CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (WTVD) — The “Chapel Bill” era at UNC has officially arrived, and businesses near campus say it could make a huge difference this fall.
With home games already sold out this fall — and new levels of buzz around the football program — students and business owners are bracing for a boom. UNC freshman Jack Lyons and Noah Stiggins just moved onto campus last week, but say it didn’t take long for them to feel the buzz surrounding Tar Heel football.
“There’s definitely a lingering excitement you can see throughout the campus. And I’m a basketball fan, but you can definitely see the football coming onto the stage now,” said Lyons after Sunday’s freshman convocation.
That excitement is due in large part to the arrival of the eight-time Super Bowl champion Bill Belichick on campus, as the countdown to UNC’s football season begins.
“I think we have really high expectations for them, so I just wonder if we can fill it up,” said Stiggins.
Junior Avey Pullum plays with the school band and expects this season to reach new levels of hype.
“Hopefully, this year Belichick will coach the team well and do really good. And, you know, the more they travel, the more I travel because I support the team fully,” he said.
Along Franklin Street, businesses are bracing for their own football boom, with sellout crowds and thousands expected to descend on the town for gameday weekends.
“Football has a bigger impact on the economy and sales for the restaurants, the hotels, retail shops, here in town. So when football is happening, it trickles down tremendously,” said Robert Poitras, owner of Carolina Brewery.
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Poitras said in his three decades as a student — and now business owner in Chapel Hill — he’s never seen anything like it.
“We’ve done this for 30 years. I went to school here, but this year is something magical about this year. It’s a little bit extra special,” he said.
At Chapel Hill Sportswear, a longtime merchandise shop on Franklin Street, Holly Dedmond and her team have the swag to match the buzz.
“Our sweatshirts are just regular hooded sweatshirts, but we can’t cut the sleeves off for you,” Dedmond said, joking about Belichick’s habit of wearing cut-off sweatshirts. “We’ve done that dozens and dozens of times. So we can cut the sleeves off if people want.”
Dedmond’s a UNC graduate herself and said football weekends are the shop’s primary money maker for the year, and they’re hoping to reach new heights this fall.
“Most of our business comes during those football weekends. And so we need people in town. We need people to come. We need people to be excited and want to buy the merchandise and come support us,” she said.
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