Atlantic Coast Conference Pulls All ACC Championship Events From NC

While the North Carolina Republicans and the state's conservafools continue their media spin with the goal of justifying discrimination and oppression of LGBT North Carolinians and do nothing about it, the economic fallout continues in the wake of the North Carolina GOP led passage of the unjust HB2 and their obstinate refusal to repeal it despite the massive damage it is causing to the state's economy.

Today the Atlantic Coast Conference Council of Presidents followed the lead of the NCAA and pulled all ACC championship events from the state effective this academic year until HB2 is repealed.

"As members of the Atlantic Coast Conference, the ACC Council of Presidents reaffirmed our collective commitment to uphold the values of equality, diversity, inclusion and nondiscrimination.

 Every one of our 15 universities is strongly committed to these values and therefore, we will continue to host ACC championships at campus sites.   We believe North Carolina House Bill 2 is inconsistent with these values, and as a result, we will relocate all neutral site championships for the 2016-17 academic year.  All locations will be announced in the future from the conference office."    

The Atlantic Coast Conference is based in Greensboro, NC, so this definitely stings in the wake of the NCAA action on Monday.

The ACC announcement also ;means that Charlotte just lost the ACC Championship Game that was scheduled to be played at Bank of America Stadium December 3.  The game had been under contract to be held in Charlotte until 2019, and the 2015 ACC title game is estimated to have a $32.4 million economic impact for the local economy.

And don't look now Charlotte, but the CIAA, the oldest African-American athletic conference in the nation is considering moving its basketball tournament that has been hosted in the Queen City since 2006

The CIAA tournament has an estimated economic impact of $55.6 million, so losing that tournament would be another body blow to the North Carolina economy.

You can gripe all you want about it, but the reality is that bigotry costs you money, NC GOP and Governor McCrory, and you did it to yourselves.

You can either continue down the path of obstinately defend the indefensible HB2, or you can call a special session just like you did to speedily enact HB2.  

You are not going to get enough right wing conventions to come to the state to make up the millions you've already lost since your idiotic passage of HB2.

The special session to repeal it will cost you much less money than all the business you have lost since your misguided passage of Hate Bill 2, as the Rev Dr. William Barber II calls it and I concur with that assessment.

The choice is clear North Carolina GOP.  You can continue down the bigoted Tobacco Road, or you can take the first steps to be on the correct side of human rights history.

TransGriot Update:  This is the list of 10 ACC neutral site championships that will no longer be held in North Carolina.

Women’s soccer: November 4-6 in Cary, NC at WakeMed Soccer Park

Football: December 3, at Charlotte's Bank of America Stadium

Men’s swimming and diving: February 15-18 at Greensboro Aquatic Center

Women’s swimming and diving: February 22-25 at Greensboro Aquatic Center

Women’s basketball: March 1-5 at Greensboro Coliseum

Men’s and women’s tennis: April 26-30 at Cary Tennis Park

Women’s golf: April 21-23 at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro

Men’s golf: April 21-23 at the Old North State Club in New London, NC

Baseball: May 23-28, at Durham Bulls Athletic Park

I repeat, bigotry costs you money.