This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

If North Carolina’s discriminatory bathroom bill, HB2, is not repealed soon, the state will suffer a six-year drought of no NCAA Championship events, including March Madness games, according to the state’s sports association.

The loss of college sports would cost the state an estimated $250m.

The NCAA, like the NBA and ACCA football, has promised not to hold events in the state in protest of HB2.

North Carolina 'bathroom bill' blocking LGBT protections unlikely to see repeal Read more

“North Carolina is on the brink of losing all NCAA Championship events for six consecutive years, through the spring of 2022. This includes the NCAA Basketball Tournament (“March Madness”) in cities like Greensboro, Raleigh and Charlotte,” wrote Scott Dupree, the executive director of the Greater Raleigh Sports Alliance in a letter to the state assembly on Monday.

The state is bidding to host 133 NCAA Championship events in different sports, which would run from 2018 to 2022.

“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,” continued Dupree.

The HB2 bill includes a provision that says people must use the bathroom that matches the gender they were assigned at birth. That means that a transgender woman who was born male must use the men’s bathroom or be breaking the law.

After a drawn-out governor’s race last year, Democrat Roy Cooper beat the Republican incumbent, Pat McCrory, who had been a proponent of HB2. Shortly after Cooper’s win, Republican lawmakers called an emergency session and severely restricted the incoming governor’s powers (and those of the now Democratic-dominated state supreme court).

State legislators have been arguing among themselves about the repeal of the bill, with Republicans also calling for repeal because of the economic cost to the state. Forbes estimated the bill had already cost the state $630m.

On Monday, Cooper said “there is no time to waste” to repeal the law in order to keep college championship sports in the state. Dupree said the review process for sports bids would take place in the next seven to 10 days.

“The bipartisan votes of both Democrats and Republicans are there for repeal if the Republican legislative leadership will just put it to a vote,” said Cooper in a statement.

Roy Williams, the basketball coach at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, publicly slammed the law on Sunday, after his team played Notre Dame in Greensboro.



“I’m glad we were able to take a game here because of that stupid rule that we have in our state, that took a lot of great opportunities for people in our state, great athletes that like to do things in our state … I just think it’s ridiculous in what it’s doing to our state and the reputation of the state,” said Williams.

Future NCAA games have been shifted from Greensboro, North Carolina, and will be played in Greenville, South Carolina.