CIAA likely to stay in Charlotte

The basketball tournament probably won't return to Raleigh after the end of a three-year contract

It took at least four tries for Charlotte to lure the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association basketball tournament from Raleigh. Now the weeklong event could be a longtime fixture in the city.

CIAA Commissioner Leon Kerry said Thursday that he wants to make Charlotte the permanent home for the event, which will be held Feb. 25 to March 2.

Local leaders said they would welcome the idea, with Charlotte City Council member James Mitchell also saying he would like to open a CIAA office and museum in Charlotte.

A final deal has not been set, but Kerry seemed confident that the tournament would stay in the area after a three-year contract runs out in 2008. Charlotte has hosted the event since 2006.

"We want to be here," he said. "They want us here. It's a matter of meeting their goals, and our goals [and] they are similar. We're not far apart on that."

That means the tournament probably won't return to Raleigh, its home from 2000 to 2005. Kerry said that Raleigh had expressed interest in bidding for the event again, but the CIAA board decided in May not to request bids from other potential hosts.

However, Raleigh officials denied that the city had tried to get the tournament back. After the CIAA Tournament left, the city reached a three-year agreement to host the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Tournament at the RBC Center.

Raleigh Mayor Charles Meeker told The News & Observer on Thursday that the city was not trying to court CIAA.

"We're satisfied with MEAC here," said Meeker, who said earlier this summer that the city wanted to renew the agreement.

His sentiments were echoed by Lawrence Wray, the assistant city manager who worked closely with CIAA when the tournament was held in Raleigh. CIAA officials asked Raleigh to submit a letter of interest, but "we have not done that," Wray said.

City Manager Russell Allen said he knew of no effort to lure the CIAA Tournament back to Raleigh.

The CIAA is composed of 11 historically black colleges and universities, including N.C. Central in Durham and St. Augustine's College and Shaw University in Raleigh. The annual tournament is a major social event, featuring a week of basketball, step shows, concerts and parties.

Conference and Charlotte leaders say the event has been a success since arriving in Charlotte. They say it has raised millions in scholarships for CIAA schools and added $43.1 million to the region's economy.

Few details were available Thursday on what it would take to make Charlotte a permanent home for the tournament.

Kerry said leaders are trying to control what fans will have to pay to attend the tournament. "If we can control the expenses for the fans, like hotel costs and things like that, we're halfway home," he said.

Dorothy Cowser Yancy, president of Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, said, "I can't think of anything that won't make it work. You have a city that is committed, you have a convention bureau that is committed and a commissioner that is committed. I think that whatever kinks there are, if there are any, they can be worked out and everyone can win."

(Staff writers Sarah Ovaska and Josh Shaffer contributed to this report.)