Mayor Nancy Vaughan had a few comments on the news of the day at the Tuesday, Sept. 20 City Council meeting that lasted over seven hours.

Vaughan promised she would be quick with her comments and then launched into spiel about athletic events in Greensboro.

Vaughan said, “Couple things today, a little mixed bag. We did finally, after 14 months, hear from the ACC that they will be relocating to Charlotte. Of course, we will miss having their headquarters here, but we look forward to continuing offering the high-quality tournament play we always do.”

Vaughan said she was asked what having the ACC headquarters leave town would do to the future of athletics in Greensboro, and she said, “We are known as tournament town, fans first and we put on great tournaments.  So, I was just thinking about some of the things we have done in the last couple of years, and by all means this list is not all inclusive.

“But we have hosted USA gymnastics, USA Figure Skating, USA Swimming Short Course Junior National Championships, Wyndham Golf, US Synchronized Swimming, which was an Olympic event, US masters swimming, AAU junior Olympics – just a few weeks ago 18,000 athletes and their families, USA Table Tennis, Powerade State Games for North Carolina, USA Diving, numerous events at the Bryan Soccer Complex and I can’t mention them all.  Division II Championships for track and field, Division III national championships and Division III men’s golf. We held the world Irish Dancing Championships, Mayor Pro Tem, you would remember that. We just hosted the Phillips 66 International Team Trials, which broke a world record at the Aquatic Center.

“Those are just a few of the things that this city does and does really well. We have got a great sports foundation. We have a great CVB and we have a great Coliseum and we have wonderful city staff.  We are strong when it comes to athletics and what we are when it comes to tournament play, and we look forward to hosting the ACC Men’s basketball tournament and women’s basketball tournament and the first two rounds of the NCAA.  We are the only city that in one year has done that trifecta and we’ve done it twice.  I’ll guarantee you that this will be the best ACC Tournament ever. And that’s going to be hard to say because we have always done the best ACC Tournament.”

Vaughan then talked about being a finalist along with Seoul, South Korea, for the World University Games and the success of the Tanger Center for the Performing Arts in its first year of operation.

After a few more comments, Vaughan said, “Oh and I think I had one more thing,” and at that point she shuffled through some papers and then said, “Let me see.  Oh, tomorrow I’m going to the White House.”