CHARLOTTE, N.C. — In just a week, Charlotte will become the epicenter of Atlantic Coast Conference women’s lacrosse, at the very least, the epicenter of the best teams in the conference.
The quarterfinals, semifinals and championship of the 2023 ACC Women’s Lacrosse Championship will be held in Charlotte for the first time at the end of April. The Atlantic Coast Conference has some of the nation’s best women’s lacrosse teams. Four ACC schools are included in the USA Lacrosse Magazine’s most recent top 20 ranking.
Across five days, American Legion Memorial Stadium will host seven ACC match-ups to determine the conference’s 2023 champion. After the championship first round starts at on-campus locations, quarterfinals begin Wednesday, April 26 at the stadium, with semifinals and the championship on the following Friday and Sunday.
This is Charlotte’s latest ACC event. Previously, the city hosted men’s basketball, baseball and football championships. Later this year, the ACC will also complete its move to the Queen City, officially relocating its headquarters out of Greensboro for the first time in its history.
A determined minor league sports team, which helped facilitate the women’s lacrosse championship’s move to Charlotte, said it started its work before it knew the ACC was moving to Charlotte officially. Now, it hopes the 2023 lacrosse event is just the start of a growing partnership between the city and collegiate sports conferences.
“If you’re a sports fan, you’re incredibly excited and supportive of the ACC moving from Greensboro to Charlotte. The football championship game has been a huge success, the baseball over at Truist Field has been a great success. We’re just trying to add to that great success,” Tim Schuldt said.
Schuldt is the president and COO of the Charlotte Independence, the minor league soccer team which uses American Legion Memorial Stadium as a home base.
“We have 16 home games in our regular season. We hope to make the playoffs, right now we’re on a good track,” Schuldt said about the soccer team’s 2023 season.
Schuldt is tasked with running the team and creating and hosting other events for the stadium, which sits right outside of Uptown.
“Minor league sports is a little bit different than major league sports, I wear a lot of hats. We have a keen focus on the fiscal side of the business, and driving revenue, profitable revenue,” Schuldt explained.
Along with soccer, the team’s renovated American Legion Memorial Stadium already hosts high-profile professional and collegiate lacrosse. Just last month, it hosted the 2023 Crown Lacrosse Classic, which welcomed eight collegiate women’s and men’s lacrosse teams to the city, including Duke and Notre Dame.
“People love the stadium as far as competition goes, and then from a fan’s perspective, the amenities are terrific, the just — atmosphere with the city skyline right behind us,” Schuldt added.
Now, Schuldt is preparing for another high-profile event.
“People need to understand that this is the best lacrosse, women’s lacrosse, in the world,” Schuldt said, referencing the 2023 ACC Women’s Lacrosse Championship.
Currently, ACC member Syracuse University’s women’s team is undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the country.
Schuldt and other partners worked on the bid for more than two years, and the team president said at the time, they were not aware the conference would one day move its office to Charlotte. Now, they want to capitalize on the move and bring more ACC events to the Queen City.
“Certainly, our hope is that not only the [2023] women’s lacrosse championships continue to come back to our great city and this incredible venue. But, we hope they’ll see the virtue in bringing the men’s lacrosse, men’s soccer, women’s soccer championships,” Schuldt said.
Tickets are available for the 2023 event, and he said they are optimistic for a good crowd next week.