Coming off the heels of a successful two-year run in Brooklyn, N.Y., the ACC announced Thursday that its popular postseason basketball tournament will return to Barclays Center in 2022. The league also announced that its 2021 tournament would be played in Washington, D.C.
Combined with previously scheduled stops in Charlotte this season and Greensboro in 2020, the league’s signature event is now scheduled to be held in four different venues in three distinct regions of the conference’s geographic footprint.
Future tournament sites are determined by a vote of the league’s 15 member schools.
“The next four years of the ACC Tournament will be played in locations that are tremendously meaningful to the ACC, our players, coaches, alumni and fans,” commissioner John Swofford said. “All four cities offer first class venues and hospitality for our league, and we appreciate the continued partnership with each of these outstanding communities.”
The ACC set a Barclays Center college basketball attendance record in 2017, then topped it this March by drawing crowds of 18,157 for both the Friday night semifinals and Saturday’s championship game.
Duke won its 20th tournament championship with a 75-69 win against Notre Dame in the first ACC Tournament in Brooklyn, and Virginia captured the 2018 crown with a 71-63 victory against North Carolina.
Washington, D.C., has been the site of the ACC Tournament on two previous occasions, the most recent in 2016 when UNC beat Virginia 61-57 for its 18th title.
The ACC Tournament has been held at 12 arenas in eight cities since the inaugural event in 1954, with Greensboro serving as the most frequent host. The 2020 event there will be the 27th in the home of the league office.
Since 2000, the tournament has been played throughout the ACC footprint including 11 times in the state of North Carolina — seven in Greensboro; four in Charlotte — three times in Atlanta, twice in Washington, D.C., twice in Brooklyn and once in Tampa.
