North Carolina Sports: HB2 is Replaced, Will Events Return?

The North Carolina legislature replaced HB2 with HB142 and eliminated some of the troublesome elements. Will the sporting events come back?

The North Carolina adventure with HB2 is over. The politics are not over, but that is not exactly important to our purposes here. It is what the repeal means for the state in its future with collegiate events.

The year of HB2 was not kind to the state of North Carolina in the sports arena. Events left the state, even hard fought for events like the 2017 NBA All Star game left. NCAA Basketball Tournament regional games ended up across the border in Greenville, SC instead of Greensboro, NC. The ACC Football Championship suddenly decamped for Tampa. The ACC Women’s Basketball Tournament moved to Myrtle Beach. The list goes on and on.

2018 could have ended up the same way. It still might since there is no guarantee that the events will return. The possibility is back, though, and that means that there is a good chance March Madness could return to Raleigh, Greensboro, or Charlotte. The ACC Tournament is in Brooklyn for another year, but it is on schedule to return to Greensboro in 2019. The ACC Championship Football Game could return to more geographically centered Charlotte.

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In fact it would seem that the economic impact of sports likely was the key factor in the repeal. Neither political party in the state wanted to be responsible for more economic pain caused by the bill’s aftershocks. The NCAA was willing to shut the state out for the next five years if there was a lack of action.

The NBA could also make a move to bring the All Star Game back. There was a proposal to bring 2019 game to Charlotte if HB2 could be repealed. We will have to see if the new state of affairs is good enough for NBA Commissioner Adam Silver to act.

Next: North Carolina Final Four Bracket Challenge

Hopefully we will not have to talk about this anymore (Crossing fingers).

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