Dean Smith Center

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Dean E. Smith Student Activities Center
"The DeanDome"
Dean Smith Center, from the rear
Location	300 Skipper Bowles Dr Chapel Hill, NC 27599
Opened	January 18, 1986
Owner	Univ. of North Carolina
Operator	Univ. of North Carolina
Tenants
North Carolina Tar Heels (Men's Basketball)
Seats
21,750

The Dean E. Smith Student Activities Center, usually called simply the Dean Smith Center and popularly referred to as the Dean Dome is a multi-purpose arena in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. It is home to the University of North Carolina Tar Heels basketball team. The arena opened in 1986.

It is named after former UNC coach Dean Smith, who coached at UNC from 1961 to 1997. The arena originally seated 21,444. According to David Halberstam's biography of Michael Jordan, Smith did not want the arena named after him, but was persuaded by the UNC administration and the arena's backers that fundraising efforts for the facility could fail if they did not use his name.^[1]

Seating adjustments brought capacity to 21,572 in 1992 and 21,750 in 2000. The largest crowd to see a game in the Dean Dome was on March 6, 2005, when 22,125 saw the Tar Heels defeat Duke.^[2]

The arena was built to allow more fans to attend Tar Heel basketball games than could fit in then 21-year-old, 10,000-seat Carmichael Auditorium. The Tar Heels have been among the nation's attendance leaders ever since the arena opened. ^[3]

There is some controversy surrounding the continued support of the Dean Dome by the state government. Concerts and other events, as well as advertising arrangements such as a signage deal with Wachovia Bank also fund the stadium. ^[4]

The arena's seating arrangement has been somewhat controversial. Most of the lower-level seats were allocated to members of UNC's athletic booster foundation, the Educational Foundation (better known as the Rams Club). Furthermore, most of those seats are season tickets. While tickets are usually available for most non-conference games, most Atlantic Coast Conference games are sold out.

In its early years, the arena was known as among the quieter ones in the country because many seats that would have been occupied by students at other schools were occupied by alumni who weren't very inclined to cheer. This led some players, such as Florida State's Sam Cassell, to think the Dean Dome was home to a "wine and cheese crowd." Since 1992, however, expanded student seating has made the Smith Center louder. For example, after the then top-ranked Connecticut Huskies were defeated by Carolina at the Dean Dome in 2004, Huskies coach Jim Calhoun said, "I don't know what they are talking about because there was no 'wine and cheese' crowd here today."

Tipoff of UNC-Duke game at Smith Center

The Tar Heels are one of the nation's most dominant home teams, rarely losing more than two home games in a season. Finishing the 2005-06 season, they were 220-47 (.824) in games played at the Dome — an average of 11.0 wins against 2.4 losses each season over 21 years. This average would be even lower were it not for the 2001-02 season, in which the Tar Heels finished with their first losing record since 1961-62--Smith's first season as coach. However, they have only finished undefeated at home three times--1986-87, 1992-93 and 2004-05.

The arena has also held many concerts and is used by many of the graduate and professional schools, such as the UNC School of Law, for commencement ceremonies each year, as well as the same for all undergraduates receiving degrees in December of each year.