“I am a part of this community now, and I want to make it a better place to live and do business.” -- Bob Johnson (right)
Cover Story Team Player America's first black billionaire sees the return of the NBA as downtown Charlotte's best play By Kevin Brafford

When Bob Johnson is introduced as the keynote luncheon speaker at NCCBI’s 62nd Annual Meeting on March 17, he’ll step to the podium not just as the majority owner of Charlotte’s new pro basketball team but also as a caretaker for the city’s economic development plan, which is woven around a $265 million sports arena.

That’s his opinion, not ours. “In many ways, I am a custodian of what’s being done, so I have a responsibility,” he says. “It’s a partnership, to be sure, but I have to be right there leading the way.”

Johnson, who will turn 58 on April 8, has been leading the way in many fields since he was born the ninth of 10 children to a timber man and a teacher in Hickory, Miss.

After earning a bachelor’s in history from the University of Illinois and a master’s in international relations from Princeton, Johnson landed in Washington, D.C., and quickly began making a name for himself. He was a lobbyist for the cable TV industry, an experience that showed him the absence of programming of interest to African-Americans. He founded Black Entertainment Television (BET), the first black-owned cable network, in 1980. Twenty years later he sold BET to Viacom for an estimated $3.2 billion and pocketed about half as majority owner.

Under terms of the sale, which made him the country’s first black billionaire, Johnson will remain CEO of BET through 2005, or just a couple of months after his one-year-old Charlotte Bobcats take to the court for the first time as the major tenant in Charlotte’s new arena, the largest public project in the history of the city.

While it will be the Bobcats’ second season — they’ll spend their inaugural year starting in November playing at the existing Charlotte Coliseum on Tyvola Road — in many ways it will carry more pressure than the first.

That’s due to the controversy the new arena has caused, a political and social unrest that began in the final years of the Charlotte Hornets’ existence. Despite the Hornets’ success at the turnstiles — they led the NBA in attendance for most of the 1990s — principal owner George Shinn maintained that the coliseum, built in 1988 with only 12 luxury suites, was outdated and the lack of that significant revenue stream kept the franchise from being competitive in player salaries.

Shinn’s popularity soon began to freefall, particularly after he traded star players Larry Johnson and Alonzo Mourning and was taken to court by a former Hornets’ cheerleader. It was no surprise, then, when city voters overwhelmingly rejected a June 2001 advisory referendum that would have brought a new uptown arena as part of a $342 million cultural package.

Johnson made overtures to Shinn about buying the Hornets, but the embattled owner instead chose to move the franchise to New Orleans following the 2001-02 season. With Shinn out of the way, the Charlotte City Council quickly approved a revised deal for an 18,500-seat arena, replete with 60 luxury boxes and 2,300 club seats, that had more private involvement and didn’t include a rental car tax.  

The NBA took note and announced it would award an expansion team to the city beginning in the 2004-05 season with Johnson — once he wrote a $300 million check to satisfy the league’s expansion fee — as its principal owner. In beating out a high-profile ownership group headed by former Boston Celtics star Larry Bird, Johnson became the first African-American to own a majority interest in any major league sports franchise.

“That wasn’t something that I spent time constantly thinking about,” Johnson says. “I had been looking into ownership of a pro basketball team for some time — it’s always been the sport that fit best with what we were doing at BET — and I had established a lot of business contacts in the Charlotte area and the Carolinas. It seemed like a natural fit in a lot of ways.”

Johnson is aware that outside of the NFL, which thanks to a lucrative TV deal is a guaranteed moneymaker, ownership of a major pro sports team in most cases is considered a losing proposition. He scoffs at the notion that the Bobcats are merely a rich plaything. “That’s not me,” he says. “I’m not in this business to lose money. I don’t have any plans to subsidize big corporations sitting up in suites watching guys play, nor do I plan to subsidize guys making $4 million a year on average to play in the NBA.”

Part of his plan for the Bobcats (he also inherited the WNBA’s Charlotte Sting) is to leverage TV broadcast rights to both teams’ games as content for a new regional sports cable network. “It would be all things sports,” he says. “We would show some of the college teams outside of the ACC. We would showcase more black schools. We’d also have talk shows, features on NASCAR drivers — anything sports that had to do with North and South Carolina.”

While Johnson will remain primarily a D.C. resident, he has bought a $1.3 million condo in The Radcliffe, an upscale development just six blocks from the arena site on Trade Street. “I could have bought a house in the suburbs,” he says, “but I wanted to be close to the arena. Since I’ll live downtown, I’ll be spending my money there, and that’s what we want others to do.”

