MEMPHIS, Tenn. — There is new reaction following the ongoing conflict over the future location of the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest.
Memphis River Parks Partnership sued Memphis in May for nearly $700,000 in damages at Tom Lee Park they say was caused by the 2023 competition. It prompted Memphis in May organizers to look for a new venue.
One of the options was to move the competition outside Memphis, but a huge push was made to keep the BBQ contest in the Bluff City.
“Central BBQ is about 20-years-old, we’ve been cooking in it since we started,” said said Roger Sapp, Central BBQ Co-Owner, ”And that’s why we started our restaurant was from our cooking experience from the contest.”
However, teams including Sapp’s told ABC24 moving the contest takes away a big part of what the competition is all about.
“You can be off the river, but it’s not the same contest,” said Sapp.
Since 1978, the WCBCC has brought thousands of participants to Memphis, and why many still want to come to the Bluff City next year. In a poll, 77% of responding teams voted to move the competition back to Liberty Park like it was in 2022, but some feel this location still has its drawbacks.
“It’s convenient to Midtown, to Memphis, but it's not the river,” said Sapp.
“There’s really not a lot of hotel rooms in the midtown market, and downtown occupancy decreases. The impact goes from a major impact to a medium impact on the hotel industry,” said Wayne Tabor with the Metropolitan Memphis Hotel and Lodging Association.
While Sapp believes the contest at Liberty Park is a better alternative than losing the competition entirely, he is still uncertain about the conditions if it is chosen as a host site again.
“Unless they made it really convenient and had some nice spots for people to cook, I don’t know how it can be anything but a parking lot,” said Sapp.
ABC24 reached out to Memphis in May for a comment about where the competition stands now, and when the final 2024 location will be decided. No one has responded at this time.