Charlotte was an “eager-to-please town” back when we last hosted the Final Four
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The first and last time Charlotte hosted a men’s Final Four was in 1994, out at the old Charlotte Coliseum off Billy Graham Parkway near the airport.
On April 4 that year, Arkansas beat Duke 76-72 to win the national title.
It was a weekend filled with parties and celebrities. President Bill Clinton, for instance, flew in with his family to watch their beloved Razorbacks defeat Arizona in the semifinal game, according to Observer archives.
Why it matters: Charlotte’s been working to prove it’s a “world-class” city capable of hosting gigantic events for decades. This year’s Final Four in New Orleans was a reminder that the host city gets to enjoy a global spotlight — especially when you have historic tournament matchups like UNC vs. Duke.
Yes, but: Back in 1994, Charlotte was still pretty small. We didn’t have a center city packed with bars, restaurants and clubs to entertain out-of-towners. So we created a makeshift one.
The organizing committee put together a “Street of Champions” in Uptown by bringing in street vendors and putting temporary clubs into vacant buildings, the New York Times wrote in a scathing, bless-your-heart-like writeup of the city’s efforts at the time.
They even called Charlotte a “famously eager-to-please town.”
- (In an April 5 story, the Charlotte Observer, on the other hand, gushed over the city’s efforts creating a “b-ball boardwalk with a carnival atmosphere.”)
“Charlotte is nothing more than one large suburban community. People in Charlotte are scared to death of the center city,” local businessman Burton Gellman told the Times.
Normally, folks said at the time, Uptown is basically a ghost town after 5pm.
Still, plenty of people still considered this a nice enough place to live. One example: a radio DJ named Bob Raiford, whom the Times also interviewed.
- “I really think, though, if you added some ladies’ coleslaw wrestling, something that would bring in a lot of bikers, it might liven things up, wouldn’t you think?” Raiford said of livening up Uptown.
Flash forward to modern day, and we’re again talking about hosting a Final Four.
- But this time, instead of debating a folksy makeshift city center, local leaders are considering a new multibillion-dollar NFL stadium that could host massive events like Final Fours and a Super Bowl.
These days, the NCAA considers a range of factors when deciding future Final Four host locations — including number of hotel rooms and the stadium/arena.
Future Final Four host locations include: Houston (2023), Phoenix (2024), San Antonio (2025) and Indianapolis (2026).