Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200

The smell of freshly printed cardboard wafts from the box of the brand-new board game. Vibrant colors jump off the board and the familiar metal game pieces—a boot, a top hat, a race car, a thimble—call to mind long hours of playing for keeps. It’s a nostalgic sight.

Since its creation in 1935, generations of players have made Monopoly one of the best-known, most-played board games worldwide. In 2020, The Hustle reported more than 300 million copies had been sold. That’s a lot of long game nights and flipped boards.

Almost anything culture-related has been made into a Monopoly game: Shrek, Elton John, Guy Fieri, even Caterpillar—as in the construction machinery company.

The new Greensboro version looks and feels like a traditional Monopoly game, but with spaces meant to reflect the city.

Photos of Cone Health Hospital, the railroad tracks that run through downtown, and a trail through a wooded park act as the background on the Community Chest and Chance card spaces.

In the property spaces, instead of Baltic Avenue and St. Charles Place, there’s LeBauer Park and the N.C. Folk Festival.

New York Avenue and Marvin Gardens become Lake Brandt and Fisher Park.

Kentucky Avenue is now “Carolina Style Hot Dogs.” But wait, what’s that in the picture? Hot dogs covered in ketchup, mustard, and relish? No chili or coleslaw in sight.

And that’s maybe the least egregious part of the newly minted Greensboro Monopoly board^TM.

What’s most striking about the board is just how many things it gets wrong.

“Shrimp and Grits,” a low-country food with virtually no ties to land-locked Greensboro? 

A “Textile Town” space when there’s already a Cone Denim space? 

The specificity of Cone Health juxtaposed with a generic Theater space? 

And then there’s the lack of important city landmarks. 

While the Greensboro Farmer’s Market is included, historic sites like the International Civil Rights Museum, North Carolina A&T State University, and the Carolina Theatre are glaringly absent.

Relatively new businesses like Freeman’s Grub and Pub, Northern Roots Coffeehouse, and Doggos Dog Park made the cut. Institutions like Stamey’s Barbecue, Yum Yum Better Ice Cream, and Magnolia House did not.

The official Greensboro-themed Monopoly game, released by Top Trumps USA under a license with Hasbro in March, is one of many city-themed Monopoly games the company has created for Detroit, St. Louis, Virginia Beach, Baton Rouge, and Colorado Springs. But it’s the first featuring a North Carolina city. 

“We look for places that have that local community engagement, strong history, and pride,”  Lindsay Wallace, sales executive with Top Trumps said. “And you know, Greensboro has that.”

Yet some Greensboro community members and local businesses say the game doesn’t accurately reflect their city.

In late March, Visit Greensboro, the city’s tourism outfit, posted on Facebook about the game’s launch. People were quick to note the board’s… interesting choices.

“No N.C. A&T or A&T 4 who sparked the college sit-in movement in the South,” one person commented. “Sure hoped the institution that brought Greensboro into national prominence and the history books wasn’t overlooked.”

Former mayor and current mayoral candidate Robbie Perkins told The Assembly he was shocked to see the International Civil Rights Center & Museum omitted.

“How do you have a Greensboro Monopoly game and leave off that type of significant landmark?” he asked. “It’s pretty hard to have a Monopoly game of Greensboro having left off probably the most significant landmark in the community. It’s a substantial omission…. It needs to be redone, period.”

But perhaps there’s no need for that. For years, other Greensboro-themed, Monopoly-like games have been on the market. And by all accounts, they do a much better job of representing the city. 

So how did an officially licensed version get it so wrong? It turns out it’s a tale as old as the original game itself: You’ve got to pay to play.

‘A Money Grab’

Founded in 1930, Stamey’s Barbecue is a beloved community institution. On more than one occasion, presidents—including George W. Bush and Donald Trump—have visited the restaurant during their trip into town. So when Top Trumps USA reached out about a year ago, it didn’t surprise Craver Stamey, the fourth-generation owner, that they wanted his restaurant on the board. But the price to be there did.

“It’s basically a money grab for them,” he said. “You have to pay a ton of money to be on it.”

Wallace, the sales executive with Top Trumps, said the company created a community survey in August 2024 to take suggestions for what should be on the board. They got thousands of comments. 

But she waffled on the question of why are so many essential things are missing. She pointed to logistical factors like timing and budgeting before revealing the crux of it all.

“This is a sponsorship edition,” she said. 

