Black-owned Baltimore businesses benefitting from CIAA tournaments

This week’s CIAA basketball tournament is bringing big opportunities for Black-owned businesses in Baltimore.  Visit Baltimore, the city’s tourism organization, is celebrating the city’s rich Black culture and navigating paths for visitors to explore. “Folks come here and enjoy the basketball but they also enjoy our small businesses, especially our Black-owned businesses in Baltimore,” said Al Hutchinson, the President & CEO of Visit Baltimore. “It really uplifts the community. It gets people excited about coming out and supporting the student athletes.”  The CIAA is the oldest Black athletics conference in the country. Its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments run through March 1.   Celebrating Baltimore Baltimore is the host of the CIAA Tournament for the fifth year after moving from Charlotte. For a full week, thousands of fans and alumni are celebrating their Historically Black Colleges and Universities in one setting. However, the impact goes far beyond the basketball court. Al Hutchinson, from Visit Baltimore, is using the momentum to highlight Black entrepreneurs through the “Bop pass.” Bop, slang for a long walk, is a free digital passport offering discounts at more than 40 local businesses, museums, and restaurants. “We really want to push them all over Baltimore, celebrating the greatness...