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GREENSBORO — Durham took its turn as host of the ACC baseball tournament last week. Greensboro gets a turn next year. Then Myrtle Beach gets the next three.

That's Myrtle Beach, as in South Carolina.

And that's South Carolina, as in the state the NCAA has boycotted as a predetermined site for its championships since 2001 because the confederate battle flag is still "prominently displayed" on the grounds of the state's capitol building.

"One of the conditions of recommending that Myrtle Beach host future ACC baseball championships was that the local organizing committee would properly communicate with all local and state organizations that may have sensitivities regarding the flag," Davis Whitfield, the ACC's associate commissioner for championships, said last week. "The bid committee assured us that these conversations had taken place."

In the end, a man named North helped overcome a hot-button image from the old South.

"The ACC was upfront with us," said North Johnson, general manager of the Myrtle Beach Pelicans minor-league franchise and leader of the city's committee to woo the conference tournament.

"They asked us to be prepared to answer that (flag issue) in our presentation."

South Carolina's state chapter of the NAACP criticized the three-year deal last week. But Mickey James, the president of Myrtle Beach's NAACP, joined Johnson's effort to land the tournament.

And U.S. Rep. James Clyburn — the second African-American to hold the post of Majority Whip in Congress — wrote a letter of support to bring the tournament to his district.

"I personally don't agree with the confederate flag flying anywhere," Johnson said. "In my opinion, it's an inappropriate measure. But it's a political issue we have no control over. &ellipses; One thing we were able to tell the ACC: Nowhere in Myrtle Beach does the confederate flag fly on an official or public building."

Individual leagues are not bound by the NCAA boycott, and some — including the Southern Conference, Big South and Southeastern Conference — have held championships in South Carolina over the past eight years.

The 2011 baseball tournament will be the ACC's first in the state since Fort Mill hosted the event in 2000.

Johnson said Myrtle Beach's successful bid was built around three components: a financial guarantee to the ACC; active support from businesses and the chamber of commerce; and location.

"We really focused on Myrtle Beach as a destination," he said. "Not just five days of baseball, but a chance for students and their families and alumni to make it a vacation at the beach. I know a lot of the golf courses have offered some really great deals. And now that the ACC stretches from Massachusetts to Florida, we're really centrally located. That's a big factor in this economy when you start figuring everyone's travel costs."

Myrtle Beach's gain was Greensboro's loss.

In all, 39,639 fans attended the 13 games of the tournament at the Durham Bulls' ballpark last week. That's the ninth-best total in ACC history, and it happened with two of the state's teams — Wake Forest and N.C. State — not qualifying to play in the eight-team event.

Donald Moore, president and general manager of the Greensboro Grasshoppers, had pitched NewBridge Bank Park as a potential site for the tournament.

"It'll be here next year, but we had a bid on the table for '11 through '13," Moore said. "I think it's a great event for Greensboro, for the people and for the city, and for us, too. It's a logical home with the league being headquartered here. The basketball tournament has been played here often, and (the men's tournament) will be here four of the next five years. We think it would be a natural fit to have the baseball tournament."

And the South Carolina flag issue?

"To be honest, we were focused on our bid here and not on any other issues from any other bidders," Moore said. "Let's put it this way: We would've been disappointed if it had gone anyplace else but here. We really wanted it and had really hoped it would be here."

Contact Jeff Mills at 373-7024 or jeff.mills@news-record.com