This week’s Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association men’s and women’s basketball tournaments at CFG Bank Arena will mark the oldest historically Black athletic conference’s fourth consecutive year in Baltimore — fifth if you count 2021, which was canceled by the coronavirus pandemic.

The time has flown by, according to CIAA commissioner Jacqie McWilliams Parker.

“Every year, it gets better, and I have to think about, ‘Hey, we’ve been here since 2021,’” she said. “It’s a little weird to think that we’ve been here for what will be our fourth tournament in Baltimore.”

Since a 15-year run in Charlotte, North Carolina, ended after the 2019-20 season, Baltimore has been home to the CIAA Tournaments and will host the games next year, too. How long that arrangement will continue is another matter.

After the 2025-26 season, the CIAA Tournaments will be eligible for a new host jurisdiction. Baltimore submitted a letter of interest last month and has until April 15 to submit an official bid to the conference and the presidents of the member schools to welcome back the games for 2027, 2028 and 2029, according to Visit Baltimore president and CEO Al Hutchinson.

“I think what it does is demonstrate to the 13 presidents who vote on this that the city of Baltimore — thanks to Mayor [Brandon] Scott and the state of Maryland and Gov. [Wes] Moore and the business community that has raised money to support this tournament — really cares about the tournament,” he said. “We expressed our commitment to them. I think we have raised the bar for what we’ve done with the tournament. It’s very exciting from the community events that we’ve created. … I think overall the fans, the alumni and the institutions really see that Baltimore cares about the tournament and wants the tournament to remain in the city.”

While Scott did not return several requests for comment, Terry Hasseltine, president of the Sport and Entertainment Corporation of Maryland, wrote via email that Baltimore has proven its ability to host significant sporting events.

“In my opinion, Baltimore sits in a very good position for the future of the CIAA,” he said. “However, we need to remain vigilant that we can continue to grow on what we have created with the CIAA, [whatever] we can do to elevate our game to the next level to ensure they remain here through this next cycle. I don’t want to speculate on who we are competing with. I just want us to put our best foot forward and build on the momentum of what has become a benchmark event for our City and our State.”

McWilliams Parker said several cities have turned in letters of interest to host the CIAA Tournaments, but that Baltimore and Charlotte are “the two most serious cities.”

“I think what we’ve outlined is part of what’s important to be the host of this tournament, and Baltimore has truly shown and probably exceeded, I would say, some of the expectations of being our host,” she said. “Not that we were skeptical or worrying about it, but we were in North Carolina for 15 years, and we were transitioning fans and the majority of our schools to an unfamiliar place. Now it’s familiar. I think wherever we go, we just want a good host, and we want to be good partners, and we want to be able to deliver for the city, and we want the city to be able to deliver for us, and that’s happening in real time.”

Since the first in-person tournaments in 2022, Baltimore has witnessed an annual increase in economic impact and attendance. The games that year generated $19.6 million in economic impact and 36,390 fans; the tournaments in 2023 produced $29.6 million and 38,450 attendees; and the games in 2024 brought in $32.5 million and 43,450 fans.

As encouraging as those numbers are, they continue to pale in comparison with the tournaments’ output in Charlotte. For instance, the games in 2019 raised $43.7 million in economic impact and drew about 140,000 fans.

While Charlotte has the advantages of history and proximity to the league’s seven schools in North and South Carolina, Baltimore has the asset of recency.

“Their edge is they know,” McWilliams Parker said. “They know exactly what we’re looking for, and they know exactly what is important to them and what’s important to us.”

McWilliams Parker said another aspect in Baltimore’s favor is a renewed emphasis on the players and their teams.

“They have proven that it is a party and it is about fun, but they have made basketball a core of who we are, and it’s allowed everything else to happen. When we were in Charlotte, unfortunately it was the opposite,” she said. “Folks were more worried about what was happening outside and not really paying attention to all of the great things that were happening on the inside, and that’s a shift that we needed.”

Hutchinson said ticket sales and hotel reservations for this winter’s games are tracking comparably to those from a year ago. He noted that the CIAA and Visit Baltimore are advertising to residents of Baltimore City and Baltimore, Anne Arundel, Harford, Howard, Prince George’s and Montgomery counties an offer to attend the men’s and women’s championship games on Saturday for $50 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of women playing basketball in the CIAA Tournament.

While aiming for increased numbers in revenue, ticket sales and hotel reservations linked to the tournaments, Hutchinson said one of his goals is selling out the 14,000-seat CFG Bank Arena on what is commonly known as Championship Saturday.

“If we do that this year especially since it’s a re-bid year, I think that would make a very positive impression on the presidents of the universities,” said Hutchinson, who announced earlier this month that he did not intend to renew his contract with Visit Baltimore that expires June 30. “We want to continue to draw fans from the mid-Atlantic states and the Southeast states to come to the tournament. We want to increase ticket sales and just really generate some excitement about Baltimore.”

This week’s games might be Baltimore’s best opportunity to convince the CIAA presidents and officials to keep the tournaments in the city. But McWilliams Parker declined to describe the next several days as an audition.

“What I would tell Baltimore is, just continue to do what you’re doing and show up the way that you show up,” she said. “Maybe they have the edge because they’ve actually created the template that has allowed us to have some success. Other cities have not had this template that Baltimore has had. So they do have an advantage in that, but they still have to come in competitive because that doesn’t mean that the other cities haven’t figured out what they’ve done to be a part of that process.”

Have a news tip? Contact Edward Lee at eklee@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/EdwardLeeSun.