The CIAA tournament is in full swing tonight! It’s some of the best basketball around, and that means it’s a major money-maker for the teams and for Charlotte businesses. But the conference contract with Charlotte is up after the games end this year, and plenty of other cities are hoping to cash in.
With all the parties, hotel stays, restaurant outings, shopping, and–of course–the games themselves, the CIAA rings up as a $47 million per year cash cow for Charlotte. But just because it’s been here for a decade, doesn’t mean it’ll be here forever. The current contract expires at the end of this year’s tourney. And organizers are at least looking at other locations.
And some people are serious about wanting it to move. There’s a petition on Change.org that says Charlotte doesn’t deserve the tournament anymore because of racially-charged incidents like the police shooting of Jonathan Ferrell. Other opinions are that the tournament has outgrown Charlotte, and some fans are just ready for a change of scenery. In all, there are seven other cities besides Charlotte that are seriously interested in hosting: Raleigh, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Hampton, VA, and Washington, D.C. And to be honest, all those cities have some pretty attractive features, should the tournament decide to go. And there are a host of other cities that might be in the mix as well.
So our Man on the Edge, Robert Wilder, isn’t limiting his choices as he asks: if not Charlotte, where should the CIAA tournament be next year?
