ACC Announces Football Title Game Will Remain in Charlotte

CHARLOTTE - The ACC Championship game won't be leaving Charlotte any time soon.

On Thursday, the conference announced it has reached a 10-year agreement with the Charlotte Sports Foundation to keep its football championship game at Bank of America Stadium through 2030. Seven of the past eight ACC Championship games have been played in Charlotte, with the lone exception coming in 2016 (when the game was moved to Orlando in response to N.C. House Bill 2).

This agreement works as a 10-year extension to the parties' original deal.

"Our game has grown into one of the premier sporting events in the country," ACC Commissioner John Swofford said. "We look forward every year to this annual celebration of ACC football."

One potential sticking point in completing an agreement like this is the uncertain nature of Bank of America Stadium, specifically with a sale of the Carolina Panthers looming. Panthers owner Jerry Richardson announced in December he would sell the team at season's end after a Sports Illustrated report detailed allegations of workplace misconduct involving Richardson.

Swofford said discussions on an agreement had begun when Richardson announced his intentions to sell the team. He also said the ACC's relationship with Richardson and the Panthers, "couldn't have been better, and neither side saw any reason to slow those discussions down."

"I'm very hopeful and would expect to have the same kind of relationship with whomever owns the team in the future."

It is unlikely, but a new owner could potentially push for a new stadium for the Panthers. The Panthers' tether to the stadium ends in the summer of 2019, theoretically freeing a new owner to pursue constructing a new stadium.

Swofford said part of the agreement allows for the game to remain in Charlotte while simply switching from Bank of America Stadium to any new venue.

"That's addressed in the arrangement," Swofford said, "in terms of the opportunity to discuss and potentially play in that new stadium. We'd probably need to sit down with that new ownership and see what that might entail, but would fully expect to be able to successfully do that.

"We're very happy with this stadium, by the way."

Swofford and Charlotte Sports Foundation executive director Will Webb both noted how the ACC Championship game has found a home in Charlotte, and now the city has become synonymous as a springboard to the elite college bowl games.

One of the benefits, the commissioner said, to keeping the game in Charlotte rather than rotating venues every few seasons is continuing to build the game's stature. If teams have to "get to Charlotte," for a chance to make it to the College Football Playoff or one of the New Year's Six bowls, then the game and the conference as a whole will only gain credibility.

The winner of the ACC Championship has played in either the CFP or the national title game every year since 2013.

"When I go around the league and I talk to our players and our coaches," Swofford said, "it's now, 'We want to get to Charlotte.' Because of the springboard that gives them."

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Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte will play host to the ACC football championship game through 2030. Walt Unks/Journal

April 6, 2018