ACC football game’s return brings big ESPN show to Charlotte

With the exception of last year, Charlotte has hosted the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship title football game every year since 2010 – but the festivities uptown are expected to be especially lively this weekend.

The weekend marks one of the biggest annual sporting events in Charlotte that pumps millions of dollars into the local economy. Its return to Charlotte is highly anticipated after the game was pulled in 2016 from Charlotte over North Carolina’s now-repealed House Bill 2.

For one, ESPN’s College GameDay is headed to Charlotte for the first time this weekend, picking the Clemson-Miami game for its iconic pre-show over other big matchups, such as the Big 10 Championship (Wisconsin/Ohio State) and the SEC Championship (Georgia/Auburn.)

The show will be broadcast from Romare Bearden Park uptown, and will air live on ESPN from 9 a.m. to noon.

The matchup between No. 1 Clemson, the defending national champion team, and No. 7 Miami is largely considered to be an elimination game, meaning the winner should secure a spot in the top four ranking and advance to the playoffs.

The highly anticipated game will bring the global sports spotlight back to Charlotte a year after the ACC relocated its title football game to Orlando, frustrating local businesses that had grown accustomed to the boost in revenue the weekend brought.

When the ACC pulled its football title game from Charlotte, it marked the latest sports-related blow stemming from HB 2, the now-repealed law that limited legal protections for LGBT individuals. Two months prior, the NBA opted to move its 2017 All-Star Game from Charlotte over HB2.

This year, the two competing teams in the ACC title game are expected to generate large numbers of out-of-town fans – a boon for local hotels.

Hotels in uptown Charlotte had an 85.5 percent occupancy rate during the championship game weekend in 2015, according to data provided by Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority, the city’s tourism arm. In 2016, when Charlotte didn’t host the game, uptown hotel occupancy was 52.2 percent, the group said.

Room rates went down last year, too. The average nightly hotel rate over the championship weekend in 2015 was about $177. Last year, the average rate plunged nearly 62 percent, to $68 per night.

The CRVA, which promotes tourism and hotel bookings in the city, estimates the football game had an economic impact of $32.4 million in 2015, making it one of the city’s biggest annual events.

“It’s tremendous exposure for Charlotte. We truly are a welcoming city. We regret what we went through a year ago but it’s behind us now,” said Will Webb, president of the Charlotte Sports Foundation.

Businesses near the stadium are bracing for a busy weekend, too. Crowds at Draught, which calls itself Charlotte’s official Clemson bar, tend to be bigger the more intense the Clemson game is, according to Ryan Lockhart, the bar’s assistant general manager.

“We’re expecting to be crazy busy,” he added.

Webb said the game sold out faster than any other ACC Championship his group has helped host in Charlotte. He warned that because of the popularity of the two teams, fans should be wary of counterfeit tickets being sold outside Bank of America Stadium.

Two years ago, when UNC Chapel Hill played Clemson, nearly 1,000 counterfeit tickets were sold.

Webb advises fans to inspect for fraudulent bar codes on tickets that they’re being sold, and to pay with credit cards instead of cash.

The ACC is under contract to host its title football game in Charlotte through 2020.

This story was originally published November 30, 2017 at 7:00 AM with the headline "ACC football game’s return brings big ESPN show to Charlotte."