A ny student on campus in February can recall the anticipation that accompanied the build-up to the UNC-Duke game. For a few hours it appeared snow would prevent well-heeled alumni and fans from trekking to the Smith Center, thus freeing up precious seats for rambunctious and passionate students. Would the atmosphere at this game rival the famed Maryland snow game of 2000 when snowed-in students descended to the rarified lower-level seats to cheer on their Tar Heels?
Owing to Duke’s failure to make the short commute to Chapel Hill, students never got to find out. North Carolina’s climate may never again meet in such perfect harmony with the basketball schedule of the Atlantic Coast Conference, but UNC can still create a special home-crowd energy on an annual basis. Once a year, the men’s basketball team should play an ACC game in Carmichael Arena for the benefit of students.
We are not the first to propose this. Student Body Presidents Christy Lambden and Andrew Powell both investigated the potential for a basketball game in Carmichael. Unfortunately, the Powell administration confessed in its October report that it has given up on holding a “Carmichael Classic” after learning from the athletic department that such a game would forfeit $800,000 in revenue.
This is a serious concern. The athletic department receives little funding from the University. Instead, it relies on revenue generated primarily from football and men’s basketball. The athletic department could help make up for the loss in revenue by ending its annual tradition of paying worse football teams to travel to UNC to lose. This year it paid San Diego State $950,000 for, ultimately, a last-minute win.
Carmichael currently sits 6,822 individuals and hosts Carolina’s volleyball, gymnastics, wrestling and women’s basketball teams. The Carmichael Classic should be open to students only. To best ensure that students dedicated to Carolina Basketball are allowed to attend, the athletic department could charge a fairly nominal fee, perhaps $5, for student tickets. This would guarantee about $34,000 in revenue. Donations from nostalgic alumni could help make up some of the difference.
Students could enter a lottery based on seniority for the right to buy a ticket. Any unsold ticket could sell on the open market. Tickets for UNC-Duke games often fetch hundreds of dollars. Hopefully, fans would pay just as much for a conference game at Carmichael.
This would be regressive and insufficient to recoup all the losses from holding a game in the Smith Center. Yet the Carmichael Classic, which has the potential to become one of the marquee collegiate sporting events in the country, would be a boon for the UNC brand, drawing positive attention from future applicants and television networks alike. Furthermore, hosting such a high-profile event in Carmichael could draw well-deserved attention to the excellent teams that play there already.
The Carmichael Classic would be unpopular with some season ticket holders. Balancing against these drawbacks are the invaluable and intangible benefits of hosting a wonderfully fun game. From a courtside seat the call might be hazy, but from up in the rafters and down on the risers it is perfectly clear.
