![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/https:\/\/d1hfln2sfez66z.cloudfront.net\/01-08-2026\/t_b17416dd1ae941dcb5a753e1c761c15c_name_TZ_2A_101YO.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nCHARLOTTE \u2014 While more than 70,000 fans packed Bank of America Stadium Saturday night for the Carolina Panthers\u2019 Wild Card game against the Los Angeles Rams, others packed bars and restaurants around the Queen City.<\/p>\n
And while those businesses benefited in the short-term, local leaders say the city will benefit in the long term.<\/p>\n
Charlotte is in the exclusive club of 30 NFL cities, and Channel 9\u2019s Evan Donovan found that the unexpected playoff game at home makes a difference at a crucial time.<\/p>\n
The Milkshake Factory, for example, just opened on Church Street near Romare Bearden Park last summer. The extra business from Saturday\u2019s game was a big boost.<\/p>\n
\u201cAround maybe like 3 [p.m.] to the whole game, everyone was coming in here, we was packed out,\u201d said Khaleiah Durant.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s pretty obvious there were more people in Uptown Charlotte than on a normal Saturday, even compared to usual Panthers\u2019 gamedays. But exactly how many people filled the streets will take a few days to figure out.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we know how many people were in Bank of America Stadium, how many people were around [the] stadium,\u201d said Moira Quinn with Center City Partners.<\/p>\n
The group has a tool that counts people in Uptown, and Quinn says the Panthers\u2019 playoff run helps businesses in January, which is typically a down month.<\/p>\n
Quinn said it\u2019s not just the short-term gain — these games can help recruit businesses, which means more jobs.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo being an NFL city is a real economic development driver, and it\u2019s something people don\u2019t always think about,\u201d Quinn said.<\/p>\n
Data from the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority shows that 33 million people spent $9.1 billion in the city last fiscal year. About one in nine Charlotteans work in leisure and hospitality, meaning those dollars have an impact on local jobs.<\/p>\n
For Durant, the hope is for more Panthers playoff runs in the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love the energy with the city, I\u2019ve never seen so many people in here with that same energy. We had the passion for the Panthers to win,\u201d Durant said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019ll take a few days to get the estimate of Uptown\u2019s economic impact. The CRVA says it should have the data by mid-week.<\/p>\n
(VIDEO: 101-year-old Panthers fan cheers for Carolina\u2019s return to playoffs)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
101-year-old Panthers fan cheers for Carolina\u2019s return to playoffs <\/p>\n
\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHARLOTTE \u2014 While more than 70,000 fans packed Bank of America Stadium Saturday night for the Carolina Panthers\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2075],"tags":[98093,41945,19026,235,260,9462,2567,9463,14002,51927,9475,98092,7,781,98085,72977,4465,98088,820,98086,14031,2285,88,6,59058,98091,236,424,6276,98089,30766,98087,8907,602,98094,91037,98090],"class_list":["post-673436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-carolina-panthers","tag-_north_carolina","tag-bank_of_america_stadium","tag-bryce_young","tag-carolina","tag-carolina-panthers","tag-carolina_panthers","tag-carolinapanthers","tag-carolinas","tag-channel_9","tag-channel_nine","tag-charlotte","tag-eric_davis","tag-football","tag-general","tag-hannah_goetz","tag-jalen_coker","tag-john","tag-john_fox","tag-local","tag-luke_kuechly","tag-macarthur","tag-navy","tag-news","tag-nfl","tag-north_carolina","tag-okinawa","tag-panthers","tag-rams","tag-roy","tag-roy_goodwin","tag-super_bowl","tag-super_bowl_38","tag-tiktok","tag-video","tag-wild_card_weekend","tag-world_war_ii","tag-xavier_legette"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}