.
March 03, 2026
.
Do I have an opinion on What da heck to do with The Dean Dome? Sure I do.
I must offer several disclaimers before discussing this pearl-clutching issue that has all of Tar Heel Nation in a tizzy.
- I have NOT discussed any of this with Bubba Cunningham. Ergo, no leaking any secret details.
- UNC Chancellor Lee “Cokie’s Son” Roberts issued a recent statement to the effect that Carolina Basketball Is The Gosh Darn Greatest Tradition in the History of Basketball Anywhere Ever maybe in All of Sports … or something grandiose to that effect.
- “FanBoy” Chancellor is at least three clicks over the top. Kentucky, UCLA, Kansas and UConn WBB have already filed civil suits against Lee for Gross Exaggeration and Downright BS. Duke is preparing to join them by Wednesday.
- That goofy “Helms Thingy” notwithstanding, UNC Basketball certainly IS very impressive by any standards but lets trim the hyperbole just a notch or two … OK
.
I have zero preference for which option is decided. I doubt I will ever set foot in whatever / wherever IT might end up. My opinions herein are for Entertainment Purposes Only.
.
BobLee Says … Renovate the current Dean Dome.
Remove all but the first three rows of the upper level reducing max attendance to a workable 15-16,000 thereby reducing the traffic in the currently crowded concourses. … and the long lines at the concession stands … and at the pee walls … and with parking issues.
If “move more students near the court so UNC’s arena is more like Duke’s” is a desire; ask the trust fund babies in the lower level to give up their inherited seats. Good luck with THAT.
Costs to Renovate seem to depend on whether the source is for or against “renovating”. Anywhere between $300,000,000 and $700,000000 depending upon whether they completely tear out the”pee walls” or simply retile’em.
Costs to build DeanDome2.0 North range from “not much more than renovating” to “about as much as Obama gave the Iranian terrorists (i.e. $1.9 Billion)”. Definitely even more than Gio Lopez got for his ignominious 9 months in Chapel Hill.
That $1.9B includes adding a dozen or so Fake Somali Day Care Centers in the basement. Chapel Hill’s notorious LeftWing Lunatics ‘R Us will applaud that.
Option #3 is “The Odom Village Site” which is just south of Manning Drive across from the UNC Medical Complex. That option was just added to make folks think they really are reconsidering what the hell to do with this mess.
Pissin’ off Ol Roy and “PsychoT” who are hard-core “Renovaters” is a real concern. No Trustee has volunteered to tell Tyler his opinion doesn’t matter.
A deep pocket former Trustee named Rusty Something (NOT “Clark”) wants to be “Skipper Bowles” this time around shaking down alumni for mega $$$$.
Speaking of “former Trustee” … John “I’m Mack’s BFF” Preyer – architect of Bill&Chick-gate – has indeed resigned from the BOT. That leaves the Bill&Chick and Lombardi families without a mole in South Building. Who will approve JordOn’s game day wardrobe next season?
Costing The Flagship over $50,000,000 in the Bill&Chick Fiasco was the legal limit for wasteful spending by a UNC Trustee. Who knew?
I have no feel for or prediction how this TDD will end … or if it ever will. They are forming several more “blue ribbon ad hoc committees” which usually guarantees at least another year or so before anything might be decided … when & where to meet … who brings the doughnuts … etc etc …… then another 2-3 years to actually begin whatever they decided to do.
The only person involved in all this with a lick o’ sense is, of course, Bubba Cunningham. The Bill&Chick Debacle shows how much those wacky academaniacs listen to him. They oughta …
FACTOID: By the time whatever they decide to do gets done … Every Tar Heel fan who watched the 1957 NatChamp Game versus Wilt on a tiny black&white TV courtesy of CD Chesley will all be long dead … or in God’s Waiting Room at Carolina Meadows.
.
FACTOID: Every Tar Heel BB fan who ever actually saw Dean hold up Four Fingers for Phil Ford in 1975-76 is now 60 or older …most well into their 70s. My peeps!
.
FACTOID: For the 243,875 Tar Heel fans who were AT THE “8 points down with 13 seconds to go” GAME in 1976 and have their ticket stubs to prove it. Those ticket stubs are worth more than a Honus Wagner Rookie baseball card.
