RALEIGH, N.C. _ North Carolina will lose out on six years of NCAA championship events if legislators don't address House Bill 2 within 48 hours, a sports event recruiter said Tuesday.
"I have confirmed with a contact very close to the NCAA that its deadline for HB2 is 48 hours from now," said Scott Dupree, who leads the Greater Raleigh Sports Alliance, which recruits NCAA and other sporting events to Raleigh. "If HB2 has not been resolved by that time, the NCAA will have no choice but to move forward without the North Carolina bids. The NCAA has already delayed the bid review process once and has waited as long as it possibly can, and now it must finalize all championship site selections through spring of 2022."
HB2 struck down local nondiscrimination ordinances and requires transgender people to use the bathroom that corresponds to the gender on their birth certificate while they are in schools and other government facilities.
Dupree's comment, issued at noon Tuesday, adds urgency to the NCAA's statement last week reminding legislators that the deadline is approaching.
"Absent any change in the law, our position remains the same regarding hosting current or future events in the state," the NCAA said Thursday in a statement posted to Twitter and emailed to news media. "As the state knows, next week our various sports committees will begin making championship site selections for 2018-2022 based upon bids received from across the country. ... Those decisions are final and an announcement of all sites will be made on April 18."
