In Raleigh, Joe Giglio reported the Univ. of North Carolina's Dean Smith Center "could be getting a videoboard update soon." On the agenda for the UNC BOG meeting this week is approval of a $6M "capital improvement project to replace the replay boards." But UNC AD Bubba Cunningham said of the price tag, "I'd like to get it done for less than that." Cunningham said that the tentative plan is to "keep the videoboards in the four corners of the upper level," although a "center-hanging design also has been discussed." Cunningham has been "interested in making major renovations, or even replacing," the basketball arena. But he said that those plans have "taken a backseat" to the university's $4.25B fundraising initiative (Raleigh NEWS & OBSERVER, 1/23).
BIGGER IS BETTER: In Athens, Marc Weiszer wrote the University System of Georgia Board of Regents has "approved an expansion and renovation of the west end zone area" of Sanford Stadium. The project will "include the installation of a larger video board," which will be "30 percent larger" than the current one. The $63M project, which will "include a new home locker room," is "expected to conclude" by July (ONLINEATHENS.com, 1/19).
ONE MORE TRY: South Alabama AD Joel Erdmann on Monday said that reconstruction work is "set to begin 'any day'" on the school's covered football practice facility with a "goal of being completed this summer." In Birmingham, Creg Stephenson noted the facility "collapsed while under construction last July." It was determined that "inadequate bracing" led to the collapse. Cleanup "began on the construction site in September, and the replacement steel began arriving on campus last week." Erdmann said that the facility "could be complete as soon as late July" (BIRMINGHAM NEWS, 1/23).
