Big sports week means big bucks for hotels, restaurants

Charlotte bars, restaurants and hotels are seeing a healthy boost from this week’s unusual confluence of sporting events during an already busy season.

The Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow is expected to draw about 180,000 visitors this week, the NASCAR All-Star Race this weekend kicks off 10 days of racing in Concord and the Arena Pro Swim Series will feature 600 professional swimmers, including Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte, competing in Charlotte this weekend.

That means if you haven’t booked this weekend’s dinner reservation yet, you’d best hurry. And last-minute visitors may find it hard to book a hotel.

“Clearly it’s a busy time of year for us,” said Tom Murray, CEO of the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority. In recent years, the three events have spanned several weeks. Last year, the swim meet and NASCAR race fell on the same weekend, pushing the county’s hotel occupancy rate to 86.6 percent from its monthly average 72.8 percent, according to the CRVA’s data.

CRVA’s communications director Laura White sees no downside to having the events packed into one weekend, so long as hotels don’t run out of space.

The sporting events come just as wedding season gets underway, further fueling the demand for hotels, restaurants and caterers.

Uptown hotels are almost always sold out over the weekend this time of year, said a manager from the Omni Hotel, which is at almost 100 percent occupancy on Friday and Saturday. A representative from the Courtyard Charlotte Airport – sold out now through Friday with only a handful of rooms Saturday – said “pretty much all” hotels close to the airport are sold out this weekend.

Also packed are hotels in SouthPark and Ballantyne, close to the Quail Hollow golf course, and hotels in the UNC Charlotte area, close to Charlotte Motor Speedway. Felicia Lamothe, assistant general manager at the Courtyard Charlotte University Research Park, which has 152 rooms, said the hotel will likely have to staff up this weekend.

“We are sold out for Friday and Saturday, and have just a few rooms left on Thursday,” Lamothe said. “Typically we do very well on race weekends.”

Restaurants and bars also anticipate the confluence of events will bring heavier traffic. Tom Sasser, president of Harper’s Group, the parent company of several Charlotte restaurants including Harper’s and Mimosa Grill, expects a “good week.”

“We have a lot of golfers come by the Harper’s at SouthPark or Upstream over at Phillips Place, and their families do as well,” Sasser said. “The race folks we definitely see at both Harper’s at Carolina Place Mall and at SouthPark.”

And for swim fans, the EpiCentre is the spot. It’s home to the Vault, a favorite of gold medalist Ryan Lochte and partly owned by his teammate Cullen Jones. It’s expected to draw large crowds, though maybe not until Saturday night after the swimming.

“A lot of the fans that have come into town will come visit us, but we won’t see the swimmers until their work is done,” said Chris Bremner, the EpiCentre’s marketing director.

As for transportation, ride-sharing service Uber is partnering with the Wells Fargo golf tournament, where a lot will be designated for spectators using Uber, taxis or limos. Uber expects high demand this week, which could trigger “dynamic pricing,” when prices rise as the supply of available drivers shrinks.

“It’s a busy week in Charlotte and we’re expecting a lot of demand for safe, hassle-free rides,” Arathi Mehrotra, general manager of Uber North Carolina, said in an email.

Tournament visitors can request Uber rides using the WFCGOLF vehicle view. For every ride taken on that view, Uber will make a donation to the tournament’s charity. First-time Uber users can use the promotional code WFCGOLF15 for a free first ride up to $20.

Advance booking is up for taxi companies such as Yellow Cab of Charlotte, which has the largest fleet in the city. Andrew Morton, the company’s director of sales and marketing, said this weekend will be “pretty nuts.”

“It’s always anticipated, and it’s definitely a week and weekend we look forward to because it drives so much business,” Morton said.

And if you can’t get good tickets for golf, racing or swimming, take heart: The Charlotte Knights are slated to play Syracuse at BB&T BallPark on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

This story was originally published May 13, 2015 at 5:32 PM with the headline "Big sports week means big bucks for hotels, restaurants."