I saw thousands of empty seats Sunday at Bank of America Stadium. I also saw fewer fans on the sidewalks outside the stadium and fewer customers on the patios of the nearby restaurants and bars. The traffic was half what it was when I drove downtown at the same time two weeks earlier to watch Carolina play Chicago.

Bears fans will show up if they have to crawl. Perhaps fans of Atlanta, Sunday's opponent, are more fragile. But I suspect the lack of bodies had little to do with the competition. Fans in Greensboro and Goldsboro and Greenville, S.C., undoubtedly heard the horror stories about buying gas in Charlotte. Instead of watching from Section 301, they watched from their living rooms.

A spokesman for the Carolina Panthers, incidentally, says the turnstile count Sunday was more than 66,000, same as always. I know him. I believe him. I believe all Panthers spokesmen. I also believe that thousands of fans must have watched from the concourse.

Perhaps the NFL is so wildly popular that it can withstand high gas prices and downsized workplaces.

Can the NBA? To listen to Charlotte Bobcats coach Larry Brown on Monday was to be enthused about the team's possibilities. But how many of their fans worked for Wachovia? How many took clients to home games? After their employer's startling rescue, how many will even stay in town?

What about popular sports such as college football and racing?

There are football fans in Charlotte who leave work Friday and don't stop until they reach a college town in the Carolinas, Tennessee, Virginia or Georgia (still). Will they continue to do so?

There are racing fans who every October drive from Pennsylvania or Ohio to Lowe's Motor Speedway for the Bank of America 500. You know how zealous race fans are. They're loyal to their driver and to their driver's sponsors.

The speedway doesn't release advance ticket sales. But after looking at the numbers on the pump, won't fans at least be tempted to sit in their Home Depot chair (Tony Stewart), drink a Mountain Dew AMP (Dale Earnhardt Jr.), chow down on M&M's (Kyle Busch), and watch the race on their wide-screen Target (Reed Sorensen) TV?

One beneficiary of tepid travel could be the high schools, provided the schools can afford gas for road games. Another could be the local college. Tell me again when the Charlotte 49ers play their first game.

I have never worried about the economy. But when there is a contest to see which will fall fastest -- the leaves, the Dow or my 401K -- even I notice.

My birthday was eight days ago and my favorite present is a GPS. A woman's voice tells me, in nagging, painstaking detail, where to go and when. But when I ignore her, I don't have to worry that something bad will happen in my sleep.

Unfortunately, I can't afford to drive anywhere. But the thing sure looks good in the driveway.

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