The question of what to do with North Carolina basketball’s Dean E. Smith Center has splintered the UNC community, with a behind-the-scenes tug-of-war recently spilling out into public.
Now, documents obtained by The Athletic through an open records request provide new details on plans for a state-of-the-art arena to anchor a 230-acre mixed-use development and campus expansion called “Carolina North” — plans that were derailed by public pushback.
The debate over renovating the current site of the Dean Dome, which opened in 1986 and is named for UNC’s legendary coach, or building elsewhere, has been paused while North Carolina undergoes a coaching transition from the fired Hubert Davis to Michael Malone. But a faction of Tar Heels loyalists, including Hall of Fame coach Roy Williams, had vocally opposed moving the arena off campus to Carolina North and caused the university to rethink its efforts.
Those protests were pivotal in stopping a deal that was all but done, the school documents reveal.
In early November, according to emails and other documents, members of UNC’s leadership began discussing how to inform key stakeholders of a move to Carolina North, which is roughly 3.5 miles from the current arena and was considered primed for increased revenue generation. Decision-makers even had a tagline picked out, for use in a video that would accompany the announcement: “From Dean to Dream.” An early timeline of design and construction milestones targeted October 2026 for the start of construction on a Carolina North arena.
The school had a stated objective to “minimize surprises and ensure informed support” before a public reveal — and hoped a notable list of basketball alumni would help convey that message and rally fans: Michael Jordan, Danny Green, Tyler Hansbrough and Williams. (The latter two instead produced viral videos against moving the arena off-campus.)
A related summary “for a mid-December 2025 announcement of the Carolina North development and new home of Carolina Basketball” emphasized all the key elements of a potential announcement, from how it would be structured — a press release, a news conference, etc. — to other details. One bullet point focused specifically on how to address questions about the existing Smith Center structure, with leadership to stress that the building “will remain a vital part of campus” while its exact future is determined.
“Without this,” the summary read, “the media will define the narrative for us.”
At the bottom of the summary, underneath a list of priorities to iron out, read one sentence that now stands out in light of larger pushback:
“These are essential to ensuring a confident, unified, controversy-free announcement.”
By the week of Thanksgiving, when UNC was set to face Michigan State in one of its marquee nonconference games, university leadership had drafted a “Song Sheet” full of financials, narratives and other information to lean on when speaking to prominent donors and stakeholders. Importantly, even as that “Song Sheet” underwent multiple edits in the following weeks, it never expanded to discuss any arena options except renovation or the Carolina North site.
Months later, in February, UNC said it had considered seven proposals overall, but with three front-runners: renovation; Carolina North; and another on-campus Odum Village option, on a site formerly home to married housing, which was viewed by some loyalists as the best compromise option.
A later AI assessment of those three options — which was shared with athletic director Bubba Cunningham in an email thread — described the Odum Village plan as the best “bridge” between parties.
The day after Thanksgiving, Rams Club executive director Seth Reeves asked university spokesperson Dean Stoyer in an email whether the Carolina North announcement date was “set in stone” already.
“We may already be too far down the road, but I know we all agree that this is going to be a very emotional announcement for many Tar Heels,” Reeves wrote in part.
At the same time that UNC was preparing behind the scenes to tell key donors of the move, it was also preparing for a January 2026 Board of Trustees meeting in which it hoped to announce it was proceeding with development of Carolina North. That included having “a modern, basketball-first arena as the centerpiece,” according to an early draft of a press release.
On Nov. 30, Stoyer confirmed in another email that UNC was “18 days out from our planned announcement,” with conversations already underway between athletic leadership — including Cunningham, incoming athletic director Steve Newmark and chancellor Lee Roberts — and important donors and alumni.
But two weeks later, according to multiple communications, it appeared that the mid-December announcement had already been delayed, with Jan. 7 and 8 then targeted for the rollout.
Days later, though, on Dec. 12, the Carolina North plan met its staunchest resistance yet. A list of 91 influential donors and former players — including James Worthy, Billy Cunningham, Ty Lawson, George Lynch, Mitch Kupchak, Luke Maye and more — wrote a letter to Roberts saying they did “not support the move of the Smith Center and our historic Carolina’s Men’s Basketball program off campus, specifically to Carolina North.”
Three days after the letter was delivered, Roberts and school leadership hosted a video call with dozens of former players, many of whom emphasized their desire for the arena not to move off-campus.
That wave of pushback proved strong enough to stave off months of Carolina North momentum.
By Dec. 30, a new draft of the Carolina North press release was emailed to the school’s decision-makers, asking for edits.
It didn’t include any mention of a basketball arena.