Roy Williams urges UNC leaders to keep Smith Center on campus amid arena debate

Roy Williams said Dean Smith once charged him with protecting the Smith Center’s place on campus, a responsibility Williams is continuing to embrace as the university weighs whether to relocate the home of North Carolina basketball.

On Monday night, a group of UNC basketball supporters launched a public petition urging university leaders to renovate the Dean Dome rather than relocate the arena off campus — and they employed Williams to help spread the word.

“We want Carolina basketball to be special, Carolina basketball to be different, and the Smith Center is part of that,” Williams said in a video shared on social media platforms X and Instagram from newly-created accounts titled, ‘Smith Center South.’

The corresponding petition, with the tagline “Renovate, Don’t Relocate,” argues that keeping the Smith Center on South Campus is the “best and only option” for the future of Tar Heel basketball. It comes amid ongoing discussions within the university about whether to renovate the existing arena or build a new one — potentially as part of the proposed Carolina North development.

In the video released on social media, Williams voiced strong opposition to an off-campus move.

“I’ve given my opinion very strongly,” Williams said in the video. “I’m very much in favor of staying here in the Smith Center. Remodeling, renovating, whatever we need to do. I do not want to go off campus.”

Williams, who coached the Tar Heels from 2003 to 2021 and served as Smith’s assistant for a decade, said Smith had made his wishes clear during conversations about the arena’s future.

“Coach Smith wanted this place on campus,” Williams said in the video. “That was his wish. There was no question.”

The debate intensified in December as UNC officials held a series of meetings with key stakeholders including Rams Club members, donors and former players.

As the N&O previously reported, former UNC guard Joel Berry II said he was surprised by the timing of a video conference call with former players last month, but encouraged by the turnout. Roughly 90 to 100 former players joined the call — on top of former coaches like Williams and Larry Brown — led by Chancellor Lee Roberts, athletic director Bubba Cunningham and incoming AD Steve Newmark.

“That showed the Chancellor and the new AD that this is something that we all care about as players,” Berry told The N&O in December. “This decision isn’t taken lightly.”

Several participants described the conversation as emotional, with former players and coaches expressing a strong preference for keeping the Smith Center on its current site.

Cunningham told the N&O the meetings were helpful.

“I think everybody wants what’s best for Carolina basketball,” he said in December. “You need an awful lot of input to be sure that you get it right.”

The petition follows an open letter submitted last month by a group identifying itself as “Tar Heels Concerned for the Future of the Dean E. Smith Center and Carolina Basketball.” The letter opposed any off-campus move and called for greater collaboration in evaluating on-campus options.

In a statement provided to the N&O, the university states it had heard from individuals whose names appeared on the document but who said they did not authorize their inclusion. The university also emphasized what it described as a “deliberate, three-year evaluation process” that has included surveys, focus groups, donor outreach and consultations with several industry experts.

While Cunningham previously suggested a decision could come by the end of 2025, there is no clear timeline on when a decision about the arena will be made or announced.

“I don’t think we’re going to rush it,” Cunningham told the N&O in December. “We’re going to make sure that we hear and make a decision that the university community is excited about. When we get to that point, that’s when we’ll decide.”

This story was originally published January 20, 2026 at 6:30 AM.