.
FACTOID: About 12 or so years ago, Lennie Rosenbluth, Danny Lotz, Albert Long and yours truly were invited by Sylvia Hatchell to have Lennie give a pep talk to her team about 1957 … prior to them playing Gino’s UCONN team in TDD. … Those 18-19 year old girls had no clue whatsoever who this old jewish guy was … they had no clue who “Wilt” was!! …. Oh, and they lost by 42 to Gino’s UCONN team the next night.
.
FACTOID: Hubert’s future aside … Three HOF coaches is three more than 97% of P4 schools. It is NOT UNC’s birthright to have a HOF coach. “Hubert Haters” think every coach they can name would disembowel his momma to be HBC at Carolina. NOPE! Jay Wright already turned it down when Roy left. Wes Miller has been mediocre at Cincinnati. Pat Riley, Gregg Popovich and Red Auerbach won’t retutn a call. Maybe Matt Doherty would do “a Mack” and do a “do over”?
.
FACTOID: Michael#23 – AKA “His Airness” – never played an official game in TDD. He retired from the NBA in 2003 – 23 years ago. No current UNC undergrad ever saw Michael Jordan play in college or The NBA.
.
FACTOID: The Dean Smith Era kicked in during the mid-late 60s with Larry Miller, Charlie Scott, etc. The % of coed undergrads back then was give/take 18-20% except on weekends when coeds were imported from area “girls’ schools”. ….
For the current 2025-26 school year the % of coeds at UNC is 61% !!! Except for weekends when studly Green Berets are imported from Fort Bragg for the coeds … that aren’t committed lesbians .… or Krazy Karen Wannabees with purple hair, nose rings and no clue about “the real world”.
Anyone involved in college fund raising will testify that female alumni DO NOT “give” nearly as much $$$ to their alma maters as male alumni who are more interested in the sports team.
Speaking of UNC coeds …. Remember The Fabulous Comparato Twins – Nicole & Paige from 6-8 years ago? Awesome combinations of beauty & brains. Their senior year at UNC, Paige was head of the Student Senate and Nicole was Editor of The Daily Tar Heel.
Following UNC, “The Fabs” attended University of Miami Law School. Paige graduated #1 in the class with Nicole a close 2nd. Both are now raising super stars in the highly competitive Miami Law community.
Nicole was married this past weekend in a lavish affair at a Key West resort. She assured me that lucky hubby knows she and Paige are destined to be the first twin Supreme Court Justices.
I once asked Nicole … “With UNC males trending towards “soy boys” where do coed hotties like you guys find dates? Her quick response was … “Oh we all date NC State guys …”. True Story!
.
There are several dozen more FACTOIDS I could list … but the reality is this ain’t the early 1980s when Skipper Bowles was shaking down his country club buddies for Dean Dome building bucks by promising them Lower Level seats FOREVER.
The first game in Carmichael was played in December 1965. I was there but do not have the ticket stub. I didn’t need one. Being a Future Internet Legend had its perks even back then.
The average age of the dozen or so Really Fat Fat Cats in The Rams’ Club that have been expected to bankroll EVERYTHING for the past 15+ years or so are in their mid-late 80s – Fulton, Smith, Harris etc. Fat Cats are not like dragons. They don’t live forever.
Do we even need to discuss that Big Time College Basketball (and Football) is in a helluva mess these days. With no real solution on the table.
The Transfer Portal WILL be tweaked a bit … but the NIL $$$$s are only going to get higher and higher. To field a Top Twenty competitive mens basketball team in the next 3-5 years is expected to exceed $25,000,000 EACH YEAR. That is just for 8-10 basketball “recruits” not counting 25-30 for Football.
Renting a Caleb Wilson for a year is one thing. Having a slim chance to keep one a second year could easily double in cost.
Whatever path they choose for a new arena … it’s gonna be a very very bumpy road…. And it ain’t paved in gold or fading memories of a by gone era.
I DARE YOU to copy this commentary and look at it in 3-4 years. I’m holding an “I told you so” chip in my pocket.
