ACC basketball tournament future sites: North Carolina will host for next 5 years

Syracuse, N.Y. — The ACC will hold its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments in North Carolina over the next five years, the conference said Thursday.

The men’s basketball tournament will be held at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte in 2025, 2026 and 2028, and in Greensboro in 2027 and 2029.

The women’s tournament is scheduled to be played in Greensboro this year and next year before moving to Charlotte in 2027.

The championship sites were approved by the league’s membership.

Charlotte will also host the men’s and women’s lacrosse tournaments through 2028 at American Legion Memorial Stadium, the conference said.

The ACC’s football championship game is contracted to be played at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte through 2030, too.

Hosting the tournaments in North Carolina comply with a state budget provision that was part of a ploy to keep the conference from moving out of state.

That provision required the ACC to hold four men’s basketball tournaments in the state among numerous championship events by the 2032-33 academic year.

The ACC moved its conference headquarters to Charlotte last year after nearly 70 years in Greensboro, a move symbolic of the immense change taking place across college athletics.

Southern Methodist, California and Stanford are set to join the league later this year, bringing the number of member institutions to 18 (Notre Dame will remain independent in football).

After the conference last expanded a decade ago with the addition of Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Louisville, the league started booking championship venues in some northern geographic locations, such as Brooklyn and Washington, D.C., to reflect a growing footprint.

This year’s ACC men’s basketball tournament will be played March 12-16 at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.

Then, it’s back to North Carolina.

For a while.