University of North Carolina Athletics
Countdown to Kickoff: The Kenan Experience
September 1, 2005 | Football
Sept. 1, 2005
By Adam Lucas
When Carolina football fans fill Kenan Stadium on September 17 for the home opener against Wisconsin, they'll see a small taste of the Fiesta Bowl in Chapel Hill. New graphics throughout the stadium are part of the continuing efforts to make game day in Chapel Hill an even better experience.
Installation began this week on a series of vinyl-like graphics around Kenan Stadium. The graphics, designed to emphasize the history and tradition of Carolina football by highlighting great players and bowl appearances, will appear on the façade of the upper deck, above section portals, and on the pillars outside the Kenan Football Center. As of Wednesday night, installation was complete on about 75 percent of the façade work, and everything will be completed well in advance of the home opener.
What, exactly, are the graphics made of?
"It's a 3M product that's a mixture of vinyl, paper, and 3M technology," says Norwood Teague, the associate athletic director for marketing and promotions.
And how, exactly, are the graphics affixed to the stadium?
"It's a type of 3M glue," he says.
So there you have it. The company famous for Scotch tape and Post-It notes has now had a hand in the improvement of Kenan Stadium. For a look at the progress of the installation, click here.
Teague saw the value in the graphics first-hand when he worked at Arizona State. The school plays its home games at Sun Devil Stadium, which also hosts the Fiesta Bowl. On most occasions, it's just a typical concrete venue, but the bowl made extensive use of the graphics for three weeks every year.
"It was amazing how they could change the look of the stadium for two weeks before the game and the week after the game," Teague says. "It was really nice. We've taken that same concept and gotten even more aggressive than we had originally planned to be."
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Countdown to Kickoff: 9 Days
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The move was made with the full endorsement of the Tar Heel coaching staff. And yes, there are already plans in place to add the next great Carolina football legend or the next bowl appearance--additional graphics could be applied in future years to the field-side walls of the Kenan Football Center.
The jazzed up stadium is just the most visible change fans will see at the home opener.
When the Tar Heels ran out of the tunnel before Wednesday night's scrimmage--it's not just players and coaches that need the preseason, as other gameday personnel also have to test drive new procedures--they did so to a completely new video board entrance video. Over the past month, marketing employees have spanned the nation to secure spots from a wide variety of celebrities that will be a part of the video. A different celebrity will appear in each week's video, and other aspects of this year's production will be changed every week. The basic concept will be the same--including perhaps the best music used in an entrance video yet--but fans will get a different viewing experience at every game.
"The atmosphere last year was great," Teague says. "I can't think of a year it was better. So at this point we're not reinventing anything like we've had to do in past years. We want to improve on stuff we've had success with recently."
Other gameday experience changes you'll see on Sept. 17:
Adam Lucas is the publisher of Tar Heel Monthly and can be reached at alucas@tarheelmonthly.com. He is the coauthor of the official book of the 2005 championship season, Led By Their Dreams, and his book on Roy Williams's first season at Carolina, Going Home Again, is now available in bookstores. To subscribe to Tar Heel Monthly or learn more about Going Home Again, click here.