When pressed for details such as the cost for spaces, she said, “I don’t like to get into that so much.” 

While Wallace and Top Trumps kept numbers close to their community chest, Stamey told The Assembly he had been quoted “thousands and thousands of dollars.” 

“It was a lot of money,” Stamey said. “It’s tough to justify for a family-run restaurant. It would be tough to justify for even a big company.”

That’s why Stamey thinks the game “fell flat.”

“There was nobody willing to pay all the money to be on it,” he said.

Especially when they didn’t have to the two previous Monopoly-style games highlighting Greensboro.

Both made by the Cincinnati company Late for the Sky, these Greensboro-Opoly games have been circulating since the first launched in 2017. An updated version, released in 2023, includes Stamey’s Barbecue.

“They just put us on it without asking, which is fine,” Stamey said. “I thought it was a decent representation of Greensboro.”

Knock Offs or Knock Outs?

Unlike the official Hasbro-branded game, the previous two Greensboro-Opoly games are unsanctioned versions designed by employees, according to Late for the Sky Marketing Manager Michael Schulte. It’s something the company has been doing since the early 1980s, when the founder made Miami-Opoly based on Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, her alma mater.

Since then, the company has produced more than 2,000 city-based boards, over 100 collegiate editions, and a number of specialty lines, including Cat-Opoly, a number of dog-Opolies, Dino-Opoly, and Space-Opoly.

All of it was made possible after the concept of the Monopoly games became public domain in 1980. As long as Late for the Sky doesn’t use the name “Monopoly” or ape the game’s signature design—like using the same font or rectangles at the top of the spaces—it’s in the clear.

In 2017, Late for the Sky made its first Greensboro-Opoly game.

Much simpler than the new Greensboro Monopoly game, the -Opoly versions are stripped down, with light blue backgrounds and illustrated icons rather than photos. Sold at local Walgreens and WalMarts, they retail for about half the price of the official versions, which cost $39.99.

Then there’s the difference in the spaces.

In the 2017 version, N.C. A&T State University, the Carolina Theater, International Civil Rights Center & Museum, Dame’s Chicken and Waffles, Yum Yum Better Ice Cream, Smith Street Diner, and the former National Folk Festival all make appearances. In the updated 2023 version, Stamey’s makes its debut onto the board as well as area high schools like Grimsley, Page, Smith, and Dudley.

“Whoever did the Greensboro-Opoly game did it right,” Perkins told The Assembly.

Late for the Sky creates each game after its employees research the cities, Schulte said.
Mayor Nancy Vaughan, who touted the official game at its launch event in March, told The Assembly the city had no prior knowledge of either the Greensboro Monopoly or Greensboro-Opoly games and did not give input.

“Quite frankly, we didn’t know about it until it was done,” she said.

Representatives for city institutions reacted in different ways to being left off the official game.

“As anyone from Greensboro knows, it’s not possible to tell the story of our incredible city without including institutions like the International Civil Rights Museum, Carolina Theatre and, of course, North Carolina A&T,” wrote Todd Simmons, associate vice chancellor for university relations at N.C. A&T, in a statement. “These are places and organizations that have made major contributions to the richness and significance of our collective history, the vibrancy of our present and the promise of our future.

“There are many ways to tell a story,” he wrote. “But any story is probably more likely to pass GO and collect $200 if it includes all the main characters.”

John Swaine, the CEO of the International Civil Rights Museum, said he received an email from Top Trumps in August 2024. At the time, he dismissed it because he thought it was a political campaign fundraiser for Donald Trump.

“Given our limited resources, I chose to allocate attention to other pressing matters,” he said via email.

Spokespeople for the Carolina Theatre and the Weatherspoon Art Museum declined to comment. But Stamey didn’t mince words.

“It just further proves the point that it was something that was slapped together by someone who’s not from here,” he said.

At the time of the launch in March, Vaughan sang the games’ praises, thanking the manufacturers for highlighting the city. A few weeks later, she expressed some frustration with the final version.

“There are places that I would have included that did not get included,” Vaughan said in a follow-up interview. “From that perspective, I wish they had done it differently.”

Still, she said she had fun playing it with her grandchildren, and she left the door open for the future.

“Maybe Hasbro will do another edition in the future,” she said.

Sayaka Matsuoka is a Greensboro-based reporter for The Assembly. She was formerly the managing editor for Triad City Beat.

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