‘Small-city’ Charlotte braces for big-city NBA All-Star week in 2019

The first and only other time Charlotte hosted the NBA All-Star Game was in 1991, and the city held the league’s marquee event at the now-demolished Charlotte Coliseum near the airport. The city’s population was less than half of what it is now. Uptown was basically a ghost town outside business hours.

At his news conference before the game that weekend, league Commissioner David Stern said that a few years prior, when the city was applying for an NBA expansion team, the joke among some in the media was, “Where’s Charlotte?”

“I think this franchise and this city have answered that question in record-breaking fashion. The reception we’ve received for our All-Star weekend from the people down here proves that this is a great basketball state,” Stern said.

Over a quarter century later, Charlotte’s readying to host its second All-Star Game, and in doing so, hopes to definitively lay to rest any lingering doubt the rest of the world may have regarding Stern’s question from 1991.

For Charlotte, this is a massive undertaking that has involved years of planning, thousands of man hours worked, dozens of site visits and a dramatic shift in state law – and there’s still a year to go.

The All-Star Game in Los Angeles this past weekend was held at the prominent Staples Center downtown. For a venue that has hosted seven NBA Finals and regularly hosts Grammy and Emmy awards shows, there is, as the Los Angeles Times put it, “a normality to a spotlight event like this.”

“It’s a double-edged sword because we also have a lot to figure out that other cities have down pat. But it’s a huge opportunity to showcase our city and how far Charlotte’s come, and where we’re going,” said Kate Hussmann, the Charlotte Hornets’ project management director and the head of the team’s All-Star Game planning effort.

The 2019 All-Star Game will be anything but normal for Charlotte. The city’s visitor arm estimates the All-Star week’s economic impact to be around $100 million.

Like the 2012 Democratic National Convention that Charlotte hosted, the All-Star weekend will be a veritable who’s who of celebrities. In Los Angeles, for instance, stars such as Ludacris, Issa Rae, Jimmy Kimmel and Michael B. Jordan were spotted in prime lower level seats at the Staples Center throughout the weekend. Justin Bieber and rapper Quavo played in the celebrity game Friday, the same night Kendrick Lamar held an L.A. Live outdoor concert in an entertainment area near the arena.

In relative terms, the game will be a bigger strain on Charlotte’s resources – including police officers, security personnel, fire department and transportation staff – than it would be in bigger cities. In places such as New York or Los Angeles, you can go about your day in another part of the city during the All-Star Game and not realize it is going on, notes Pete Guelli, the Charlotte Hornets’ chief marketing officer.

Media from all over the world will be present. The game will be broadcast in more than 200 countries. “(All-Star Weekend) will establish Charlotte as a real destination,” Guelli said.

In Charlotte, locals will be keenly aware the game is taking place in their backyard.

For one, traffic is likely to be heavy. And two, nearly every uptown venue will be used in some way over the course of the week, including hundreds of parties or events unsanctioned by the NBA.

“You come to a city like L.A. and everyone is prepared for traffic to be miserable. Everyone is prepared to wait that hour and a half from downtown to Beverly Hills or wherever you’re going. People don’t expect that in Charlotte,” Hussmann said.

After the All-Star game Sunday night, LeBron James called Los Angeles “one of the few cities” in the league able to accommodate the All-Star week. “Traffic is traffic ... but L.A. can accommodate that,” James said. “It’s built for stars. It’s built for entertainment.”

‘Great timing’

The Hornets’ preparation for the event began with the city’s initial bid in 2013. Many recall that the game was supposed to be in Charlotte in 2017, but the league opted to relocate it in July 2016, months after North Carolina passed House Bill 2, which was largely viewed as discriminatory toward the LGBTQ community.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said last spring that the All-Star Game would be held in Charlotte after the state legislature voted to repeal the controversial measure, thanks to pressure from business leaders including Hornets’ President Fred Whitfield, among others.

Between 2017 and 2019, much will have changed in uptown Charlotte. In some ways, the city is better equipped to handle an event the size of the All-Star Game, organizers say.

Uptown will have added about 1,500 hotel rooms over that time, according to the Charlotte Regional Visitors’ Authority, the city’s tourism arm. Construction wraps up next month on the Blue Line extension, which connects uptown to UNC Charlotte.

“There are just some major things that we wouldn’t have had in 2017,” Hussmann said.

The event itself has evolved, too. The All-Star weekend really starts around Wednesday, with ancillary events such as a media availability that fans can attend with tickets, giving them a chance to see their favorite players off the court.

In an unintentionally poetic fashion, the All-Star weekend concludes on the 56th birthday of Hornets owner Michael Jordan, and draws to a close the 30th anniversary season of the NBA team in Charlotte.

The NBA will start sending a contingent of All-Star planning personnel on regular visits to Charlotte starting in early March, Hussmann said. The league has a general blueprint for the All-Star week, including plans for security, traffic, hospitality services and production. During the All-Star week, the Hornets will basically hand the Spectrum Center over to the NBA to operate.

Given that Charlotte rarely hosts events as prominent as the All-Star Game, the city may be just as starstruck by the glitter and glam as it was in 1991.

Back then, office and construction workers would skip their coffee and lunch breaks to hang out in the Omni lobby or lean over the second-floor balcony to watch the arrival of stars, including Patrick Ewing, Charles Barkley and Michael Jordan, in hopes of snagging autographs and snapping photos. 　

Hornets point guard Kemba Walker, who was in Los Angeles as an All-Star for his second year in a row, said having the event in Charlotte will have a different feel from other cities. But he’s looking forward to it.

“It’s gonna be interesting, man,” Walker said Saturday. “Small city. But it’s going to be a lot of fun. The city of Charlotte is going to love it. I’m excited.”

This story was originally published February 19, 2018 at 8:45 AM with the headline "‘Small-city’ Charlotte braces for big-city NBA All-Star week in 2019."