The North Carolina GOP still hasn't gotten the message that prohibiting transgender individuals from using the logical public bathroom and blocking anti-LGBTQ nondiscrimination measures statewide just isn't going to fly in the 21st Century. It wasn't enough for the NBA, ACC, and NCAA to all pull major events from the state this year, so the NCAA is reportedly very very close to doing something much more pointed. Matt Bonesteel writes:
The NCAA is on the verge of keeping its major events — 133 of them — out of North Carolina through 2022.
“Our contacts at the NCAA tell us that, due to their stance on HB2, all North Carolina bids will be pulled from the review process and removed from consideration,” Scott Dupree of the N.C. Sports Association and Greater Raleigh Sports Alliance wrote in a letter that will be sent to members of the North Carolina House of Representatives and General Assembly. “That process will begin in the various sports committees starting in 7 to 10 days and continuing through February. At that point, we will be faced with a six-year drought of NCAA championships in North Carolina.”
An NCAA drought through 2022 could cost the state $250 million in “potential economic impact,” Dupree writes.
The letter says the state is "on the brink of losing all NCAA Championship events for six consecutive years." A Raleigh News and Observer reporter writes that the GOP has just 12 days left to right their HB2 wrong by repealing the law before the NCAA pulls the plug on all the state’s event bids through 2022.
Tick tock, NC GOP, tick tock.