CHARLOTTE, — The debut of the Duke’s Mayo Classic in 2020 got lost in a pandemic sandwich last year. But the food brand — and local organizers — more than made up for that disappointment over the weekend with a sold-out nationally televised prime-time game that literally shook the city Saturday night.
Top 5 teams Clemson and Georgia filled local hotel rooms, restaurants, and bars and Bank of America Stadium over the weekend. Oh, and Georgia won the game, 10-3. Based on previous opening games, fans likely spent more than $20 million — mostly in and around uptown — over the Labor Day holiday.
Attendance was 74,187 and, according to preliminary TV data, an average of 8 million people watched the companion broadcast on ABC. Final numbers, due later this week, are likely to confirm the Clemson-Georgia game as the second most-watched opening weekend college football game in the past 15 years.
The Charlotte Sports Foundation, a nonprofit that recruits sporting events to generate tourism spending, operates the Duke’s Mayo Classic as well as an annual college football bowl game played in December and sponsored by the same company.
“It was special to see the hotels full and the restaurants doing well and just the vibrancy and energy,” Danny Morrison, the foundation’s executive director, told CBJ on Tuesday. “The stars lined up well.”
Detailed hotel data was not immediately available from the visitors authority but anecdotal evidence — and walking through uptown in recent days — showed a significant sales gain.
“It was wonderful,” said Robert Hannigan, regional director of operations at Kimpton Tryon Park. The Kimpton, at 303 South Church Street, sits near the stadium and Romare Bearden Park. The latter was home to ESPN’s “College GameDay,” a three-hour show that attracted several thousand fans uptown and an estimated 1 million to 2 million viewers. “As exhausted and overworked as our staff was, they were ecstatic. It was like the old days.”
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(WATCH BELOW: Thousands gather in uptown for Georgia vs. Clemson game)
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