At UNC, sign of the times

A pair of bright blue, 6-foot by 8-foot "Wachovia" signs were hung on two of the four video boards at the University of North Carolina's Smith Center on Tuesday, ending a tradition that up until now has kept that venue free of fixed commercial advertising.

The signage is part of the eight-year, $9.1 million deal North Carolina announced with Wachovia to boost the school's $46 million athletics department budget.

This year's $1 million payout will go to one-time facility improvements, such as the new, larger video boards, athletics director Dick Baddour said. In the future, the money will go toward everything from venue improvements to other department needs.

Carolina believes the increase in cash is necessary to continue to support the 28-sport program, especially after the Educational Foundation began failing to fully fund the scholarship program two years ago. Earlier this year, the Board of Governors approved a $100 increase in the athletics fee to support non-revenue sports. Another fee increase of $50 is proposed for next year.

But it still isn't enough.

"Early on, we were doing this balancing -- having a great discussion about our needs against our culture," said Baddour, who first helped create a task force two years ago to study the idea of permanent signage. "I made the comment that moving away from this culture was troubling, was difficult for me.

"And one of the members of the task force said, 'Well, how difficult would it be for you to drop two sports?' And I said, 'Well, that would be more difficult.' And that was and is the kind of issue that we faced."

The deal with Wachovia also includes on-site signage at Boshamer Stadium, Carmichael Auditorium and Fetzer Field, plus continued electronic messaging at Kenan Stadium. But the jewel for Wachovia was becoming the first permanent advertiser in an arena whose games are often telecast nationally.

"We absolutely took into account ... that it's an uncluttered marketing platform," said Dan Fleishman, director of sponsorships and alliances for Wachovia.

UNC's goal is to have one more partner sign a similar deal -- worth a similar amount of money -- that would put signage in the other two corners of the Smith Center and share electronic advertising space below the scorer's table with Wachovia. That second advertiser would not be a financial institution, according to the contract.

Baddour said the school wants just two fixed advertisers because it wants to stick with the task force's original guidelines: that signage or partnerships should be limited and tasteful, and protect, when possible, "the environment and tradition of the institution."

At Duke, advertisements are featured on scoreboards and on press row. At the RBC Center, N.C. State controls its courtside signage for basketball games, but everything else belongs to the NHL's Carolina Hurricanes. Wolfpack Sports Marketing said last May that it made $1 million per year off advertising at the RBC Center and Carter-Finley Stadium, but it would not confirm that number Tuesday.

Reaction to Carolina's move appeared to be favorable -- probably because most fans knew it was coming.

Justin Johnson, a Fayetteville senior who serves as president of Carolina Athletic Association, said he supports tasteful signage.

"As long as signage is done in a classy manner, in typical Carolina fashion, I think most students will be for it, especially if it's going to benefit our athletic department," he said. "We just don't want to get carried away."

UNC alum Don Curtis, owner of Curtis Media Group, said that Carolina should consider it because so many other schools do.

"It's also at the point that competition just dictates it."

(Staff writers Lorenzo Perez, A.J. Carr and Rachel Carter contributed to this report.)