For most local businesses on Franklin Street, July is the slowest time of the year. The bulk of UNC students are gone, and Tar Heel sports are in the offseason.
It’s why some of the biggest brands in international soccer popping in for an exhibition at Kenan Stadium is such a boon. When Chelsea and Wrexham faced off last summer, fans came from as far as Nigeria to attend. The Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau estimates the total economic impact from the game to be $15 million.
For a business owner like Carolina Brewery’s Robert Poitras, it’s an invaluable assist in a slow time. He told Chapelboro he wants large events like the FC Series back every year.
“We strongly support more events in Chapel Hill in the summer,” Poitras said. “This is a great opportunity for business, and we’re very excited about it.”
Carolina Brewery is one of several businesses in downtown Chapel Hill and Carrboro holding special events Tuesday. Lapin Bleu, Italian Pizzeria III and others are hosting watch parties. He’s Not Here is even altering its famous blue cup to include a Manchester City logo. To top it all off, a new trolley service will run from 1 to 9 p.m. with stops in both downtown corridors.
The trolley service wasn’t implemented for last year’s game, and there are hopes that this new feature will encourage even more patronage at local businesses before, during and after Tuesday’s game.
“The hard part is that so much focus last year was on Kenan Stadium itself,” said Lapin Bleu owner Mike Benson. “You had so many events that took place there. You had food truck rodeos. They set up a Wrexham bar. I understand it was designed to get people to the stadium, but it got them there very early. So, people that came in for only a day or two missed out on a bit of downtown Chapel Hill and Carrboro.”
Scott Maitland, who has owned and operated the iconic Top of the Hill Restaurant and Bar on Franklin Street since 1994, observed that some out-of-town-visitors – like the thousands who have been flocking into the area in anticipation of kickoff – aren’t as familiar with Chapel Hill as the other two points of the Research Triangle.
“A thousand new people move into the Triangle every day. A lot of people – and this was based on a group that I served with 15-20 years ago – thought the Triangle was defined as Raleigh-Durham-Cary,” Maitland told Chapelboro. “So, Chapel Hill needs to be thinking about how it maintains its position as a destination for people that live in the Triangle. Because a lot of people don’t even know what we are.”
It wasn’t too long ago that Chapel Hill was a prime destination for some of the biggest acts in music. Pink Floyd, the Grateful Dead and Bruce Springsteen are among the many household names who have performed in town, either at Kenan Stadium, the Dean Smith Center or Carmichael Arena (then known as Carmichael Auditorium). Acts that big haven’t come through the area in recent years, but Benson – a Chapel Hill native – sees an opportunity with the FC Series’ clear interest in his hometown.
“You look at what happened with Copa [America] and the Euro Cup, it was just this constant surge of events,” Benson said.
“Shakira at the Copa, and everything else. And I’m like, ‘That’s a great idea. We should be doing that here.’ We should be tying a lot more of this stuff together, because it is the slow season for merchants downtown. We would all 100 percent be behind that.”
Maitland’s observations are in line with Benson’s, and Maitland contended it was the university’s reluctance to embrace alcohol sales at live events which led to the concerts drying up. Still, he said he is hopeful those summertime events can come back.
“There’s a lot of things to consider, and I am not throwing shade,” he said. “But I am saying it is possible. It is possible. It’s been done, and we should continue to do it and we should do more of it.”
“[The FC Series] does serve as a template,” Chapel Hill mayor Jess Anderson told Chapelboro, “in terms of, how do you manage emergency management and the hotels? All the stuff certainly is a template for bringing in big events… There’s been really cool things going on, and I think we are seeing and we’re proving that we’re a great place to do fun things, especially over the summer when we’ve got a little less going on.”
From Maitland, Poitras and Benson’s point of view, the FC Series represents a step in the right direction for summer tourism and events. Manchester City is about as big as it gets in the world of international soccer. The allure of Chapel Hill, which to many stands as the idyllic college town, has pulled a big fish. More could be on its way.
Featured image via Aaron Keck
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