Touch Downtown Chapel Hill Kicks Off UNC Football Weekends

CHAPEL HILL (AUGUST 19, 2008)— As Butch Davis prepares his second Tar Heel football team for the upcoming season, eight Chapel Hill area organizations have united to produce the Touch Downtown Chapel Hill campaign with the shared goal of bolstering the community, hometown spirit and economic activity during football weekends. Touch Downtown Chapel Hill strives to encourage football fans, both residents and visitors, to start early and stay late in Chapel Hill after the game ends and enjoy nearly 100 restaurants, 50 specialty stores and a mile of family cultural attractions.

The Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau, Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership, Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce, Town of Chapel Hill, UNC Department of Athletics, The UNC Rams Club, Tar Heel Sports Properties and the UNC General Alumni Association have contributed more than $150,000 to this campaign that is an extension of the "Fifth Quarter Chapel Hill" promotion that had a soft roll-out in 2006 and full implementation last year. Local officials will utilize many more marketing vehicles this season. Magazine, radio and interactive ads. Street banners. A dedicated Website (TouchDowntown.com). Email blasts. Brochures. Concerted communications and publicity push. Plus numerous cross promotions.

"We hope the campaign increases economic activity around Chapel Hill and generates even greater interest in Carolina Football," said UNC Director of Athletics Dick Baddour. "There is a great deal of excitement about the Tar Heels and it's encouraging to see all these groups come together to promote football Saturdays. There's no better place to watch a college football game than Kenan Stadium, and we also want our fans to make it a full day or even a weekend with all that Chapel Hill and the surrounding areas have to offer."

"As its name implies, we want the tens of thousands of fans to touch our community by staying and playing on game day instead of making a beeline for the bus or car and departing town," said Laurie Paolicelli, Executive Director of the Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau. "We hope to encourage safe, extended activity downtown and around town after the game ends."

"We expect the economic impact of each home football game to exceed $6-million," said Aaron Nelson, President and CEO of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce. "And with a coordinated effort like this one, we look forward to seeing local spending grow, supporting local businesses and our important local government services."

The partners are committed to enhancing both the game-day and destination experience when North Carolina faces McNeese State on August 30, Virginia Tech on September 20, Connecticut on October 4, Notre Dame on October 11, Boston College on October 25, Georgia Tech on November 8 and North Carolina State on November 22.

To assist in that effort, Chapel Hill Transit offers bus transportation from six Park & Ride lots before and after 2008 Tar Heel football games. Rather than sitting in traffic on I-40, 54, 15-501 and other roads, two lots (located off of Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd) offer Tar Heel Express bus service three hours before kickoff and three hours after the game with drop-off points including Franklin Street, Tar Heel Town and Kenan Stadium, so coming early or staying after to enjoy Downtown Chapel Hill has never been easier. The drop-off site for all six routes is one block from Kenan Stadium and Tar Heel Town. The costs for all Tar Heel Express buses are $5 round trip and $3 one-way.

According to the Chapel Hill/Orange County Visitors Bureau, visitors typically spend $285 a day per person when visiting overnight. Day-trippers, who come for just the game, tend to spend $78 per day per person and the Visitors Bureau would like to see that money spent throughout the destination. Tourism dollars make an annual impact of $147-million in Orange County.

Additional information is available at (919) 968-2060 or (888) 968-2060 or Touch Downtown Chapel Hill.


Did You Know?

UNC was the first state-supported university in the U.S. and enrolls nearly 30,000 students from all North Carolina counties, all U.S. states and more than 100 foreign countries.