Story highlights All NCAA championships may move if HB2 isn't repealed, a sports group says

The "bathroom bill" has been criticized by LGBT and civil liberties groups

(CNN) The NCAA might move all championship events through 2022 out of North Carolina if the state doesn't repeal its "bathroom bill," the North Carolina Sports Association says in a letter sent to state legislators.

"Our contacts at the NCAA tell us that, due to their stance on HB2, all North Carolina bids will be pulled from the review process and removed from consideration," said the letter from Scott Dupree, executive director of the Greater Raleigh Sports Alliance, on behalf of the association.

The state could suffer "upwards of a half-billion dollars" in negative economic impact, the letter said. Counting NCAA events already moved to other states, "we will be faced with a six-year drought of NCAA championships in North Carolina," the letter said.

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HB2, signed into law last March, bans people from using public bathrooms that don't correspond to their biological sex as listed on their birth certificates. The bill also reserves the right to pass nondiscrimination legislation to the state government, saying state laws preempt any local ordinances.

The new law enraged LGBT groups, civil liberties organizations and Democrats across the nation. The Justice Department filed a civil rights lawsuit against the state.