Season tickets, mini plans and groups can be purchased now by calling (704) 342-4423. Tickets for opening night at Bojangles' Coliseum on Saturday, Nov. 7, will go on sale Sept. 22 with the rest of the schedule following shortly thereafter.
Gone Til November
The 2015-16 campaign sees the Checkers starting their slate of games on the road for the sixth time in the franchise’s six seasons. They kick things off with a pair of games in Iowa on Oct. 10 and 11, then return to Charlotte for a brief stay before embarking on an eight-game road trip that spans 16 days from Oct. 16-31. That swing will take them on a tour of the Midwest, with stops in Milwaukee, Chicago, Grand Rapids, Rockford and Lake Erie along the way. The Checkers will finally enjoy their home opener on Nov. 7 when they host the visiting Manitoba Moose. The game will be the first at Bojangles’ Coliseum since May 13, 2005, as well as the first since the completion of the renovation.
Checkers Come Home
After being on the road for the entire month of October, the Checkers will spend nearly all of November in the friendly confines of Bojangles’ Coliseum, as eight of the 10 games on the schedule will be played in Charlotte. The longest home stand on the schedule is six games, which will occur five times throughout the year. Aside from those, the Checkers will have two four-game stands to round out the home slate. By comparison, last season’s schedule included just one six-game home stand, two five-game stands and several smaller stints. This season’s longer stays at home should aid in the team’s ability to gain and build momentum, especially compared to last year’s back and forth schedule that saw the team struggle to find a groove.Aside from the month-long trip to start the season, the longest road stretch for the Checkers is a seven-game swing, again through the Midwest, that will take place during the second half of March.
Prime Time
The Checkers will play 13 home games on Saturdays this season, nearly double last season’s amount and the highest number of Saturday games in the team’s AHL history. The 19 combined Friday and Saturday games is also a new high.Back to Back
This year’s schedule is heavy on back-to-back games. The Checkers will play on consecutive days 23 times throughout the season (16 times at home, 7 times on the road), a slight increase from last season’s 21 instances. Luckily, they only have to endure the dreaded three-in-three (three games in three consecutive days) twice, both on the road against divisional opponents.New Faces
With the AHL’s move out West, the Checkers will face several new teams this season. They will see three of the five new California teams this season (San Jose, Ontario and San Diego), starting with a visit from the Barracuda in late November. The Checkers will knock out all of their California road games in one swing, a six-game trip spanning from late December to early January. Also on Charlotte’s slate are their former division rivals Texas and San Antonio, who now reside in the Pacific Division.The Checkers find themselves in a different division for the 2015-16 campaign, the newly-formed Central Division. They are joined by mostly old Midwest Division teams, the likes of which the Checkers have gotten accustomed to over the last few years. The two exceptions are the Lake Erie Monsters and the Manitoba Moose. The Checkers have faced the Monsters several times over the years, but this season Lake Erie has switched affiliations from the Colorado Avalanche to the Columbus Blue Jackets, meaning Charlotte hasn’t faced this crop of players. Similarly, the Moose joined the league as the Winnipeg Jets’ new affiliate, so the Checkers will get their first crack at both a new team and a new group of prospects when they face off against Manitoba.
Opponent Breakdown
The two teams that made up the most sizeable chunk of the Checkers’ schedule last season, Norfolk and Oklahoma City, are no longer in the league, leading to a more evenly balanced slate of games for Charlotte. The Checkers will face each of their seven Central Division opponents eight times throughout the course of the year, as well as playing five Pacific Division teams four times each. As such, the Checkers will see every team in the Western Conference except for Bakersfield and Stockton and will not play an Eastern Conference team for the first time in the franchise’s five seasons.| Opponent Breakdown | |||||
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| 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 |
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| 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 4 |
