ACC to relocate athletic championships from North Carolina

Following the NCAA's decision on Monday to remove upcoming tournaments from North Carolina, the ACC followed suit, removing neutral site 2016-17 tournament games from the state.

ESPN is reporting that Central Florida is interested in hosting all eight ACC Championship events that are being moved out of North Carolina due to the state's controversial HB2 law.

The ACC's decision means the state will lose 10 neutral site championships, including the Dr. Pepper ACC Football Championship game in Charlotte, which alone brought in more than $32 million previous year, according to Charlotte officials.

The headliner ACC event affected is the football title game, previously scheduled for December 3 in Charlotte, its home since 2010 and where it has drawn large crowds and created an economic impact of more than $30 million annually. The football championship game in Charlotte, the baseball tournament in Durham and the men's golf tournament in New London will also be relocated.

Clemson President James P. Clements told the NY Times that the decision to move the ACC championship games was not easy, but it "is consistent with the shared values of inclusion and nondiscrimination at all of our institutions".

The conference will move 10 championship events out of North Carolina, including four from Greensboro and three from Cary. "It's giving the world, it's giving the rest of the country, the wrong idea about North Carolina".

North Carolina continues to lose sporting events because of North Carolina House Bill 2. The North Carolina Republican Party called the NCAA's move "so absurd it's nearly comical" and has defended HB2 as a measure necessary for privacy and safety, particularly in women's restrooms. Otherwise, Republican legislative leaders and Gov.

The measure, enacted in March, requires transgender people to use bathrooms in publicly owned buildings that correspond with the gender listed on their birth certificate, not the gender they identify as. "I genuinely look forward to the NCAA merging all men's and women's teams together as singular, unified, unisex teams", the statement from North Carolina GOP spokesperson Kami Mueller said.

In a statement he said, "The issue of redefining gender and basic norms of privacy will be resolved in the near future in the United States court system for not only North Carolina, but the entire nation".

Critics of the law, which has become a central focus of a fierce gubernatorial race between McCrory and Democratic challenger Roy Cooper, say it's discriminatory.

It's unlikely, however, that UM's home football field of Hard Rock Stadium could be chosen as the site of the ACC football championship, usually played at Bank of America Stadium.

The economic impact on a host city for the ACC football championship alone is estimated to be around $30 million.

The first of those neutral-site events, which are pre-determined championship locations regardless of the teams competing, was men's and women's cross country that was set for October 28 in Cary.