Economic impact: Panthers training camp no longer in Spartanburg

SPARTANBURG, S.C. (WSPA) – Downtown Spartanburg is not experiencing as many football fans it normally does, this July.

“I was like, where is everybody,” said James Parham, a Spartanburg resident. “This is normally one of the busiest times of year and you can’t really find anybody now.”

The Carolina Panthers Training Camp at Wofford College would bring a major economic boost to the area, every year, that several businesses said they would look forward to.

“With so many visitors to the training camp, we would get a lot of traffic in here because this is a destination for people visiting Spartanburg because we have local things, we have things for kids,” said Annie Groover, manager at the Hub City Bookshop.

The bookshop has a front row seat to the construction and growth taking place downtown, and said it’s out with the old and in with new.

“Spartanburg is really growing,” said Groover. “I’ve lived in Spartanburg for 13 years, I hate to see them go because I think it’s a great time to be in Spartanburg but I still think there’s a lot here and we’ll be fine.”

Residents said it’s a personal loss for regular and lifelong Panthers’ fans.

“I think it’s really sad because it allowed opportunities for people to have things to take their kids to that was a free thing that the kids loved to do,” said Amanda Calloway, a Spartanburg resident. “I think that’s sad, it’s not encouraging us to spend more time with our families like we need to do.”

Many said they hope that new projects, such as the baseball team and planetarium, will step up to take the place of the training camp and give families the same opportunities.

“Things just don’t bring people together anymore, but the Panthers camp did, and you know, we can only hope to have something else come along that’ll do the same thing,” said Parham. “It’s very much needed.”

Even though the Panthers are no longer in Spartanburg, they are hosting their fan fest in Clemson, for the first time in 30 years. It will be on held on Thursday, August 1.

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