The NBA announced it is moving the 2017 All-Star game from Charlotte, North Carolina. The move comes after frustration over the state’s inaction to change the anti-LGBT law, HB2.
The NBA issued the following statement today regarding the 2017 NBA All-Star Game pic.twitter.com/2yo1YDA2Un
— NBA (@NBA) July 21, 2016
The Vertical reporterAdrian Wojnarowskifirst broke the story on Thursday afternoon. The league commissioner, Adam Silver, had been threatening to move the showcase game out of the largest city in North Carolina and now, time is up, reportedYahoo Sports. The NBA views HB2 as discriminatory,The Charlotte Observerwrote, and Silver was reported as saying that heis “disappointed” in the failure to modify the bill. “This is a very difficult issue for us, and we’re trying to be extremely cautious and deliberate in how we go about making the decision,” Silver said previously to Thursday’s announcement. The city likely to scoop up the revenue-earning event is New Orleans, which hosted the All-Star game in 2008 and 2014. NBA legend and Charlotte Hornets owner Michael Jordan will lose out on the payday and exposure for his franchise. An official announcement of the new host for the 2017 All-Star game should be made this week, the Observer reported. Las Vegas was ruled out due to logistical issues, butESPNreported that Brooklyn and Chicago haven’t been ruled out. House Bill 2, known as “the bathroom bill,” requires people to use public restrooms that match their birth gender rather than the one that a transgender person identifies with. In May, BizJournals reported “HB 2 has caused [Mecklenburg] County (where Charlotte is located) to miss out on $202.7 million in wages and benefits, as well as $3.7 million in sales and property tax revenue, and has led to $7.1 million statewide in missed income and sales tax revenue.” In the month following the bill’s enactment, economic development prospects were down 58 percent from the previous year, according to statistics from theCharlotte Chamber.
