State & Local Government Policy, Business and Technology

NCAA reportedly is on the verge of blackballing North Carolina for years over ‘bathroom bill’

The Washington Post: The state of North Carolina already has lost out on hosting a number of sporting events because of House Bill 2, which mandates that transgender people use the bathroom corresponding with their birth gender in state-run facilities and bans North Carolina municipalities from enacting anti-discrimination policies. This academic year alone, the NCAA moved seven events out of the state, including first- and second-round games of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament that were scheduled for Greensboro. The ACC relocated 10 neutral-site championships, including its football championship game in Charlotte. The NBA, meanwhile, moved this season’s All-Star Game from Charlotte to New Orleans.

By one estimate, HB2 has cost the state between $77 million and $201 million in tourism and tax revenue (a number of businesses also canceled expansion plans in the state because of the law) and, according to a North Carolina group that recruits and promotes major sporting events in the state, that number will only go up because the NCAA is on the verge of keeping its major events — 133 of them — out of North Carolina through 2022.

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