The Panthers game (of course) WILL be played. But...

Yes, right now Charlotte is a snowy, icy, sleety mess.

But we can say this with 100 percent confidence: The NFC Championship Game between the Panthers and the Cardinals will be played Sunday at Bank of America Stadium.

Simply put, it takes a weather event of epic proportions to even get the NFL to budge, and even in epic situations, the league only budges a bit: The last time snow affected an NFL game was November 2014, when six feet of snow caused a game between Buffalo and the New York Jets to be moved to Detroit’s Ford Field.

Six feet of snow. And they still played the game, just somewhere else.

So the question is not “Will the game be played?” – in fact, Sunday’s forecast is for brilliant sunshine all day and mostly clear skies all night – but rather “How many of the fans who were planning to be here for it will make it to Bank of America Stadium?”

American Airlines canceled all flights to and from Charlotte on Friday due to the impending winter storm. So did Delta, United, Southwest, Lufthansa, Air Canada, ViaAir and JetBlue.

And naturally, people who had intended to get here a couple of days early for the game have suddenly found themselves scrambling for a solution, or scrapping their plans completely.

Scott Helms, a Panthers fan and PSL owner since 2003, moved to the Los Angeles area last year and had planned to return to Charlotte Friday for the game. When he learned Thursday that American had canceled all Friday flights, he briefly considered driving – a 36-hour road trip.

He quickly decided instead on a Saturday morning flight, which lands him in Charlotte at 4 p.m.

“I was looking online yesterday thinking something like this would happen,” Helms said. “The first thing I noticed is they were not going to charge you a change fee.”

Las Vegas resident Brittney Cason, a former Panthers TopCat as well as a former correspondent for the Observer, had planned on returning to her old stomping grounds this weekend to meet friends for the game. But Delta canceled her Friday flight and couldn’t get her rebooked on anything until Sunday.

“They offered to reroute me to Asheville, but I didn’t want to risk driving,” Cason said, “so they refunded me in full. ... I figure the snow will enhance our boys’ home field advantage, so I’m not that upset.”

Sid Smith, executive director of the Charlotte Area Hotel Association, isn’t concerned about too many fans missing out because of the game’s 6:40 p.m. start time.

Instead of arriving in Charlotte Saturday and staying in a hotel that night like they might have for a regular 1 p.m. Sunday game, Smith said, more people are arriving Sunday and staying in area hotels that night after the game.

“People with tickets are still going to come,” Smith said. “It’s advantageous for us that the game is at night.”

But at the Westin uptown, what was expected to have been a sell-out weekend is turning up more Friday and Saturday vacancies because of the bad weather cancellations.

“I think this one will hit us in the negative column pretty significantly when it’s all said and done,” said David Montgomery, the hotel’s director of sales and marketing. He added that he’s “still hopeful” for Sunday.

Some guests who did make it to town were staff from Fox Sports, which is broadcasting the Panthers’ game. They arrived Wednesday and Thursday, Montgomery said. The Westin also has had guests for the Nascar Hall of Fame inductions, which have been moved from Friday evening to Saturday afternoon.

Hundreds of other working national media members are trying to get here, too – and they’re struggling just like everybody else.

Some, jokingly, have wondered aloud whether the Panthers win the NFC Championship by default if the Cardinals can’t get a flight to Charlotte.

The Cardinals, seriously, have an answer:

As for the Panthers? Here’s what they’re saying this morning:

Staff writer Rick Rothacker contributed.

This story was originally published January 22, 2016 at 2:12 PM with the headline "The Panthers game (of course) WILL be played. But...."