In addition to the Bobcats, Johnson’s already demonstrated a willingness to spend his money, donating $1 million to build a new YMCA in a distressed part of the city. “I am a part of this community now,” he says, “and I want to make it a better place to live and do business.”

Johnson’s speech at the Annual Meeting will be heard by more than 1,000 business and civic leaders from across the state who’ll flock to the Raleigh Convention and Conference Center for a full day of activities. “The best and brightest business and political minds in our state come together under one roof for what many consider the most important business meeting of the year,” says NCCBI President Phil Kirk.

The day begins with two NCCBI meetings running concurrently from 10 to 11:45 a.m. — the board of directors and the Small Business Advisory Board. The buffet luncheon begins at 11:45 a.m. and will include the presentation of NCCBI’s two coveted awards. N.C. Mutual Life Insurance Co. Chair Bert Collins, who has led North Carolina’s largest black-owned business for more than a dozen years, has been selected to receive the Citation for Distinguished Citizenship. Justice Burley Mitchell Jr. will be honored with the association’s Citation for Distinguished Public Service.

“Bert Collins and Burley Mitchell have been outstanding citizens and representatives of our state,” says Kirk. “We are thrilled to honor two men who have had positive effects on so many people.”

Current NCCBI Chair Sue W. Cole of Greensboro, the U.S. Trust Co. of North Carolina executive, will conclude her historic year in office with a report during the luncheon. Cole is the first woman to lead NCCBI in its long history. She will turn the gavel over to incoming chair Barry Eveland of Research Triangle Park, the top IBM executive in North Carolina.

The traditional members’ reception, always one of the most popular events at the Annual Meeting, will be staged within the NCCBI Expo during expanded hours from 5 until 7 p.m. with plenty of heavy hors d’oeurves.

Ticket prices are $60 for the luncheon and $60 for the reception, or $100 for both if purchased together. The NCCBI Expo is free, as are two afternoon seminars that will look at two hot-button issues — North Carolina’s efforts toward economic development and the future of our military bases.

“Both seminars will address issues that certainly are instrumental to growth in our state,” says Leslie Bevacqua, NCCBI’s vice president of governmental affairs. “These are lively and pertinent topics that are sure to spark plenty of discussion.”

“Jobs, Jobs, Jobs: North Carolina’s Strategy on Economic Development” is from 2:15 to 3:30 p.m. and will be moderated by Watts Carr, chair of NCCBI’s Economic Development Committee. Other speakers include Commerce Secretary Jim Fain, who’ll address how the state uses incentives, and Cole, who’ll spell out the association’s new focus on economic development. Bevacqua also will be part of the panel, speaking on project development financing.

Leigh McNairy, the state’s special assistant for military issues, has agreed to moderate “The Battle Over Military Bases” from 3:45 to 5 p.m. Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue will provide an overview on the state’s efforts to retain all of our military bases and personnel. Other speakers include Kel Landis, CEO of RBC Centura and current chair of the N.C. Bankers Association, who’ll talk about the importance of the military to business and to the state’s economy, and Dr. Russ Lea, vice president for research and sponsored programs at UNC, who’ll give an overview of how the military impacts the state’s research and development efforts. 

A constant throughout the day is the NCCBI Expo, which highlights more than 70 businesses and organizations across the state, including convention and visitors bureaus, technology companies, advertising firms and education organizations.

“Last year’s Expo was the largest in NCCBI history,” says Expo coordinator Julie Woodson. “The response again has been wonderful. We look forward to providing exhibitors an excellent marketing opportunity, and providing attendees with a tradeshow that will help them learn more about products and services that are offered in North Carolina.”

For the third consecutive year, Goodness Grows in North Carolina (a part of the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services) will showcase a variety of booths featuring foods and products that are grown in state, along with exhibits from a number of the state’s wineries.

The Expo will be a focal point for the reception, which will take place in the exhibit hall. “Exhibitors receive maximum exposure during the reception,” Woodson says, “and throughout the day they will have the opportunity to establish contacts with more than 1,000 potential customers.”

The cost to exhibit at the Expo is $400 for NCCBI members and $500 for non-members. Each exhibitor receives a complimentary luncheon ticket, a $60 value. Those interested in being part of the Expo should contact Woodson at 919-836-1402 or jwoodson@nccbi.org.