This site was created to raise awareness of the disastrous economic implications for the state of North Carolina created by HB2. If you have questions or comments, please don't hesitate to get in touch.
This site was created by Rachel Tublitz, with the help from a lot of friends, family, and fellow NC residents. A Durham resident who is strongly opposed to HB2, Rachel believes that it's valuable to try to tackle problems from multiple different angles. The bill is utterly outrageous on moral grounds, however she built this site to try and address the problem from the financial perspective. Check out our resources section for some examples of other great sites and projects out there who are also dedicated to stopping HB2.
Wherever possible, we've tried to use third party sources for the economic impact citations in our losses. Economic impact calculations are never an exact science; as we are not economists, we've tried to leave that to the professionals wherever possible. At the bottom of each individual loss on this site, you'll see a list of sources. If the specific number cited is from an external source, you'll see a link there. If it's not, you'll find a link to this page.
In some cases, economic impact figures were not available for losses. We've followed a very conservative formula for calculations, which you can learn about below in more detail. Most of the losses without figures associated with them fell into specific buckets. We'll outline our strategy for calculating each bucket below.
For each performance, concert, or sporting event that took place, we made a few assumptions:
The formula for performances is as follows:
number-of-people = capacity-of-venue * 0.65ticket-revenue = number-of-people * ticket-pricebooking-fee = ticket-revenue * 0.15hotel-revenue = ((number-of-people * 0.03) * hotel-price) * days-of-eventtotal = number-of-events * (ticket-revenue - booking-fee) + hotel-revenue
For each conference or convention that took place, we assumed:
The formula for conferences is as follows:
revenue-per-night = event-attendees * 0.5total = duration-of-event * revenue-per-night
Each loss has been rounded down to the nearest $1,000. So, if a loss was $28,874, we rounded down to $28,000.
It's worth noting that the formulas outlined above do not take into account a number of things that would likely make these numbers much higher. We completely ignored:
Here's a complete list of each item where we've applied a custom calculation, and the details around each one.
The conferences formula listed above has been applied. There were 300 confirmed attendees for this event (via email from ALA source). The average hotel room price in Charlotte is $121.
This event (The 37th Annual Festival for the Eno) was not actually canceled. Ani DiFranco was however the planned headliner for the event until she pulled out. Based on this document of Eno Festival demographics, we have a total economic impact for the festival at $1.9 million (also note that this is from 2010). We've estimated that the festival lost 2% of the total attendees over the lost headlining artist. We took 2% of $1.9 million, or $38,000.
The performances formula listed above has been applied. There were 7 total shows planned to take place at Charlotte's Belk Theater, which has a capacity of 2,097. The average ticket price for a Blue Man Group show is $58.23. The average hotel room price in Charlotte is $121.
The performances formula listed above has been applied. Three shows were canceled, one at Charlotte's Spectrum Center (formerly Time Warner Cable Arena, capacity 16,700), another at Greensboro's White Oak Amphitheatre (capacity 7,061), and the last at Raleigh's Red Hat Ampitheater (capacity 5,990). The average ticket for Boston is $58.73. The average hotel room price in Raleigh is $95.87. The average hotel room price in Charlotte is $121. The average hotel room price in Greensboro is $90.
The performances formula listed above has been applied. A total of 21 shows were canceled, 7 in each location. Cirque du Soleil's OVO was scheduled to stop at the Greensboro Coliseum (capacity 23,000) and Charlotte's Spectrum Center( formerly Time Warner Cable Arena, capacity 16,700). Cirque du Soleil's TORUK was scheduled to stop at Raleigh's PNC arena (capacity 19,500). The average ticket for Cirque du Soleil's OVO is $66.47. The average ticket for Cirque du Soleil's TORUK is $67.62. The average hotel room price in Raleigh is $95.87. The average hotel room price in Charlotte is $121. The average hotel room price in Greensboro is $90.
The performances formula listed above has been applied. Two shows were canceled, one at Charlotte's Spectrum Center( formerly Time Warner Cable Arena, capacity 16,700), and the other at Raleigh's PNC Arena (capacity 19,500). The ticket prices for the Raleigh show were used for both events. The Raleigh show prices are listed as $26.95, $36.95, $66.95, and $86.95. We averaged these for a final ticket price of $54.45. The average hotel room price in Raleigh is $95.87. The average hotel room price in Charlotte is $121.
15 out of town guests where confirmed to attend this conference (figured obtained via email with Duck PD). The average hotel room price near Duck is $85.
The performances formula listed above has been applied. This event was scheduled to take place at Durham's Cameron Stadium, which has a capacity of 9,314. The average ticket for a Duke game is $198.02. The average hotel room price in Durham is $91.
This event loss figure was calculated as follows: The market has been cited as bringing $5 billion in economic activity to NC. Attendance for the market dipped this year from 80,000 to 79,000, which has been cited as a reversal for the market and correlated with HB2. 79/80 = x/5000000000 | x = 4937500000 | total = 5000000000 - 4937500000
The performances formula listed above has been applied. This event was scheduled to take place at Raleigh's Meymandi Concert Hall, which has a capacity of 1,700. The average ticket for Itzhak Perlman is $80.81. The average hotel room price in Raleigh is $95.87.
The performances formula listed above has been applied. Two shows were canceled, one at Charlotte's Spectrum Center(formerly Time Warner Cable Arena, capacity 16,700), and the other at Raleigh's PNC Arena (capacity 19,500). Ticket price for the Charlotte show is listed as a range of $30.50 - $126, we used a mean of $78.25. The average hotel room price in Charlotte is $121. The average hotel room price in Raleigh is $95.87.
This event would have yielded 1,516 hotel room nights for the city of Charlotte. The average hotel room price in Charlotte is $121.
The performances formula listed above has been applied. This event was scheduled to take place at Raleigh's PNC Arena, which has a capacity of 1,700. The average ticket for Pearl Jam is $65.57. The average hotel room price in Raleigh is $95.87.
The performances formula listed above has been applied. This event was scheduled to take place at Cary's Koka Booth Ampitheatre, which has a capacity of 7,000. The average ticket for Ringo Starr is $90.2. The average 3-star hotel price in Cary is $97.61.
There was no data available on the location of the wedding, so we took an average of Charlotte ($121) and Raleigh ($95.87), or $108.43. There were 110 guests, and we assumed that 75% of them booked hotel rooms. We also assumed the length of stay to be just one night.
This one was a bit of a special case because of the fact that is on the record agreeing to pay UVM $17,500 to come to NC plus 12 hotel nights per player. Because of this, we adjusted our standard performances formula as follows: we replaced the booking fee with $17,500. We also removed all hotel room nights from the formula completely. The 2016 UNC women's basketball ticket prices are $4 for a standard game. The average hotel room price in ChapelHill is $119.