The topic of the Dean Smith Center’s fate has hung heavily over the UNC community for the last few months. After working for years to determine whether to renovate or seek a site for a new arena, the university’s administration appeared set on constructing a new home at its Carolina North property – before strong public blowback caused them to defer the decision. Protest groups used public and private campaigns to seize control of the narrative around the project, pressuring UNC to rework discussions around the future of where men’s basketball will play.
But, as university leaders indicated this week, they plan on providing more context to any renewed discussions around the complexity of keeping the status quo at the Smith Center.
Roberts and Carolina Athletics Director Bubba Cunningham appeared on the first episode of a limited podcast series called “The Arena Discussion,” which published Wednesday on the “Carolina Insider” feed. Additional conversations to be published in the coming weeks about the financials, philosophy, and challenges around weighing the future of UNC men’s basketball’s arena according to the university.
Roberts had foreshadowed an announcement determining a course of action for either moving or renovating the Smith Center for much of 2025 before private and public outcry from both donors and fans led his administration to pump the brakes. The podcast series is the latest step – alongside creating new advisory committees focused on students and basketball stakeholders – to not only gauge public reaction but better explain the reasoning behind undertaking the project in the first place.
“The best thing about our program is the incredible history and tradition we have,” Roberts said early in the conversation. “Nobody else can touch the legacy of Carolina basketball. But that incredible legacy can sometimes make it hard to react as you need to when the world is changing very rapidly around us.”
Roberts said the 40-year-old arena is facing significant investments in order to stay operational, mentioning on the podcast upgrades needed to the Smith Center’s roof, bathrooms, concessions stands and accessibility features. Between those costs and the shifting revenue structures of college athletics – including a revenue-sharing model and NIL-payment options directly to players – the university is looking to better capitalize on the money around one of its two teams that helps fund UNC’s other athletics programs.
The latest work to examine Carolina’s options and facility spending started in 2023, according to Cunningham. After missing an opportunity in late 2024 to engage fans with the studies – which Cunningham said overlapped with UNC football’s head coaching search and subsequent hiring of Bill Belichick – he said university leaders pushed ahead to develop their own preference.
“The information that we had late fall of 2025 indicates that there’s about a $20 million differential between a renovation on campus and a new facility at a different site,” said Cunningham. “And that $20 million delta was compelling – we said, ‘[building new] really seems to make the most sense.’
“But as we floated that out, [people] said ‘Whoa, it’s not just an economic decision…we need to take more time,’” he continued. “There’s an emotional component to this, there’s a logical component to it, and there’s a financial component to it.”
That emotional component is at the core of the argument from the Committee for a South Campus Arena – a group behind many of the protest efforts that led to Roberts’ administration hitting pause on announcing a move in December. Rusty Carter, a Wilmington-based businessman and 1971 UNC alumnus, is operating as the committee’s spokesman.
“I think over time, we’d stand to lose the front porch – and the front porch is not something that you can take off the house,” Carter told 97.9 The Hill this month, referencing Dean Smith’s philosophy of athletics being the entry point to the university community.
The Committee for a South Campus Arena was born from donors who were alerted of the Carolina North preference and upset about both the lack of transparency and opportunity to weigh in. Since December, the group started a petition that has garnered more than 36,000 signatures, as well as taken out ads in The Daily Tar Heel and shared open letters to the athletic department.
As the name suggests, Carter said the group’s primary objective is to advocate for the arena to remain on south campus, with a preference of renovating the Smith Center where it stands. Doing so, he believes, would help keep the spirit of the building while maintaining student access and the legacy donor seats granted when the Dean Dome was built. He also clarified that the preference does not mean that stakeholders disagree with the rest of the university’s Carolina North project.
“We in this committee, and many of the other voices, are very much for the buildout of Carolina North – we absolutely are,” said Carter. “We could almost have a mini Research Triangle [Park] opportunity there that really comes from an academic standpoint and not an economic, business standpoint. Putting an entertainment center in the middle of that, speaking for myself, is illogical.
“I think there’s absolutely a chance the tradition would fade,” he added. “It’s going to be difficult for students, it won’t engage the outside community as much as the Smith Center, there’ll be reason to stay home and watch it on a large-screen TV…and I think you’ll just lose a lot of the affection that’s there with the history of the program.”
UNC Chancellor Lee Roberts greets students standing in the risers at a UNC men’s basketball game vs. Notre Dame on Jan. 21, 2026. Roberts has said one of his priorities in a redesign of a home basketball arena is finding a way to get more students closer to the court. (Photo via Jon Gardiner/UNC-Chapel Hill.)
Cunningham said he feels disappointed the UNC administration did not anticipate the reaction better and have its rollout of information or community involvement “lined up more efficiently.” But he said he is “delighted” there is a better chance for the community to weigh in now.
“I recall that [former U.S. Secretary of State] Colin Powell used to give leadership lessons,” said Cunningham, “and he said, ‘Great leaders have to make decisions with about 60 or 70% of information and have to be convicted when moving forward.’
“He also said,” the outgoing athletic director added, “‘Soldiers in the field are right until proven otherwise.’ And in this case, the soldiers in the field I believe are our players, coaches, students and donors. And I think that’s exactly what we’re doing now, is…the finances say one thing, and we want to make sure we’re right in the decision we make going forward.”
Roberts said now, there is no timeline for when that decision will be made. But the chancellor’s closing comments in the initial “Arena Discussion” episode indicated he wants fans and stakeholders to separate the on-court product from the rest of the game day experience at the Smith Center.
“Carolina basketball stands for excellence,” he said. “Are we playing in an excellent facility right now? I think everybody knows the answer to that.
“Let’s do what we need to do so we can make sure the best days for Carolina basketball and Carolina Athletics are yet to come,” Roberts concluded. “It’s not going to be easy, but the history of our program and the history of Carolina Athletics is that we’ve adapted to changing circumstances to make sure that we not just maintain but extend our traditional leadership position. And that’s what we’re going to do here.”
The Committee for a South Campus Arena responded to the initial “Arena Discussions” episode on Thursday by posting on its Facebook and Substack feed, calling the piece an “echo chamber” that lacked independent perspectives.
Featured image via Jon Gardiner/UNC-Chapel Hill.
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