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ACC Tournament

ACC decides not to put basketball tournament in Ga. Dome in 2012

By Dane Huffman

Oct 25, 2009

The ACC men’s basketball tournament will be held in Atlanta in 2012 at Philips Arena, commissioner John Swofford announced Sunday.

The game will not be held in the Georgia Dome, Swofford said, as it was in 2009.

Tickets for the 2009 tournament were plentiful, and some schools had trouble selling their full allotment. Part of that was the difficult economy and part the massive size of the venue.

Swofford said the decision was about “protecting one of the most sought-after tickets in all sports.”

“This was a visceral kind of decision, that this was the right place to be in Atlanta in the future,” Swofford said.

The 2009 tournament drew a total of 158,112 fans and each session averaged 26,352 fans.

Philips Arena seats 18,729 for basketball, according to its website.

Karl Hicks, the ACC's associate commissioner for men's basketball, said the league did not have a contract with the Georgia Dome. He said he expected Philips Arena to seat more than 20,000 for the tournament.

The 2010 and 2011 tournaments will be in the Greensboro Coliseum. The tournament also will be in Greensboro from 2013-2015.