The popular CIAA basketball tournament will remain in Baltimore despite a bid from Charlotte, according to a report from the Charlotte Business Journal.
Charlotte and Baltimore were the only cities to submit bids for the coveted tournament, CBJ reported. The CIAA will now stay in Baltimore through 2029.
Charlotte hosted the CIAA tournament from 2006 to 2020 and generated 650 million in economic spending, when Baltimore, Maryland, swooped in with a bid that won the conference over.
The CIAA’s contract with Baltimore ran through the 2026 tournament.
The conference’s requirements for a competitive bid include a minimum 7,500-seat venue, a ban on ticket resales, and the CIAA controlling all sales and revenue for the championship games.
Charlotte’s key concern is the pricing of hotel rooms, which allegedly drove the CIAA away from the Queen City following the 2020 tournament.
Host cities are required to have a hotel headquarters that accommodates 500 rooms for conference staff, sponsors, game officials, media, and guests at a maximum of $200 per night. Cities should also work with the conference to secure blocks of hotel rooms for fans and tournament attendees at a maximum price of $225 per night.
“We didn’t have the flexibility,” Mohammad Jenatian told the CBJ, adding that he remains hopeful the CIAA Tournament will consider Charlotte in future years.
The CBJ detailed some hangups on the Charlotte proposal:
According to two sources with knowledge of the bid, Charlotte’s proposal — covering 2028 through 2030 because of a conflict in 2027 — offered use of the Spectrum Center uptown for two of the three bid years but would have moved the CIAA to Bojangles Coliseum for the middle year. Conference executives previously made clear to Charlotte tourism and political leaders throughout the lead-up to bid proposals that the CIAA did not want to play outside uptown.
Their reluctance stemmed from split-venue tournaments in Charlotte from 2017 through 2020, when concerns over smaller mid-week crowds for CIAA games prompted the NBA Charlotte Hornets to push for limited use of Spectrum Center.
The Hornets operate the city-owned Spectrum Center; the NBA team keeps all operating profit and absorbs any operating deficits. Hornets executives were frustrated by the lack of attendance for early round CIAA games, preferring to either reduce the length of the NBA team’s road trips around the tournament or put more profitable events, such as concerts, in the building for part of CIAA week.
Charlotte bid on the tournament in April.
