Story by: Brooke Elliott
In early 2023, Beemok Capital had a tempting proposal for Charlotte, N.C.: if the city raised about one-third of the cost of a $400 million tennis complex, Beemok would move its tennis tournament, the Western and Southern Open, to their city.
The Western and Southern Open — one of only nine prestigious Masters 1000 tennis tournaments worldwide — would bring hundreds of thousands of tourists to Charlotte every year. Months later, after the city and Mecklenburg County raised the necessary funds, the tournament’s owners made the sudden decision to keep the tournament in Cincinnati, shelving plans for the massive facility overnight.
But Charlotte is preparing its comeback play: In December, the city will host the inaugural Charlotte Invitational tennis exhibition at the Spectrum Center, attended by some of the biggest names in the sport.
“The rationale for hosting the invitational is to demonstrate the ability to attract spectators for professional tennis,” Charlotte City Council member Malcolm Graham said. “We’ll use that to say, ‘Hey, we’ve already demonstrated that there’s an interest in Charlotte through Beemok, and we’ve demonstrated through this invitational that there’s an appetite for professional tennis.’”
The event’s headliners are a quartet of modern tennis legends: worldwide #10 singles player Frances Tiafoe, past Western and Southern Open champion Madison Keys, past US Open champion Sloane Stephens, and four-time Grand Slam winner Carlos Alcaraz. The early success of the event — which has sold more than 13,000 seats as of early September— is a major coup for Graham. He saw Charlotte’s potential when he came to the city in 1981, on a tennis scholarship at Johnson C. Smith University; he still sees that potential today.
“I would love for Charlotte to be the home of a Masters 1000 tournament, where we attract the best tennis players from the WTA and the ATP to Charlotte to play,” he said. “I would love for our city to be able to host an event like that, in a facility that is second to none.”
Charlotte is one of the fastest-growing cities in America, but its tennis courts haven’t kept up with booming interest in the sport. Jon Goldberg, a lawyer and lifelong tennis player who has lived in the city for 25 years, mentioned that the private club where he plays — one of many private clubs in Charlotte — has a four-year waitlist to get in the door.
“While the city’s population increases, and the interest has been steady, the investment in the public side hasn’t been as good,” Goldberg said. “I mentioned that 30 years ago, the ACC was hosted here; that would be basically impossible today.”
Hosting a major tournament requires a major investment of time, money and resources. Beemok Capital pulled out of its Charlotte proposal because it cost less to renovate existing facilities in Cincinnati than it did to build them in Charlotte; Graham said he doesn’t blame the company for that decision. He believes that a successful Charlotte Invitational will reopen discussions about building a modern, improved facility for tennis in Charlotte, one that will put Charlotte on the map as a major center for the sport. Graham expressed a desire to build more facilities that are open to the public in particular.
“As a policymaker, I believe that one of the only things that’s really hampering Charlotte from really getting pro tennis is a facility,” he said. “So we have to build a facility. I’m still of the mindset that we can build something. If we build it, they will come, right?”
Since there is no dedicated professional tennis complex in the city, invitational organizers look to existing infrastructure to create a suitable venue for some of the biggest stars in the sport. Miller Yoho, director of communications at the Charlotte Sports Foundation, is part of the team converting the Spectrum Center into an exhibition-worthy tennis court for the Charlotte Invitational by December. He said he believes in the event’s ability to draw attention to the city’s interest in the sport — and in the future, more major tournaments and exhibitions.
“Do we wish [the Western and Southern Open] would have been in Charlotte? Absolutely,” he said. “But I think that process showed the desire for high-level tennis and opened the door for the Charlotte Invitational. When there is demand, we hope we can supply events. And this clearly shows that Charlotte cares a lot.”
Adam Rhew — president and CEO of SouthPark Community Partners, an economic and community development nonprofit — said he appreciates that Beemok gave Charlotte the opportunity to “be in the conversation” about a prestigious Masters 1000 tournament. While Beemok Capital chose to keep the Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati, the company’s interest encouraged Charlotte policymakers and community members to think about how they could best serve the city’s booming population and interest in the sport.
While the city won’t benefit from the estimated $265 million that the first Western and Southern Open would have generated, the Charlotte Invitational will bring plenty of international and economic attention to the city in its place.
“You look at some of the best players in the game, playing in this really interesting venue, right in the heart of one of America’s fastest growing cities,” Rhew said. “It becomes something that people look at and say, ‘I’ve got to experience that. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else,’ and we think that those kinds of events have real potential in Charlotte.”
For the organizers of the Charlotte Invitational, tennis isn’t just an opportunity to attract attention and consumers to the city. Council member Graham was inspired to start playing tennis as a child because he saw Black athletes like Arthur Ashe excel in the sport; today, he wants Charlotte to create “a robust grassroot tennis program that attracts inner-city kids” and encourages public participation in the sport. Like Graham, Yoho hopes the December exhibition will have long-term impacts for his city’s tennis scene.
“We know there will be a lot of heads in beds and people spending money in Charlotte,” Yoho said. “So we think about that economic impact, but it also goes back to, ‘How are we empowering kids? How are we bringing something to Charlotte that previously hasn’t existed?’”
As attendees from across the nation — and the world — snap up tickets to the Charlotte Invitational, officials and event managers in the city are preparing for a wave of fresh interest in the city. Beemok Capital’s offer may be off the table, but Charlotte is bigger than ever, and so is its enthusiasm to support a tournament of the size and scope of the Western and Southern Open. Rhew, in particular, hopes that the unique atmosphere of the Queen City will catch and keep international attention on tennis in Charlotte.
“That’s part of our strategy here in Charlotte, is to create these moments that are unforgettable, and then to draw people more closely to this place,” Rhew said. “I think that’s what people will find, is a city that is vibrant and thriving and with something to offer everybody.”
