ACC Tournament Returning to Greensboro
The ACC men’s basketball tournament returned to Greensboro for the first time since 2015 last month. But it only lasted two preliminary rounds before being shortened by the coronavirus crisis.
To make up for the cancellation and the lost revenue it caused, the conference announced Tuesday that it will bring its signature event back to the Gate City in 2023 -- the first future date available.
The 2021 tournament had previously been awarded to Capital One Arena in Washington D.C., with the 2022 tournament scheduled for Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn, N.Y.
“The partnership between the ACC and the city of Greensboro is extremely special, and one that has spanned nearly seven decades,” commissioner John Swofford said in a statement. “The decision to bring the ACC men’s basketball tournament back to the Greensboro Coliseum was the right thing to do and we look forward to returning in 2023.
“We also appreciate the annual hospitality shown to our teams, schools, alumni and fans while hosting the ACC men’s and women’s swimming and diving championships, the ACC women’s basketball championship and the ACC women’s golf championship.”
Greensboro, we’re coming back!
— ACC Men's Basketball (@accmbb) April 28, 2020
The 2023 #ACCTourney will be held at the Greensboro Coliseum! 🏀https://t.co/OFYLzkdAe1
The tournament was halted just before the start of the quarterfinal round on Thursday, March 12. NC State, which won its first game the previous day against Pittsburgh, was scheduled to face Duke that afternoon.
Although Greensboro has been the site of more ACC Tournaments than any other venue — 27 if you count this year’s abbreviated event — there was no guarantee it will be back anytime soon.
With sentiment growing among the newer conference members absorbed from the old Big East to anchor the conference’s signature event in major media markets such as New York, Washington, D.C., Atlanta and Charlotte, a movement championed by curmudgeonly Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, this year’s tournament was looked upon as something of an audition to determine whether Greensboro was still a viable option moving forward.
Because it didn’t get that chance, the ACC owed it to the arena, the community that still embraces the conference like none other and, most of all, its traditional base of fans to return as soon as possible.
It’s estimated that Greensboro lost an estimated $37 million in economic impact because of the tournament’s final three days of competition being canceled. Hotels, restaurants, store owners, Airbnb operators, Uber and Lyft drivers, and many others who would never have set foot inside the arena for a game will all feel the pinch.
It’s a debt the conference went a long way toward paying back with Tuesday’s announcement.
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