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SAN JOSE — NCAA officials found themselves in a bind this fall when an unexpected turn of events forced them to relocate soccer’s Final Four for the second time.

But San Jose and Avaya Stadium stepped in to bail them out as the women’s College Cup returns to the Bay Area on Friday and Sunday for the first time in 16 years.

After a summer of Copa America games at Levi’s Stadium and the MLS All-Star match at Avaya, local sports leaders came together in a matter of weeks to win the bid for the collegiate championship by impressing NCAA officials they would do it right.

“In the shuffle, change and move, we didn’t want to have partners that didn’t understand how important” it is for the athletes to have a great experience,” said Janet Oberle, chair of the NCAA Division I women’s soccer committee.

The Bay Area ends the year with one more tribute to soccer as Georgetown, North Carolina, USC and West Virginia compete for a national title starting Friday.

It just wasn’t supposed to happen this way.

Collegiate officials initially rejected a local bid three years ago in favor of Orlando, Florida, and its new soccer stadium that was scheduled to open by now. But the decision backfired when construction delays led to the first change.

They moved the championship in January to Cary, North Carolina, which had held men’s and women’s College Cups 10 times since 2003.

Three months later, the NCAA’s leadership was scrambling again when North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory signed legislation that requires transgender people to use restrooms at schools and government buildings corresponding to the sex on their birth certificates. The law HB2 also excludes gender identity and sexual orientation from local and statewide anti-discrimination protections.

In response, the NBA moved its 2017 All-Star game out of Charlotte. Musicians such as Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam and Ringo Starr canceled concert plans in North Carolina and PayPal and Deutsche Bank decided against expanding in the state because of the law.

NCAA leaders joined the exodus in September when announcing they would move the College Cup and six other championships out of North Carolina. Only the Division I women’s and Division III men’s and women’s soccer championships were just months away.

Bay Area sports leaders wasted no time offering a stopgap solution.

“This is not only a great place for soccer but a great place for inclusiveness,” said Patricia Ernstrom of the San Jose Sports Authority.

She spearheaded the bid by calling fellow local stakeholders asking who’s in? Earthquakes and Athletics president Dave Kaval was on a conference call for the soccer team when he received texts, emails and calls from Ernstrom and others. They wanted to know if 18,000-seat Avaya Stadium was available. It was.

They also wondered whether the area had a realistic chance because Avaya was new to the College Cup. They were one of five communities to submit bids within weeks of the announced change.

“The immediate next thought was, ‘We absolutely can do this,’ ” said Lynn Holzman of the Millbrae-based West Coast Conference.

Local organizers wanted the event knowing they would have only seven weeks to put together a championship most areas spend more than a year planning. By offering a lifeline, they hope NCAA officials notice when the next round of bids is held for 2018-2022. They plan to campaign for men’s and women’s soccer, women’s volleyball and men’s and women’s basketball events.

Levi’s Stadium already has been awarded the 2019 college football championship game.

“Politics or state laws, whatever the situation is you just embrace the opportunity to showcase what you’re all about,” said Santa Clara coach Jerry Smith, whose team lost in the quarterfinals last weekend. “We hope this will be a chance for the Bay Area and Avaya Stadium to become a regular stop every four or five years.”

The women’s College Cup will be held on the West Coast for only the sixth time in 35 years. The men’s Cup has been held in the West nine times since its inception in 1959.

The Bay Area has shown strong support for the women’s event three previous times, starting in 1996 at Santa Clara University. It set a then-Cup attendance record with almost 9,000 fans.

San Jose broke it three years later in a final at Spartan Stadium that drew 14,410 fans when women’s soccer rode a wave of popularity after the United States won the 1999 World Cup. The record still stands although Spartan Stadium also played host to the 2000 championship.

Matching the ’99 attendance figures will be the biggest challenge this week. Local organizers have had little time to promote the event and are stuck with Friday semifinal kickoffs of 2 p.m. for North Carolina-West Virginia and 4:30 p.m. for USC-Georgetown.

ESPN locked in favorable East Coast times when the event was planned for North Carolina. They couldn’t change them when the Cup moved West, an NCAA spokeswoman said. The semifinal games also conflict with the Pac-12 football championship starting at 6 p.m. Friday at Levi’s Stadium.

The final Sunday does have an optimal starting time of 3 p.m.

Promoters hoped they would at least have a local school participating to boost attendance. But Santa Clara stunned top overall seed Stanford in the second round with a double-overtime 1-0 victory. Then the unseeded Broncos fell to No. 2 Georgetown 1-0 last weekend when allowing a spectacular strike with 13 minutes left in regulation play.