Later this year Charlotte will be the center of the professional golf world. In May, Quail Hollow Club will host the PGA Championship, one of the sport’s top events. The city is expected to get an economic boost as fans flood hotels and restaurants. The Charlotte Ledger Business Newsletter this week spoke with the tournament’s director. And the Ledger’s Tony Mecia joins me now, for more, in our segment BizWorthy.
Marshall Terry: One thing I'm curious about, Tony, is how putting this event together is different than Charlotte's regular golf event, which is now called the Truist Championship. What did the tournament director say about that?
Tony Mecia: Yeah, Marshall, it might be tempting to think that, you know, all golf tournaments are alike. But I talked to the tournament director of the PGA Championship, Jason Soucy, and he was telling me that really, there are obviously a lot of similarities. But that the PGA Championship, compared with the annual event — which until recently was called the Wells Fargo Championship — PGA Championship is going to be a lot bigger.
We're going to have about twice as many golfers. It'll have the top golfers in the world. Now, the annual event here, usually there's a few sitting out. It'll have better TV exposure, as opposed to having a lot of the segments on the Golf Network. This will have segments on ESPN, ESPN+, CBS, streaming services — so there'll be a lot more golf, a lot more possibility of getting those skyline shots that everybody in Charlotte loves to see. So it'll really mean a lot more exposure for the city as well.
Terry: Did he talk about what folks planning to attend can expect?
Mecia: Yes. One of the big differences is that every single ticket will be an inclusive ticket that allows you to eat and have non-alcoholic beverages attached to the price of that ticket. Now, you want alcohol — then you're on your own for that.
Terry: And this isn't just a sports event, right? I'm not a big networking guy, but my understanding is it's where all the movers and shakers connect.
Mecia: Yeah, I'm not a big networking guy, either. But there certainly are a lot of movers and shakers out there. You will see all the usual corporate hospitality tents lining the last few holes. I think it's a place that a lot of big companies in Charlotte, they bring the clients out — it's a nice day, you know, it's may in Charlotte. It's usually a pretty pleasant event.
Terry: All right. Let's go to uptown now and the long-planned Brooklyn Village project. The developer proposed a different plan this week. What's the latest there? And first, give us a quick reminder of what Brooklyn Village is.
Mecia: Yeah, so this is a development that's been in the works for about a decade. The county owned a bunch of land there, and so it has partnered with a developer to redevelop what used to be a vibrant Black neighborhood that was demolished during urban renewal several decades ago. The county and the developer are working to turn it into a mixed-use development with offices, retail, housing, cultural centers, that sort of thing.
It's been pretty slow going. None of it has broken ground just yet. This is along Brooklyn Village Avenue, the former Stonewall Street. The original plan in the first phase was to build more than 500 apartments at a mix of rents.
The new plan that emerged this week is that actually they're going to pare that number by half in the first phase to 250, and they're all going to be affordable housing apartments. So a little bit smaller, but the developer told county commissioners this week that it would help accelerate the process of actually getting it built, which is something that a lot of people want to see happen.
Terry: All right. We started with sports, and let's end on sports. The Charlotte Sting might be coming back?
Mecia: It's very curious. The WNBA, the women's professional basketball league, filed a trademark application this week for the name Charlotte Sting. People might remember that the Charlotte Sting actually existed here in Charlotte, played between 1997 and 2006, before folding. But now there's been talk about expansion — certainly looks like there could be a future move toward reviving the Charlotte Sting.
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