Charlotte got some disappointing economic news this week. The Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association, or CIAA, will not be bringing its annual basketball tournament back to Charlotte — for now, anyway. Officials said, the CIAA will be in Baltimore through 2029. Charlotte had hosted the CIAA tournament from 2006 to 2020.
For more on this and other business stories, I'm joined now by Tony Mecia of the Charlotte Ledger Business Newsletter. For our segment BizWorthy.
Marshall Terry: First, remind us why the CIAA left Charlotte in the first place, and why it decided it's going to stick with Baltimore for now — despite Charlotte's push to bring it back.
Tony Mecia: These tournaments move around from city to city. Baltimore put in a bid, and it's been in Baltimore for the last few years. City leaders were hoping that they could bring it back. They really liked the economic development that it brought to the city. But the Charlotte Business Journal reported in the last few days that, actually, Baltimore has won out and it's going to stay in Baltimore. So a lot of it had to do, the Business Journal said, with the space available. Some of the dates that they were looking at at the Spectrum Center were already booked, so they think that that hurt. But they're optimistic for the future.
Terry: Well, you mentioned the economic part of this a moment ago. Just how much of an economic impact did it have when it was in Charlotte?
Mecia: Local tourism leaders say that during the time it was here, it put about $650 million in economic development into the city. This is one that would fill up hotels. People go out to eat. You can imagine all the things that people do when they're in town for a basketball tournament. And the last year that the CIAA was here, it was about 44 million in money pouring in, and so they're not going to have that going forward — at least in the short term.
Terry: Does this say anything about Charlotte's growth as a premier market for events more broadly? Because it feels like we've been booming with festivals, concerts and sports?
Mecia: Yes, definitely. I mean, the hospitality industry is sort of positioning this as, actually, this means that we are a booming city. We have the Spectrum Center and some of these other venues that are filled all the time. Maybe they lost out on this bid because they didn't have the space for the game. So, I mean, yes, we know that uptown has been trying to position itself more as a entertainment center than sort of a jobs center. Certainly more college football games at Bank of America Stadium. Concerts, spectrum center, arts hubs — all over the place. So, definitely a lot going on.
Terry: OK, now that summer is here, I'm sure many people are planning to hit Carowinds, but the amusement park is reportedly laying off an undisclosed number of employees. What's going on there?
Mecia: Carwinds' parent Company, Six Flags, said that it's cutting about 10% of its workforce. It's doing this after it announced financial results this month that it sees some near-term economic uncertainty. This is all happening as Six Flags is merging its operations with Cedar Fair, which is a former owner of Carowinds.
A lot of times when you have these mergers, you do look at are there redundant positions that you can get rid of. In the case of Carowinds, we don't know exactly how many employees we're talking about. The company says that those full-time employees were offered part-time or seasonal work. Again, unsure of the numbers.
Terry: Let's end this week on a remembrance of a huge figure in North Carolina beer. Why was Oscar Wong known as the godfather of craft beer in the state?
Mecia: Oscar Wong is a former engineer who founded Highland Brewing Company in 1994. It was the first brewery in Asheville since Prohibition. If you just think about that — I mean, you think of Asheville now known as a brewery capital. He really started the first brewery in Asheville and really was an early pioneer of evangelizing craft beer in North Carolina.
I talked to him a few years ago on our podcast, and we talked a lot about where the beer industry is going and where it had been — a lot different than it is now. He died Sunday at his home, surrounded by his wife of more than 57 years. So, big pioneer who left a big mark.
Support for BizWorthy comes from the law office of Robertson and Associates.
