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PHILADELPHIA, PA - MARCH 11: A view of the court during a game between the Princeton Tigers and the Pennsylvania Quakers at The Palestra during the semifinals of the Ivy League Basketball Tournament on March 11, 2017 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Princeton won 72-64 in overtime. (Photo by Hunter Martin/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Earlier this week, we got some fun news about the UNC men’s basketball schedule for the new season starting later this year. It was announced that on January 30th, the Tar Heels will take on Illinois at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville in an event dubbed the Nashville Hoops Showdown.
Now, we don’t have to pretend that the game wouldn’t be just as fun if not more fun if it were played in the atmosphere of a college campus in one of the teams’ home arenas. However, that visit to Nashville will not only provide a good test on the court, but also a fun little trip for the fans. Both UNC and Illinois are just close enough to Nashville for the fan bases to make an effort to go, which just far away enough that it’s still a bit of a novelty. We all know events like there are purely for the money, otherwise they would just play them in home venues.
The announcement of the event got me thinking about other places where it might be fun to see a Tar Heels’ team play. Whether it be basketball, football, baseball, or any other spot, I want to know this for today’s question of the day: What neutral or road venue would you like to see a UNC team play a sporting event?
In basketball, UNC already play regularly in some of the most famous venues and ticked another one off the list a couple years ago when the men went to Allen Fieldhouse at the University of Kansas. One fun one, that for monetary reasons would probably never happen, that I would like to see is the Palestra in Philadelphia. Officially, it is the home of Penn, although several of the Philadelphia area teams host games there on occasion. It’s a historic venue that has hosted more college basketball games than any other, but is also small and intimate enough to produce a great atmosphere. The small part is probably the reason it won’t happen, and a non-conference game against Penn isn’t exactly a big seller, but I personally would enjoy watching the Tar Heels play in that environment.
My next suggestion would be hard to pull off more on logistics than anything else, but seeing UNC baseball play a game in any one of the historic MLB stadiums would also be cool. Now, a lot of those stadiums are booked up once the MLB season starts, which limits the available dates. Plus, if you try to do it before the MLB season starts, a decent amount of the most historic venues — Wrigley Field in Chicago, etc — aren’t exactly in baseball-playing weather yet. Still though, it would be fun to see.
Those are my ideas, but I want to hear from you, what venues would you most like to see a UNC team play in?
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