Charlotte City Council member tackles HBCU football series at NFL stadium
Bank of America Stadium in uptown Charlotte
Jul 12, 2024
City government’s vote last month to
spend $650 million on renovations at the NFL stadium included a smaller, largely overlooked provision: Creating an HBCU football classic, as in historically Black colleges and universities.
Councilman James Mitchell added the commitment for an annual HBCU game at Bank of America Stadium in the final days leading up to the June 26 vote. Mitchell, an alum and board member at N.C. Central University, an HBCU in Durham, told
CBJ that executives from Tepper Sports & Entertainment embraced an annual HBCU game as soon as he broached the idea.
Tepper Sports owns BofA Stadium as well as MLS team Charlotte FC and the NFL Carolina Panthers.
A Tepper Sports spokesperson told
CBJ that the company supports the addition of an HBCU game at BofA Stadium but details on scheduling, matchups and other aspects have yet to be determined. Tracy Dodson, the assistant city manager who negotiated the stadium deal with Tepper Sports, agreed, saying future discussions will include the HBCU games.
The Charlotte Sports Foundation’s annual Duke’s Mayo Classic featured an HBCU game between N.C. Central and N.C. A&T University in 2022 at BofA Stadium. N.C. A&T’s campus is in Greenboro. The schools’ football rivalry spans more than a century.
Attendance for the 2022 game here was 35,798, filling the lower level at the 74,000-seat stadium. Organizers were pleased: The game marked the first time HBCU teams played at BofA Stadium and turnout was strong considering both schools have smaller enrollments than traditional football powers. A&T’s enrollment is 13,883; Central’s is 7,965.
A&T and Central are scheduled for a rematch at BofA Stadium in 2027, again as part of the sports foundation’s Duke’s Mayo Classic