ACC narrows down three finalists for their new headquarters

The ACC will soon have a new home. Charlotte, North Carolina, and Orlando, Florida, have emerged as the front-runners for the ACC’s conference office to relocate from Greensboro, North Carolina, according to a Thursday report in The News & Observer written by Luke Decock and Steve Wiseman. A vote on the matter is expected no later than the end of the month of April.

When the conference began searching for its new headquarters Charlotte and Orlando were attractive because they had many of the qualities the conference was looking for: population size, growth and diversity, a large airport, synergies with existing and potential business partners, and the willingness to provide “financial considerations related to operational expenses.” Both cities also host bowl games with ACC teams.

Greensboro has been the conference’s home for 68 years and still remains under consideration as a third finalist, according to the report.

The ACC likes a few different things about Charlotte and Orlando

Charlotte is in the middle of the conference’s geographic footprint and they’ve also been the longtime host of the ACC football championship game. The city has also hosted the ACC men’s basketball tournament several times. Charlotte hosts ACC football and basketball media events, too. There’s an ESPN studio in Charlotte, as well.

Orlando has strong ESPN connections via Disney–which owns ESPN and operates the ACC Network. Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex hosted the NBA’s pandemic playoff bubble and could serve as a potential host for ACC championships. Orlando also hosted the 2016 ACC football championship game, but has never hosted a ACC basketball tournament.

Last August, the ACC’s new commissioner Jim Phillips sent a letter to the members of the conference and the city of Greensboro, announcing that the conference would look into potentially moving their headquarters from the city where the league was initially founded in 1953. Phillips wrote that the ACC had a “fiduciary responsibility to ensure remaining headquartered in Greensboro is what is in the best long-term interests of the Conference.”

The ACC met last week to talk about the proposals from the cities of Greensboro, Charlotte, and Orlando, but no vote was taken. The league hired a real estate consulting firm, Newark, to supervise the process of evaluating the solicited proposals from the interested cities.

Proposals for the cities interesting in hosting the league’s new headquarters were due in Nov. 2021 and they had expected to make decision by the end of March 2022. That decision has dragged on, however, as the 15 school presidents have sought to reach a consensus vote on the matter.