ACC extends deals with North Carolina sites after law change
GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) The Atlantic Coast Conference has added a replacement year to contracts for North Carolina venues that lost championships when the league relocated events due to a law limiting protections against LGBT people.
The ACC had pulled 10 neutral-site championships for the 2016-17 season. The state passed a compromise bill to roll back elements of the law in March, and the league announced a day later it would return to North Carolina in 2017-18.
The league announced Wednesday that restructured contracts would ''compensate'' venues with a replacement year as a host. That comes a day after the NCAA awarded several championship events to North Carolina from 2019-22 due to the law change.
''We are pleased that ACC neutral site championships will return to the state of North Carolina beginning with the 2017-18 academic year,'' ACC Commissioner John Swofford said in a statement. ''We value all of our partners in North Carolina and appreciate their support and cooperation. We are thrilled to renew our relationships with so many terrific people, outstanding cities and first-class venues.''
Most notably, the ACC football title game will remain in Charlotte through 2020 instead of 2019.
Last season's football title game was moved from Charlotte to Orlando, Florida.
The other events include:
- The women's basketball tournament - held in Conway, South Carolina last season - returns to its longtime home in Greensboro through 2023.
- The baseball tournament - set for Louisville, Kentucky, next month - will be in Durham in 2018 and 2019.
- The men's and women's swimming and diving championships will be in Greensboro through 2023.
- The men's golf championship will be in New London through 2021.
- The women's golf championship will be in Greensboro through 2021.
- The men's and women's tennis championships will return to Cary in April 2018.
- The women's soccer championships will be in Cary in fall 2018, though the site has yet to be determined for later this year.
The men's basketball tournament, the league's signature event, was already slated for the second in a two-year stay in Brooklyn, New York next year. It will return to North Carolina in 2019 (Charlotte) and 2020 (Greensboro).
