Coliseum has plenty of room for lots of events

As if the ACC basketball tournament wasn’t enough, Coliseum managing director Matt Brown sounded disappointed an unrelated event wasn’t scheduled Saturday night for part of his vast entertainment complex.

“We tried to book an event for the auditorium,” he said, adding, “We never said no” to bookings.

Brown said the Coliseum’s contract with the Atlantic Coast Conference calls for the tournament to have single occupancy of the complex, with the exception of  War Memorial Auditorium.  It can be leased  Saturday and Sunday nights after ACC games are completed in the late afternoon.

With the coming of a new aquatic center and amphitheater, Brown’s staff believes it could handle more events coinciding with the tournament.  If enough parking were available. Parking spaces have been lost to the under-construction aquatic center and amphitheater.

Still, three or four simultaneous events are not unusual at the Coliseum. Brown recalled a recent day when 21,000 were in the 23,000 plus seat arena.  A bridal show occupied the Coliseum Pavilion.  A gun show took over the Special Events Center.  And a play, “Beauty and the Beast,” was performed in the auditorium.

Brown said the parking bugaboo is being looked at. The Coliseum hopes to expand its parking.

ACC shorts:

New UNC system President Tom Ross would have to wear neutral colors if, say, UNC-Chapel Hill were playing UNC-G.  But neutrality hasn’t been necessary during the ACC tournament,  with only two state supported schools in the mix, and neither played each other.  Therefore, Ross was free to attend games wearing a powder blue sweater.

When Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski walked onto the court for Sunday’s championship game against UNC, he seemingly signaled  with one finger toward a Tar Heel player who was warming up in front of him.

Actually, he was directing his attention far away – across the court, pass press row and up into the stands.

There sat his wife, Mickey.  The  question is why did she have a rather lousy seat.?  Why wasn’t she seated with other Duke people behind the team’s bench?