The future of UNC-Chapel Hill’s Dean E. Smith Center dominated campus debates and generated a plethora of headlines this spring. Officials were poised late last year to announce that the arena would move off campus to the long-delayed Carolina North development, but they backed off after pushback from many Tar Heel faithful.
That was one finding from more than 1,100 pages of public records The Assembly obtained as part of our reporting on the Smith Center and its possible fate. But there’s a lot more in the documents that didn’t make it in the story.
Here are five key takeaways from the records.
1. A Long Time Coming
While the plan to announce a move to Carolina North came together in a matter of weeks last fall, the records show the university spent a lot longer weighing its options.
In the fall of 2023, the university sought a consultant to provide a “facilities condition and needs assessment” of the Smith Center. The contract was awarded to Venue Solutions Group, a Tennessee-based firm that has provided similar services for clients including the Spectrum Center in Charlotte and American Family Field, home to the Milwaukee Brewers. Per its website, VSG provided analysis of the Smith Center’s “architectural finishes, structural elements, mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems, technology, food service equipment, vertical transportation, and roof systems.”
The university in 2024 hired Populous, a Kansas City-based architectural firm, to develop concepts for a renovated arena and complete site studies of five possible locations for a new one. Also that year, the university hired Mortenson Construction to provide estimated costs for construction and develop a potential schedule for the work.
According to a summary UNC-CH released last month about its work to-date on the arena analysis, the university used six additional consultants to assess things like traffic, premium seating, and revenue potential.
A draft FAQ about the planned relocation to Carolina North shows officials planned to tell the public that they had concluded based on an “exhaustive evaluation process” that a renovation of the Smith Center “was neither financially viable nor competitively sustainable in the modern era of college athletics.” The university says it has spent more than $1 million since 2022 to gather such information.
2. A Different Kind of Influence
The documents show how UNC-CH officials strategized about how to announce Carolina North as the Dean Dome’s new home.
Early last November, senior associate athletic director Rick Steinbacher circulated a document showing how university leaders planned to get key stakeholders on board. Between two and three weeks before the announcement, leaders would provide “internal core briefings” to key groups: UNC System President Peter Hans and the Board of Governors; athletics officials; the Rams Club board of directors and top donors; and university and town officials.
The document also shows a plan to feed a strategic “narrative” to “trusted journalists.” Through interviews, officials wanted to “shape initial framing” of the move as “a transformational step for Carolina’s future, carefully planned to honor tradition.” They would also tap “alumni influencers” like former basketball coach Roy Williams to help.
Williams did end up influencing the debate. But not in the way the university wanted.
The Hall of Fame coach in January became the one of the most high-profile figures to speak out against moving the arena, encouraging people to instead sign a petition in favor of renovating the Smith Center. To date, the petition has more than 40,000 signatures. That public pushback forced the university to back off its decision.
3. Does Anybody Want This?
In fact, university officials already knew that many Tar Heel faithful opposed moving basketball games off campus. The university in 2024 surveyed more than 7,775 alumni, ticket holders, and donors about the matter.
Three-fourths of respondents said they preferred a new arena, compared to 20% who preferred a renovation and 5% who wanted the university to make basic repairs to the Smith Center.
“We need to focus on making it the best basketball-specific arena,” said one respondent who wanted a new arena.
Still, 80% of respondents said they wanted any new arena to be built on campus. The men’s and women’s basketball programs also want to remain on campus, per the documents.
In late November, Matt Terrell, the Rams Club’s top communications officer, encouraged Steinbacher to think about a range of questions the media and fans might have about the relocation.
Among them was a reference to the survey and its indication that fans wanted the arena to stay on campus: “Why did you go a different direction?”
In another document, officials noted they expected to answer questions about moving the arena off campus by saying: “Carolina North provides the space, parking, sustainability, and growth capacity that main campus simply cannot offer.”
4. The Compromise Option
In addition to renovating the Smith Center or building a new arena at Carolina North, the university has considered a third option: building a facility at Odum Village, a former student housing complex near UNC Hospitals.
In an analysis of “possible paths” for the arena circulated among university officials, Odum Village had the fewest “cons”—four—and most “pros”—seven—of the top three options.
A renovation carried six cons, including that it would not allow for mixed-use development and that the men’s basketball team would need to relocate during construction. And it carried six pros, including that it bore the “lowest cost for an arena that addresses fan amenities” and that it would “maintain and enhance the legacy of the building.”
An arena at Carolina North had six cons, including that it would be difficult for on-campus students to get to games and that it would require “significant site remediation.” Carolina North also had the fewest pros of the top three options, with five listed, all mostly related to the potential for mixed-use development at the site.
Odum Village, per the analysis, would meet the desire from fans and the basketball programs to stay on campus while having a “minimal impact” on the teams during construction. It would also provide some opportunities for mixed-use on the 14-acre site—though not as much as Carolina North, which spans 65 acres. On the other hand, developing the site into an arena would be a “departure” from the university’s master plan, and officials anticipated running into “entitlement challenges” given its location near a “low-density neighborhood.” It is also “disconnected from the current main pedestrian flow or visibility of campus.”
Still, an AI-generated summary of the options that Steinbacher sent Athletics Director Bubba Cunningham in late December described Odum Village as the “best ‘bridge’ option.”
“It keeps basketball on campus while delivering a truly modern arena,” the summary read, adding: “Odum Village is the cleanest basketball-first solution — modern, on-campus, and financially stronger than renovation — but it stops short of being transformational for the University.”
5. The Smith Center’s Fate
If the basketball team moves out of the Smith Center, what might happen to the 40-year-old arena?
In the same draft in which officials wrote they expected Williams to serve as an “alumni influencer,” they also addressed the Dean Dome’s legacy. An “example talking point” stated the arena would “remain a vital part of campus-under review for conversion into a multipurpose academic, performance, and Olympic-sport venue.”
There are “no plans to demolish it,” per the document.