The Charlotte City Council voted 10-0 Monday to spend up to $65 million subsidizing a proposed new tennis complex in the River District west of the airport.
Charleston-based Beemok Sports has proposed building a 14,000-seat tennis stadium and 40 courts on a 50-acre site.
Beemok recently bought the Western & Southern Open, a tennis tournament that’s played in suburban Cincinnati. The company has said it wants to move the tournament to Charlotte, if the city can build the new facility. Outside of the four Grand Slam events, the tournament is considered one of the most prestigious in the world.
Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles said the tennis complex — which would cost an estimated $400 million total — is an economic development opportunity for the city.
"We have to come together with the idea that the people in this city deserve to have jobs, and that’s what we are doing — creating jobs in this community that need those jobs," Lyles said.
The city money will come from the city tourism taxes, which are levied on hotel rooms. Mecklenburg County is also expected to contribute financially to the project.
The Western & Southern has been played outside Cincinnati for more than 100 years, and that city is likely to try and keep the tournament with incentives of its own.
The proposed 50-acre facility in west Charlotte would include:
- Four stadiums.
- A 14,000-seat center court facility.
- More than 40 hard, clay and indoor tennis and pickleball courts.
- 10,000 parking spaces.
- A 45,000-square-foot building.
- And "a world-class pickleball facility."
Mecklenburg County and the state are expected to also consider funding requests. In all, the developers are seeking public money to cover about one-third of the project's total cost.