The ACC Championship Game is likely to be staying in Charlotte, North Carolina for the foreseeable future. The ACC has scheduled a press conference for Thursday morning at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, at which time the conference will likely confirm the details for keeping the ACC championship game in Charlotte.
The press conference is scheduled for 11:00 am ET and will have ACC commissioner John Swofford on hand to answer any questions. The existing contract between the ACC and Charlotte originally kept the game in the city through the 2019 season.
Since 2010, the ACC Football Championship Game has been played in the home of the NFL’s Carolina Panthers at the end of every season with one exception. The ACC opted to move the championship game to Orlando, Florida in 2016 in response to the controversy in North Carolina regarding the state’s transgender bathroom law. The game returned to Charlotte the following season and is scheduled to be played in Charlotte in 2018 and again in 2019.
Charlotte has proven to be the best landing spot for the ACC Championship Game since the introduction of the conference championship game in 2005. The game has drawn a minimum of 64,778 fans each year it has been played in Charlotte. Last year’s game between Clemson and Miami was the second-highest attendance for the ACC title game with 74,372. With Atlanta already booked by the SEC, the ACC has seemingly settled in with Charlotte for their title game after initially playing the game in Jacksonville and Tampa in the early years and the one-year trip to Orlando.