The Smith Center can be saved without being vacated.
Roy Williams has joined the movement to keep the home of the Tar Heels right where it is. The Hall of Fame coach whose name graces the playing floor wants there to be renovation, not relocation.
UNC has already paid millions to so-called consultants about the options, which you and I could submit for free with the same ideas.
The best way to solve a problem is to offer real solutions. Not rebuilding the sacred Dean Dome and having to play home games elsewhere during 3-5 years of construction. Nobody wants that.
Play at Carmichael Arena, which will take us back 60-plus years and make season ticket holders pay thousands to see every home game while dwelling on the past and not the future of Tar Heel basketball?
Build on the old Horace Williams Airport property three miles north of town? That would be a major disconnect from campus no matter what else they do out there to supposedly drive new revenue.
Take down the Friday Center and purchasing adjacent land is a somewhat better idea. But it is off campus, still requiring students to take buses or a light rail to get there, a failing idea at N.C. State.
There is property behind the hospital complex where their parking decks could be used; but squeezing a brand-new arena into what would further discombobulate an already crowded neighborhood?
Or keep playing in the Smith Center while a new arena is built in the Bowles Lot that looks like a floodplain and also would kill thousands of parking spaces used for the business school and other reasons.
Nothing is as good as leaving the Dean Dome where it is while being expanded during three offseasons – from final buzzer to tip-off – as corporate suites become part of a new upper deck concourse.
Sure, it would be under construction which basketball arenas and football stadiums have endured while alumni and fans pridefully witness progress being made over the three years it might take.
Seats would be lost during the renovation, but ticket prices can be raised to cover those losses. And doing that solves the current problem of one concourse with fans always shoulder to shoulder.
Finished suites fronted by seating, a new upper concourse would have restrooms and concession stands and – best of all – be accessed via swanky escalators from outside to enter and exit.
Don’t take no from architects for such a plan that would cost half the price of building a new arena from scratch. There could also be new seat licenses for alumni and fans with first rights of renewal.
And how about adding a separate building behind the Smith Center for locker rooms and lounges for the Tar Heels, with an underground tunnel for players and coaches to enter and leave the arena.
Yep, just like Duke has done to blend the future with the past.
Featured image via Todd Melet
Art Chansky is a veteran journalist who has written ten books, including best-sellers “Game Changers,” “Blue Bloods,” and “The Dean’s List.” He has contributed to WCHL for decades, having made his first appearance as a student in 1971. His “Sports Notebook” commentary airs daily on the 97.9 The Hill WCHL and his “Art’s Angle” opinion column runs weekly on Chapelboro.
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UNC has already paid millions to so-called consultants about options for the Smith Center, which you and I could submit for free.
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