ACC announces new locations for championship games

After saying it would relocate this year’s championship games because of a discriminatory law passed in North Carolina, the Atlantic Coast Conference named the new locations for each of the conference’s eight title games on Tuesday.

The bill, which the North Carolina state legislature passed in March, bars transgender people from using bathrooms that match their gender identities. In September, ACC officials called the bill inconsistent with their values of equality, diversity, inclusion and non-discrimination.

The ACC — which contains 15 east coast schools from Boston to Miami, including Pitt, the University of North Carolina and Duke University — announced in mid-September they would be moving all of the 2016-17 championship games out of the state as a result of the bill

All of the new locations are neutral sites, meaning games are played on facilities not affiliated with an ACC school. The ACC announced the following locations:

Women’s Soccer Championship: Nov. 4 and 6 at the MUSC Health Stadium in Charleston, South Carolina.

Football Championship: Dec. 3 at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida.

Women’s Swimming & Diving/Men’s Diving Championships: Feb. 13 to 16 — a change from the original date — at the Georgia Tech Aquatics Center in Atlanta, Georgia.

Men’s Swimming Championship: Feb. 27 to March 2 — a change from the original date — at the Georgia Tech Aquatics Center in Atlanta, Georgia.

Men’s & Women’s Tennis Championships: April 26 to 30 at the Rome Tennis Center at Berry College in Rome, Georgia.

Baseball Championship: May 23 to 28 at Louisville Slugger Field in Louisville, Kentucky.

The unveiling of the rest of the championship sites follows last week’s announcement about the site change for the 12th Dr. Pepper ACC Football Championship Game.

This year’s ACC Football Championship will be played at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida. It will mark the sixth time the ACC championship game has been played in Florida.

People who previously purchased tickets for this year’s football championship game when it was scheduled to take place in Charlotte will have a three-day pre-sale opportunity. Tickets will be available to the general public through Ticketmaster on Oct. 10 at 10 a.m.

As in years past, the Atlantic Division champion and Coastal Division champion will each have an allotted amount of tickets to sell once they have clinched their division championship.

Except for the Georgia Tech Aquatics Center, each of the locations will be hosting an ACC championship for the first time.

Georgia Tech hosted the ACC Swimming and Diving Championships last year in addition to 2005, 2008 and 2011.

Charleston’s MUSC Health Stadium will host both soccer title games. The 5,100-seat stadium will first host the ACC Women’s Soccer Championship semifinals and finals on Nov. 4 and 6 after four teams are selected to advance from quarterfinal matches on campus sites the previous weekend.

This will be the second time South Carolina has hosted the women’s finals since Clemson did so in 1996.

The 2016 ACC Men’s Soccer Championship, which will feature first-round games, quarterfinals and semifinals at campus sites, will bring its championship match to Charleston on Sunday, Nov. 13.

The Rome Tennis Center at Berry College, which opened July 29, 2016, is the largest single-surface facility in the nation. With over 50 courts across 30 acres, the city-owned facility built on property donated by Berry College is located less than a mile from the main campus.

Louisville Slugger Field, home to the Louisville Bats’ minor league team, seats 13,131 fans. The stadium hosted the 2008 Triple-A All-Star Game and features second-level club seating and 32 private suites.

Other than football, the ACC has yet to announce additional details involving ticket information for the remaining championship games.