CIAA Tournament won’t come back to Charlotte any time soon

CHARLOTTE, NC – One of the country’s biggest HBCU basketball tournaments won’t return to Charlotte any time soon. The City of Charlotte put in a bid to bring CIAA back to the Queen City, but it has been rejected.

“We got statistics showing that 14 years, it generated almost $650 million for the local economy,” Charlotte City Councilman James Mitchell said.
Councilman Mitchell represents the city at large, he was a part of the group working bring back CIAA. The week long celebration of HBCUs was hosted in Charlotte from 2006 to 2020. It has since moved to Baltimore Maryland.

Councilman Mitchell says the state was on board, hotels were secure, but scheduling conflicts with Spectrum Arena forced officials to include Bojangles Coliseum as a venue which is not in walking distance from Uptown hotels.

“Every other city makes available their best facilities. Why wouldn’t we do the same thing? Right? So our best facility is Spectrum,” Councilman Mitchell said. “It was clear that if we couldn’t get Spectrum for three years, it would have been DOA.”

In a statement from Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority a spokeswoman said, “When the CIAA requested 2027 dates in early 2025, our primary venues were already committed due to previously scheduled programming—a reflection of Charlotte’s growing momentum as a premier host city.”

Councilman Mitchell says he wants to keep trying to get the tournament back in Charlotte but Spectrum is critical to the deal.

“When you can get an event that fills up all the hotels in Charlotte, all the hotels in Gastonia, all the hotels in Rock Hill and Salisbury, it’s just great for the region. I think also helps Charlotte’s brand,” Councilman Mitchell said. “We can’t give up if anything, we gotta do it for our small business and our hospitality community. We got to get it right.”

The next time Charlotte can bid on CIAA would be in 2028 for the tournament to come back by 2030. Councilman Mitchell says tourism and economic officials will meet for a debrief to plan ahead for 2028.