By Steven J. Gaither
HBCU Gameday
Charlotte’s attempt to lure the crown jewel of HBCU basketball — the CIAA Tournament — away from Baltimore have fallen short.
Baltimore is expected to win the bid to keep the CIAA Tournament in Maryland through 2029 after Charlotte’s bid fell short. The news was first reported by the Charlotte Business Journal and has been confirmed by HBCU Gameday. The two cities were the only ones to bid on the 80-year old tournament.
There were two key issues that saw Charlotte lose the tournament despite being located within an hour of four HBCUs in the CIAA and within two hours of many more.
The CIAA was seeking a bid for the 2027, 2028 and 2029 tournaments. But Charlotte’s bid was for 2028 through 2029 due to a conflict in 2027. In addition to missing a year, it would have also seen the tournament move to the smaller, older Bojangles Coliseum in 2029. Officials made it clear they did not want to play the tournament outside of uptown.
The final four years of its stint in Charlotte — 2017 through 2020 — saw the CIAA Tournament move its early rounds to the Bojangles Coliseum due to lower attendance in the early rounds of the tournament. The NBA’s Charlotte Hornets kept all all operating profit and absorbed any operating deficits.
The other key issue for the HBCU presidents and chancellors that make up the CIAA was hotels.
The CIAA required the host city 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. It also pushed for the city to 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.
A source indicate that in the end — the CIAA wasn’t getting Charlotte’s best bid and accepting it would set a bad tone for future negotiations.
The CIAA Tournament has called Baltimore home since 2022 and it looks like it will do that at least through the end of this decade.
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