Go inside the huddle of Chapel Thrill Game Day

(Jon Gardiner/UNC-Chapel Hill)

The morning of Oct. 4, around 10,000 Carolina fans packed Polk Place, a sea of Carolina Blue humming with anticipation to see rapper Ludacris take the stage. The performance, which kicked off following the football team’s Old Well Walk through the quad, anchored the morning’s Chapel Thrill Game Day festivities before the Tar Heels’ game against Clemson.

The scene is something that Rick Barakat envisioned since he arrived on campus this past April.

“Our football game day environment has always been pretty spread out,” said the deputy athletics director and chief revenue officer. “But if we’re going to have a big-time football coach, we need a big-time football environment – and we owe it to all of our fans, including the students, to deliver a more dynamic atmosphere on game day. We wanted to provide an opportunity for fans to engage in a fun, family-friendly environment, and make it convenient and easy to participate.”

Headlined by a free concert before every home game, Chapel Thrill has turned the campus tailgate set-up on its head. Polk Place and surrounding areas offer something for every Carolina fan on game day, from the Old Well Walk, a renewed tradition for fans to cheer on the football team as they make their way to the stadium, to the family-friendly Coca-Cola Fan Zone, featuring bounce houses and facepainting, to the Modelo Kickoff Club near the stage. The festivities will be back this Saturday when rock band Collective Soul performs ahead of the game against the Virginia Cavaliers.

Barakat worked closely with Rick Steinbacher, senior associate athletic director, and Rick Wernoski, associate vice chancellor for operational excellence, to bring Chapel Thrill to life.

Three-time Grammy winner Ludacris performed prior to Carolina’s game against Clemson Oct. 4. (Johnny Andrews/UNC-Chapel Hill)

“I’ve seen my fair share of Carolina football game days and how they’ve evolved over time,” said Steinbacher, a former Tar Heel football player. “Barakat had such a great vision for doing the things that we had done before with limited success on a much larger scale. And Wernoski has so many strong relationships across campus and helped us get leadership support.”

Wernoski, who served as a liaison among Athletics, University leadership and other campus offices, says one key to Chapel Thrill’s success is the ability to evolve throughout the season.

“We wanted to ensure the experience was not only successful at launch but sustainable over time,” he said. “We’re focusing on continuous improvement while learning, adapting and equipping partners with best practices to keep elevating the game day experience.”

Feedback is critical to the effort. In addition to holding focus groups with students and the Chapel Hill community, the Chapel Thrill team surveys every ticketholder who attends a home football game this season about their game day experience. Quick wins include added bars, food trucks and TV screens throughout Polk Place to accommodate growing crowds each week, with larger-scale updates planned for next season.

As the self-described “three Ricks” will say, Chapel Thrill is a campus-wide, collaborative effort, and multiple teams across the Carolina community play a huge role in making sure game days are fun and safe for Tar Heel fans.

(Jon Gardiner/UNC-Chapel Hill)

“This was a really concerted effort to engage students,” said Aaron Bachenheimer, associate vice chancellor for student engagement. “I think that historically, most of our on-campus, game-day culture has revolved around individual tailgate sites where a group of friends and family get together in their own space. So the question really was: Where do we bring the whole community together?”

Student Affairs and Athletics met with student focus groups and provided feedback to the Chapel Thrill team on what might be interesting for students and student organizations, including how to encourage those groups to come to Polk Place and barriers that might keep them from buying in. With multiple bars available in the Modelo Kickoff Club, Bachenheimer also advised on how best to support overall student health and well-being. So far, Bachenheimer says, student feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.

The concert by country star Chase Rice ’09 drew a massive crowd prior to the season opener against TCU. (Jon Gardiner/UNC-Chapel Hill)

“This is really about students feeling part of the Tar Heel community, celebrating being on campus for the game day experience and feeling like there’s an engagement opportunity for you,” he said. “I think that’s really what Chapel Thrill has really done.”

“What do you do on game day? You go to Polk Place,” he added. “And I think that’s really cool.”

(Jon Gardiner/UNC-Chapel Hill)

When Carolina’s football staff mapped out the team’s Old Well Walk before the season, the trek clocked in at just over one-third of a mile and took seven minutes, 15 seconds to complete. As Alec Kerr will tell you, it’s worth every step.

“The Bell Tower Walk that we used to do may have been a little more convenient for the team,” said Kerr, director of football operations. “But the Old Well Walk offers the opportunity to have more fan engagement, which is huge because we feed off the support of the fans. It’s truly a lifeline for this team.”

The Old Well Walk began in 2000 before the route was shortened to start at the Bell Tower. This year, it’s one of the most popular events during the Chapel Thrill experience.

Players and coaches walk across campus before each game. (Jon Gardiner/UNC-Chapel Hill)

“One of the biggest ways we as a football program could support Chapel Thrill was with the Old Well Walk,” said Chris Mattes, football chief of staff. “Coach Belichick wanted to bring back game day traditions from the past and instill those back into North Carolina football. The students, alumni and fans – they’re the backbone of this this program, and we wanted to go right through Polk Place where they’d be.”

“We wouldn’t be able to do what we do without their support,” he added. “We truly value it, and it means the world to the football team.”

(Rob Holliday/UNC-Chapel Hill)

A new tailgating experience means more fans on campus, and in turn, a need for more security and law enforcement on game days. According to Sgt. Marshall Turner with UNC Police, Chapel Thrill has opened the door to more local partnerships to help fulfill that need.

“This year we’ve had the opportunity to almost double our numbers thanks to partnerships with more than a dozen outside agencies, which allows us to provide the safest environment to the best of our ability,” he said. Every time the Tar Heels play in Kenan Stadium, there are between 80-100 officers on campus.

That includes Lt. James David. He takes in the game from Davis Library’s roof, where he and another officer fly two drones above Polk Place, Kenan Stadium and campus traffic throughout the day.

Security and law enforcement are present every step of the way on game day. (Jon Gardiner/UNC-Chapel Hill)

“We’re the eyes in the sky for the department and stream our feed directly into our command center,” he said.

Both David and Turner agree that collaboration – with other law enforcement agencies as well as EMS, fire departments and other Carolina teams – is the key to making it a safe football season.

“We all have the same goal: We want everybody to have a good, safe time at the event,” said Turner. “And there are a ton of partnerships that we rely on to make it happen.”

(Jeyhoun Allebaugh/University Development)

Walk across Polk Place the Monday after a game, and you’d never know thousands of people were there for a concert over the weekend. And that’s exactly how Chris Lance’s team likes it.

“We love to support such a cool atmosphere that is being provided to the students,” said Lance, executive director of facilities operations. “Most of my team is on deck to make sure these things go off well in coordination with athletics and other organizations working on Chapel Thrill. Our goal is to make sure that there’s no trace of that event having taken place on Saturday when students head to class on Monday morning.”

Lance’s team, which includes more than 800 employees in grounds, building maintenance, housekeeping, waste and recycling, construction, maintenance and repair, and warehouse and fleet services, oversees everything from trash removal to seeding and aerating the grass in tailgating areas after the game, as well as brick replacement so student-athletes and fans don’t trip during the Old Well Walk.

Members of the facilities operations team arrive on site at 6 a.m. after a home game – it was 4 a.m. after the Labor Day opener – to make sure the campus is clean and ready for a new week.

Only when that is done is a Chapel Thrill Game Day complete.