The NBA All-Star game, originally set to take place in Charlotte, was the first to go.

The NCAA soon followed, removing all postseason tournaments from North Carolina for the 2016-2017 school year, including first and second round NCAA Tournament basketball games from Greensboro. 

Most did not expect the Atlantic Coast Conference, born in North Carolina, to remove all neutral site tournaments from the state for the foreseeable future, most notably the ACC Football Championship in Charlotte and the ACC Baseball Tournament in Durham. 

These events were removed from North Carolina in response to House Bill 2 — a piece of anti-LGBT legislation signed into law by Governor Pat McCrory on March 23.

Also known as the “Bathroom Bill,” HB 2 mandates that citizens in North Carolina use bathrooms that correspond with the gender shown on their birth certificate. Since its signing, the bill has been met with largely negative feedback from citizens, politicians and businesses throughout the country. 

In the intervening months, numerous actions have been taken by various outlets in an attempt to show McCrory and the North Carolina General Assembly that discrimination cannot be tolerated in an age when society has attempted to be more progressive.

Those actions, whether it be limited travel bans set by governors of other states or global companies changing their plans to bring business to North Carolina, have cost the state millions of dollars and caused damage to the economy in a way that has yet to be measured.

UNC Wilmington, a member of the Colonial Athletic Association, is scheduled to host the conference’s volleyball and baseball tournaments in November and May, respectively. Because the tournaments will be held on campus and not at a neutral site, the CAA is not expected to move the events.

Regardless of the lack of impact on UNCW’s campus, sports fans throughout the state have expressed frustration over the decisions made by both the NCAA and ACC. 

“I totally agree with it,” said Seth Greenberg, ESPN college basketball analyst and longtime friend of UNCW men’s basketball coach Kevin Keatts. “I think that you need to be inclusive; that’s just the way it is. It speaks volumes to the commitment the league has to diversity.”

Greenberg spent nine seasons as the head basketball coach at Virginia Tech, one of the ACC’s 14 institutions.

“It’s the right thing to do,” Greenberg said. “It really is, and I know it’s a very sensitive subject in this state, but I have a lot of respect for what the league did and hopefully it won’t go unnoticed.”

When examined from top-to-bottom, HB 2 has had little impact on UNCW sports. Keatts and women’s basketball coach Adell Harris were both asked at team media days if the bill had affected scheduling or recruiting over the summer.

“We are concerned about [HB 2], but I have not heard anything in regards to our recruiting or scheduling thus far,” Harris said. “I know there was a concern about schools not wanting to travel to North Carolina to play, but I haven’t heard anything in how it’s going to affect us.”

Keatts largely echoed Harris’s statement on the subject, saying there has been no pushback preventing him from doing his job.

“It has not [had any effect], not to this point,” Keatts said. “I did have a concern because Hofstra is from New York… but Hofstra’s a private school and they have the opportunity to make their own decisions about it.”