Since last Saturday's official approval of "Unrivaled Ambition," the school's first athletic strategic plan, much has been made in the media about one bullet point in a small section of the 39-page document:
"We need to study the possibility of adding suites to Cameron [Indoor Stadium] as a way to generate additional income."
That's it. Other than a brief mention of continuing to evaluate how to maximize revenue stream through the basketball program in the introduction, that's all it says about adding luxury boxes. But, of course, that's all it needed to say for the Cameron purists to come out in full force. Without delving too much into whether we think luxury boxes would demean or undermine the hallowed coziness of Cameron, the mini controversy surrounding this idea of continual restoration is unfounded and overblown.
Why? Because the concept of luxury boxes in Cameron probably won't happen.
"We've talked about it for, gosh, seven or eight years as just, 'What are the opportunities available in Cameron and around Cameron?'" Mike Cragg, associate athletic director and director of the Legacy Fund, said Friday. "Hence, we have a Krzyzewski Center, hence we have a Schwartz-Butters. We've done the concourse differently, we've built new locker rooms all in the last eight years.
"Boxes have been looked at as, again, would it fit? We haven't come to a conclusion. Obviously in the last eight years, we've determined that it will not fit. Really all of that is a recognition of the fact that we're trying to always be looking at the future of what possibilities are there."
Our comment? Other than a new scoreboard (going up this summer) and possible renovations of seats to make the look of Cameron more conformed, we don't see the mecca of college basketball changing significantly anytime soon. After all, as Cragg said, the basketball programs have evaluated the possibility of boxes in Cameron for eight years and, according to them, boxes won't fit. And over the next 10, 50, 100 years, Cameron isn't getting any bigger.
What do you think?
--by Ben Cohen
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