in the other, the one from the first season, 1995, the pages soft and creased. 'You see that?' his dad said, pointing at the field. 'That's where we start every week.' The kid nodded, already counting the minutes until kickoff, already learning that some places don't just host a game—they hold a whole city's heartbeat in the concrete and the steel and the slow, grinding slide of the roof overhead.

Reader's Guide

In addition to the Panthers and CLTFC, the stadium hosts the annual Duke's Mayo Bowl, which features teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) and either the Southeastern Conference (SEC) or the Big Ten Conference. The stadium was planned to host the annual ACC Championship Game through at least 2019; the game was moved in 2016 but reinstated in 2017. The ACC announced on May 19, 2022, that Bank of America Stadium would continue to host the championship through at least the 2030 season. The largest crowd to ever attend a football game at the stadium was on September 9, 2018, when 74,532 people watched the Panthers defeat the Dallas Cowboys 16–8. The stadium has hosted seven playoff games since 1996. Carolina has had over 150 consecutive sellouts at the stadium starting with the 2002 season.

Did You Know?

• The stadium was originally known as Carolinas Stadium only during planning and construction; it opened as Ericsson Stadium.
• Each of the stadium's entrances are flanked by two larger-than-life bronze panther statues named 'Indomitable Spirit', installed in 1996.
• The coldest home game in Panthers history occurred on January 3, 2016, with a kickoff temperature of 18 °F (-8 °C).
• The stadium was not the first large-scale project funded in the United States chiefly through Personal Seat Licenses; earlier projects used PSLs.