There's no place like Dome
Mar 14, 2009
An elevator ride to the upper reaches of the cavernous Georgia Dome reveals a basketball world in miniature. You’ll know immediately whether your eyesight is adequate, or needs correction, when casting your gaze toward the distant scoreboards or the miniature figures scurrying about the basketball court.
A spectator seated at the top level of the Dome, which opened for business in 1992, is more or less on the same level as the team banners hanging from the rafters. Up there, the banks of speakers are close by, the PA announcer’s voice so loud it would drown out the sound of thunder.
The ACC Tournament was played here once previously, in 2001, a year in which Duke and Maryland met in the semifinals, as they will today. That 84-82 Blue Devil victory was decided on a tip-in by Nate James, now a Mike Krzyzewski assistant. Duke went on to rout UNC in the title game, and advanced to capture Krzyzewski’s third national championship, knocking off the Terps in the Final Four.
The average attendance for the 2001 games here was 36,505, a record for the ACC Tournament. This year, following the first public sale since the mid-60s, tickets are only sold for 26,352 seats. That’s still the second-largest average attendance in the history of the event.
There is something rather ominous about the announcements that greet the end of a session of play in the facility. A somber voice intones, “The Dome will close in 15 minutes,” conjuring images of space ships hurrying to depart before the roof closes on some lonely outpost at the edge of the universe.
