ACC Announces Championship Game In Orlando
Get ready Orlando because ACC football is coming your way.
It was announced that Orlando would be the official host of the 2016 Dr Pepper Atlantic Coast Conference Football Championship. The game will be played at Orlando’s Camping World Stadium on Dec. 3rd.
The game will kickoff at 7:45 p.m. if ESPN airs it or 8 p.m. is ABC airs it.
“We’re thrilled to bring more bigtime college football to Orlando,” said Steve Hogan, CEO of Florida Citrus Sports.
Earlier this month Florida State University played their season opener at this stadium. Head coach jumbo Fisher had nothing but positive things to say about playing in Orlando.
“First and foremost, it’s very accessible,” Fisher said to the Orlando Sentinel. “You’re talking about Orlando, maybe one of the accessible cities in all of America because of Disney World, and all the vacation spots. There are cheap flights, and accessible. Great hotel rooms, great rooms for your team to go to all the meeting rooms, and all the space and everything. Then you have a great group of people in Orlando at the stadium that treat you first class. The stadium is beautiful. They renovated it. The stands are great. It’s a great atmosphere. It’s in South Florida. You’re in warm weather. You can go on, and on, and on. It’s a tremendous venue to go play football. It really is.”
The ACC recently made the decision to move all 10 of its neutral-site championship events from North Carolina after the state’s controversial House Bill 2 was passed. The law requires anyone that visits a school or government building to use the bathroom that is associated with the gender on their birth certificates.
The ACC made the announcement of this move on Sept. 14th, two days after the NCAA made the announcement they would be removing all of its neutral-site championships from the state.
It’s a move that worked in Orlando’s favor.
“Landing the ACC Football Championship is a victory for our community,” said City of Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer. “It’s another sign that Orlando is becoming the nation’s leading sporting-event destination, a marquee game that will keep our local economy buzzing by bringing visitors to our hotels, restaurants and shops and also shows that our investment in modernizing Camping World Stadium is paying off.”
This will be the sixth time the Dr Pepper ACC Football Championship Game has been played in Florida, but the first time in Orlando.
In 2009 the total attendance for the championship game held in Tampa was 57,277. Since then the attendance has been on the rise with the last five championship games seeing attendance range from 64,778 to 74,514.
In 2015 the ACC Football Championship Game had an economic impact of $32.4 million in Charlotte, North Carolina, per the Charlotte Sports Foundation.
The newly-renovated Camping World Stadium has a growing list of events it will be hosting. After hosting the FSU season opener against Ole Miss and now the ACC Championship game, the stadium is also schedule to host the Florida Classic, a trio of bowl games and the Pro Bowl.
The only dilemma that the ACC ran into with Orlando was rescheduling high school football championships which were scheduled to take place at the stadium on Dec. 3rd. They were pushed back to Dec.8-10 so there is no interference.
“We’re absolutely delighted that the ACC has chosen Orlando for its 2016 football championship game,” said Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs. “As one of the premier vacation, meeting and sporting event destinations in the world, Orange County is uniquely positioned to host the ACC. We’re looking forward to hosting the athletes, families and fans, as well as thousands of sports enthusiasts who can’t wait to cheer for our nation’s outstanding student-athletes.”
