Forty years minus eight days comes at the right time.
The Tar Heels have won 499 games at the Smith Center since it opened on January 18, 1986. They can make it No. 500 Saturday against Wake Forest at 6 p.m. Their next chance will be against Notre Dame on January 21 after road games at Stanford and Cal.
Soon dubbed the “Dean Dome” after the groundbreaking on April 27, 1982, its namesake was already a living legend. Dean Smith had won his first national championship 30 days before in New Orleans when about 40 UNC officials and donors spearheading a $36 million historic and private fundraising campaign put shovels in the ground at a clearance of a thick forest.
Groundbreaking at the Dean Smith Center. (Image via Art Chansky)
What was called an eighth wonder of the world emerged on South Campus, and students and passersby marveled at the biggest on-campus basketball arena in the country. The opening game was scheduled against UCLA on November 24, 1985, but construction delays and complaints about excessive dynamiting from neighbors slowed the process and moved the opener back two months.
That resulted in one of the bigger negatives about the Smith Center, a 22,000-seat arena that has relatively little space on its semicircle ground floor that cannot accommodate any vehicles except one TV truck. It has also left very little room for locker rooms, weight and training areas that have been expanded over the years at the cost of storage zones. Media and entertainment areas are also sparse.
Over 40 years, UNC and its traffic department have done the best possible job of managing parking for spectators, which includes the alternative of shuttle buses at several pick-up and drop-off locations near campus and around town; still, traffic jams on the way to and from games remain the biggest complaints heard from patrons.
In its early years, the arena hosted some famous music concerts and artists such as Kenny Rogers, David Bowie, Chapel Hill’s James Taylor, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, Fleetwood Mac, Paul Simon, Garth Brooks, Bon Jovi, Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan.
By the mid-‘90s, UNC had lost much of its live acts because no beer or alcohol was sold at the Smith Center, as did the competing Greensboro Coliseum and RBC-PNC-Lenovo Center in Raleigh. Most of the concert business had gone elsewhere.
While inadequate lighting and narrow walkways can be dangerous for nighttime foot traffic, UNC athletics and the Rams Club have done their best to make it an excellent venue for fans once they negotiate the crowded concourse and arrive at their seats. Large video boards and halftime programs help make it so.
The Smith Center is generally regarded as sold out, but the supply and demand has almost completely reversed since Dean Smith wanted a bigger gym so more people could see the Tar Heels play in person. Now, increased ticket prices and the array of large HD TVs keep fans at home since every Carolina game is televised.
Up next in Art Chansky’s Dean Smith Center series: Great Games
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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