The Greensboro Coliseum could be renamed to honor the Atlantic Coast Conference while the league ponders moving its headquarters out of the city for the first time since its founding.
The state budget includes $15 million for a collegiate sports headquarters in North Carolina, but that may mean a move to Charlotte.
The ACC was founded in 1953 in Greensboro and has been headquartered there ever since. At the time, most of the teams were from the Carolinas. But expansion has created a league that stretches from Boston to Miami.
ACC commissioner Jim Phillips announced in October that the league was working with a consulting firm to decide whether the headquarters should stay in Greensboro.
The money in the state budget would establish a headquarters for at least 15 years in North Carolina but did not specify a city.
State Sen. Michael Garrett of Guilford County says the league told lawmakers that the headquarters would be moving to either Charlotte or Florida, and the General Assembly wanted to keep it in North Carolina.
“It's just a little bit of an ego blow to the Triad, I think,” he says. “But we have had some record successes in the Toyota EV battery manufacturing facility at the megasite, Boom Supersonic at the airport, and a lot of other exciting projects in the works. So, you know, our economy is, is just booming.”
Garrett says with rapid changes among college sports conferences the ACC would do better focusing on strengthening the league rather than making a costly move.
Guilford County Commission Chairman Melvin “Skip” Alston and Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan issued a joint statement saying they would rename Greensboro Coliseum to the ACC Coliseum if it stays in the city. The statement says they've been assured that no decision on the location has been made.