The Wolfpacker: An Independent Magazine Covering NC State Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/846301
38 ■ THE WOLFPACKER It's still planned to be in the Murphy Center? "When we built the Murphy Center, Coach [Chuck] Amato was an avid rac- quetball player and a racquetball court was installed. It has stood vacant for a number of years. Now, we are reconfiguring that space, along with other space. "It's going to be a magnificent addition. A number of schools in the ACC need to build the structure itself, but we are able to stay in the current building envelope of Murphy, or the $6.6 million would have ended up being $9 or 10 million." Are there any other projects on the bucket list? "Upgrades for baseball are desired and football could use a refresh of the sports medicine unit in the Murphy Center. Case Commons and the ACC studio are right there. We need at some point to go back over to the east side of Carter-Finley Sta- dium, which has not really been touched since 1966. [Wolfpack Club executive di- rector] Bobby [Purcell] and I have talked about this some, and at some point we'd like to see something special happen there and in the north end zone. "We are also continuing to talk about the possibility of serving alcohol in the bowl. We would never approach that alone be- cause it requires a change in state law to do this. That would mean we would need part- ners in that endeavor — ECU, UNC-CH." "If and when that was approved, we would need to have a place to serve, and we don't really have that right now. We would need to expand our perimeter concourses. "When we played at Louisville a couple years ago they had added what I would call a beer garden in their end zone, as an exam- ple. They extended their perimeter so there was plenty of space for people to walk and sit. That's a possibility at some point." Are you moving toward supporting al- cohol sales if other in-state schools would support it? "I have come a long ways in that regard. I always had to think about the issues of someone being in a sporting event and drinking too much, but then I thought, 'We already have that. That happens every game, and I see it when I get the postgame report.' "Could it actually get better? I really don't know. That's what West Virginia's study showed. They actually have fewer arrests now for public drunkenness. They think it's because they are serving it in the bowl." Could you then envision there being changes to the halftime pass-outs? "One of the interesting things about halftime pass outs is the assumption that people make. The assumption is that if we stop halftime pass outs, then fewer people would leave the game. We have no statisti- cal data to back that up. "What we have right now is on average 15,000 people leaving at halftime. They leave Carter-Finley Stadium, but 7,000 of them come back. If we make a no pass-out rule, and let's say 12,000 instead of 15,000 people leave, but then no one could come back because we told them they can't. "Tell me how that helps the football program if there are fewer people in the stands. I would want to have our director of analytics look at what metrics we should consider, what studies we should be con- ducting and how do we determine whether or not this would actually produce a result that our coaches and student-athletes would like, which is more people being there at the beginning of the third quarter. "That would be the worst possible out- come, that we tried to make it better and made it worse. We have the best tailgating in the country. I think people treasure their tailgating and the opportunity to see their friends. It's really special, so we need to be very careful how we manage this." Is the basketball team going overseas this summer? "Yes, they are going to Italy on Aug. 2." There is talk about you stepping down in 2019. Where does that stand? "I have a contract through July 15, 2019, but I'm not thinking about retirement. I'm not slowing down. "Today is no different than seven years ago. I just ask one question every morning: What can we do today that makes NC State athletics better than it's ever been? "That is a full-time challenge, and my passion is to represent as well as possible one of the most dedicated group of alums and friends of any Power Five school." ■ Some of the notable projects that have been completed under Yow's leadership include the $35-million renovation of Reynolds Coliseum and start of an NC State Athletic Hall of Fame. PHOTO BY KEN MARTIN