Myers Park Hoofprint

The Myers Park High School Newspaper

Aaliyah Hill

Upcoming Concerts and Tours

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As the COVID-19 pandemic is coming to an end, prominent artists are feeling safe to begin touring again. The return can be summarized as Janet Jackson’s Tour’s name, Together Again Tour, highlighting the return to it being safe to be together and enjoy music.

Of course, music festivals are back too. The most prominent is Coachella, taking place in April in California. Headlining the show will be Bad Bunny, BLACKPINK, and Frank Ocean. Along with Coachella are Lollapalooza, Glastonbury, Something in the Water, M3F, Rolling Loud, and more locally, Dreamville in Raleigh. Dreamville features Lil Durk and Usher, but more importantly, Drake and J.Cole.

With all of the tours and festivals happening, a Charlotte local may be wondering why we don’t get to host these festivals?  Or at least, get stop on the tour? Charlotte is the 15th largest city population-wise but often gets skipped over in favor of Greensboro, Raleigh, or Durham. This is due to artists like Justin Bieber having to sign contracts stating they can only perform at certain venues owned by certain companies, which Greensboro has, and Charlotte doesn’t. Raleigh is our state capital, so it’s obvious why artists go there, but Durham is favored for its proximity to colleges such as UNC and Duke.

The infamous Ticketmaster has a monopoly on the concert and festival ticket market, making it hard to find competitive prices and the tickets themselves. The demand for the tickets has increased exponentially, with NBC reporting that concert attendance was up 24% and the total amount of money people have dropped on the tickets in 2023 alone comes out to 7 billion. The Pittsburgh Magazine found that since 1993, ticket prices have quadrupled. Fans are having to resort to the presale, which is only accessible to a select group of people, and the unlucky few who don’t get tickets turn to resellers who sell the tickets for double the amount.

Taylor Swift’s Era’s Tour, which was surrounded by the Ticketmaster controversy, has just begun. Glendale, where Swift opened the tour, was renamed Swift City, Arizona for the weekend. SZA’s US tour just ended, bringing out Phoebe Bridgers and Lizzo in LA, featuring her new album ‘SOS’. Beyoncé’s Renaissance Tour stops in Charlotte on August 9th, the cheapest tickets going for 200 dollars, so start saving up! Country names coming to Charlotte include Carrie Underwood, Reba McEntire, Luke Combs, and Luke Bryan. Snoop Dogg, Lil Wayne, and Vanilla Ice are also gracing CLT with their presence at the Fillmore, with tickets offered right now. Older names such as Madonna and Red Hot Chili Peppers are coming in October as well. Local K-Pop fans are ecstatic for TXT, a K-Pop group that has never come to Charlotte, will be making an appearance on May 6th. Pop names such as Charlie Puth, Ed Sheeran, Big Time Rush, and Pink are visiting Charlotte as well. 

One of the best parts about concerts is the rituals involved to include the fans. Merch from your favorite artist is always offered at the venue, which could be expensive but worth it in the end. Dressing up in theme for the concert is a ritual for most fans, some go out of their way to even handcraft them. Sometimes the fans exchange concert memorabilia, like friendship bracelets or keychains. Most artists have fan rituals, like screaming certain lyrics or adding words to parts of the song. There are even exciting moments when the artist might choose someone to come up on stage with them and even sing a little part of their song, which Big Time Rush is known for during their hit song Worldwide.

2023 is shaping up to be a great year for music. The concert and festival energy is returning, and fans are all for it. Hopefully, more music lovers can continue to gather in their favorite places and listen to music together once more.

College Athletes, Eligibility

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  Most athletes have gotten into degree programs to keep them eligible for sports, but it doesn’t help prepare them for post-sport careers. Education specialists say clustering raises various potential problems, including academic fraud; certain majors and classes have specific academic requirements. Coaches and athletics academic advisers inappropriately influence students’ decisions on their majors and classes.

    Instead of getting paid, college athletes get a free education. College athletes like Steven Cline pursued a pre-veterinary program; it is 1 of 4 interdisciplinary majors in the College of Arts and Sciences that provide options for those who don’t have a major chosen. Cline stayed at Kansas State and spent 2007-2008 in a master’s program in college student personnel. Cline didn’t let the academic advisers choose his major for him. He knew that once football was over, he needed something to fall back on. Cline is now working construction to save money and return to school as a pre-vet student.

     For athletes to be eligible to play, they need to complete 40% their 2nd year, 60% their 3rd ,and 80% their 4th year. Until recently, athletes needed to at least have an 820 on SAT or 68 ACT sum score. There is also a new NCAA rule that threatens penalties for teams with too many players who have become academically ineligible or fail to graduate. Doing things like changing your majors because you find the first one too hard will also make you ineligible. You would have to start at the beginning all over again because you decided to change majors. It will also affect Football, Basketball ,and Baseball ;if you play any of these sports, you  wouldn’t have any time to focus on both your major and your sport at the same time.

    The NCAA rules are in place to help control college athletes and to have them do whatever they say ,even up until they graduate from college. Those college advisers choose whatever they want  you to take that’s in their program. For the freshman that are in high school, if you want to go to college for a sport, you should already be thinking about your academic eligibility. By doing this early, you can make sure that you are taking your core classes in time and that you are maintaining your GPA. That is one of the main things that colleges will start to look at if you are trying to get a scholarship for that specific sport that you are good at.

   So for any high school students who are trying to go to college for a sport, make sure that you are being careful about your choices. Try to talk to anyone who might have gone to college for a sport and got wanted to have a major to fall back on. See what they went through and figure out what all you need to do to succeed. Remember that if you don’t end up going pro after college that you at least have something to fall back on so you won’t be stuck.

  Your decision matters, because at the end of the day you’re going to have to be the one who has to stick with the major. Anybody who tells you any differently is wrong. Just make sure that whatever major you choose is a good decision and that you will actually stick with it. Also when you are choosing your major make sure it will fit in with whichever sport you are going to college for, because if it doesn’t fit you might have to choose something different. So for all of Myers Park athletes I hope you find this helpful and can hopefully put this to some good use.