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University of North Carolina Athletics
Students Gain Courtside Seating at Smith Center
August 31, 2000 | Men's Basketball
Aug. 31, 2000
CHAPEL HILL --- University of North Carolina students will gain approximately 200 courtside seats in a seating reconfiguration plan agreed to by athletic department, Carolina Athletic Association and Educational Foundation officials. The Educational Foundation will provide more than $200,000 to finance the new student section and its storage. Athletic Director Dick Baddour and CAA president Tee Pruitt announced the seating plan at a press conference today.
The plan calls for almost 200 student admissions to a standing-room only section along the baseline in sections 116, 117 and 118. (That is the end of the court at which the Tar Heels shoot in the second half.) The first six rows of the retractable seats in those sections will be pushed back and a five-tiered riser will be installed each game.
"We've traditionally had an outstanding group of players and one of the best basketball facilities in the nation, and now we want to have one of the loudest places to play, as well" says head coach Matt Doherty. "This plan gets more students right on top of the action and hopefully will make the Smith Center an even tougher place for our opponents to play."
In addition to more courtside access, student leaders also requested a greater dispersement of student seats in the lower level. In the past, student seats in the lower level have been concentrated between the scorers table and the basket to the right of the Carolina bench. To accommodate that request, UNC officials have moved student seating from section 110 (behind the UNC bench) to section 107 (behind the visiting team bench), given students a large portion of section 100 (behind the basket closest to the visiting bench), and given students a large portion of sections 102, 103, 104, 105 and 106 (in the corner closest to the visiting team bench).
Non-students who were previously seated in sections 102-106 were relocated to sections 111, 112, 113, 114 and 115.
Due to the use of risers, Smith Center capacity will increase from 21,572 to 21,750. Carolina students receive approximately 6,000 seats for men's basketball games, the largest figure in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
"Thanks to the hard work of a number of people in the athletic department, Educational Foundation and CAA, we have put together a plan that should benefit all our constituents," says addour. "Obviously, the seating became a hot issue when our students generated so much enthusiasm as they were able to sit courtside last year for the Maryland game due to the snowstorm. The students we have talked to in this process, led by Tee Pruitt, have been a pleasure to work with and great advocates for their fellow classmates.
"The CAA requested us to help devise a plan in which more students would be closer to the floor and spread out the lower-level seating in a way in which they felt they could make more of an impact on the game. This plan should do that.
"I appreciate the Educational Foundation's support, both financial and in the spirit of cooperation, in making these changes possible. We said from day one we would not go back on commitments we made to those people who provided the resources to build the Smith Center and we have been true to that pledge. The Smith Center has been and will continue to be one of the finest places in America to attend college basketball games."
The Educational Foundation, a non-profit foundation that provides funding for UNC's scholarship athletes, also coordinated fund-raising efforts for the privately financed $33 million arena in the early 1980s.
"Our officers and membership felt it was important to aid in the students' requests," said John Cherry, executive vice president of the Educational Foundation. "We know the students would like to have as many seats close to the court as is possible, but they were willing to work with us in making sure we didn't renege on commitments to so many people who have been good to the University of North Carolina. The exciting part of the plan is that capacity goes up, students get more seats by the court and around the lower level and no one was moved from their original seat to a less desirable one."
Cherry said it was not necessary to relocate any fans from the lower to the upper deck to accommodate the changes. Approximately 100 Educational Foundation seats that resulted from the section changes were added in the back rows of the lower level.
"All of us appreciate those fans whose seats will be slightly relocated," said Baddour. "Everyone involved in the process took great care in making sure that faculty, staff, and Educational Foundation members were moved to comparable seating in the lower level."
Pruitt says ticket distribution will remain the same as last year, except a special drawing will randomly select the fans who will get the opportunity to watch games from the new student section.
"I'm ecstatic about the re-design because we were able to accomplish our main objective of bringing more students closer to the floor," says Pruitt. "We feel strongly that our students will now have the chance to more actively participate in the excitement of the game.
"I want to thank the Department of Athletics, led by Dick Baddour and (Senior Associate Athletics Director for Facilities) Jeff Elliott, the Educational Foundation, including John Cherry, architect Glenn Corley, and my CAA members for their part in bringing these goals to reality.
"This cooperative effort is an excellent example of the great working relationship between the Department of Athletics, Educational Foundation and student leadership."
The seating re-design is scheduled to be in effect beginning with the game against the University of Kentucky on December 2nd.