With our beloved basketball team faltering in the early stages of ACC play, it’s time for the athletic department and the student body to step up and do their share to bolster the home court advantage for the Tar Heels. This basketball season the UNC athletic department helped improved the atmosphere in the arena by distributing cardboard cutouts, or fatheads, to the student section.
Despite this new implementation, students are still only allowed to bring signs 8 1/2 inches by 11 inches or smaller and approved by a UNC athletic department official at the door.
If the athletic department really wants to increase and enhance the fan experience at the Smith Center as officials say they do, then it should allow students to bring larger signs to the games. The unreasonable limit on the size of signs undeniably inhibits creativity and makes them essentially invisible in the sea of Carolina blue and white.
One of the defining aspects of ESPN’s College GameDays is the varied and clever signs that occupy the space beyond each presenter’s head. Other schools around the country display their creativity each and every game day. It’s time that our imaginations are no longer bounded by the dimensions of a sheet of computer paper.
If there is a fear among the athletic department that monitoring the content of larger posters both in the arena and at the door would be too much of a hassle or impossible with the given resources, perhaps it could pick a few permanent posters chosen from fan-submitted ideas or even allow for a student vote.
Whatever we can do to erase the ‘wine and cheese crowd’ stereotype of the Smith Center is a step in the right direction, it’s time that we quit inhibiting one of the most passionate and educated fan.
