Preparations are in the works for the big game this weekend – not just on the court, but in the streets.

While Hubert Davis and his coaching staff are drawing up game plans and getting their players ready, Chapel Hill Police Chief Chris Blue is in charge of organizing numerous town departments to get Franklin Street ready for what will hopefully be a big celebration on Saturday night.

97.9 The Hill’s Aaron Keck spoke with Chief Blue ahead of the game. Listen to their conversation, and read the transcript, below.

 

Aaron Keck: Chief, thank you so much for being with us today.

Chris Blue: Oh, it is a pleasure to be here, particularly on this subject.

Keck: So, first of all, before we get into police department prepping for the game and messages to celebrating fans and everything – as a Chapel Hillian and as a UNC fan, how are you feeling about this game?

Blue: It’s great. It’s so exciting. Particularly when we’ve had a season where, you know, our team has taken some lumps from our longtime fan base. And so I think it is made sweeter that we are peaking and surging at the right time, with a new coach, and our players are playing with so much confidence, and dare I say swagger, and it is really fun to watch.

Keck: So how is the department planning for whatever ends up happening at the end of (Saturday’s) game?

Blue: I’ll speak beyond just police, because you know, these kinds of events are truly all-hands-on-deck events. So our planning team has been anticipating what could happen this weekend for weeks now. And you know, when you think about responding to a post-game celebration, you think about the cops out there stopping traffic, and encouraging people to come out of the trees…

Keck: Good advice every day.

Blue: It is. But our fire department is out there with us. Our partners from EMS are out there with us. We’ve got to close streets, which means public works is up there assisting. We’ve got transit folks helping us transport people and resources to and from the event area. And the list goes on and on. And this is a multi-week planning process. There’s little else happening in the town of Chapel Hill, government-wise, this week, other than planning for this weekend, and hopefully for Monday.

Keck: So how far in advance do you start planning for this? There was that period in February when Carolina lost to Pitt and everyone was like, well, that’s it, that’s the end – (but) you had to be thinking about this eventuality anyway, even then.

Blue: Absolutely. And, you know, because of the (past) success of our Tar Heels, we’ve got good templates to follow. So as we get towards the end of the regular season, we always start thinking about, all right, what does the ACC tournament look like? What does the NCAA schedule look like? What other town events could conflict? That happens as the regular season is winding down every year. And as you get to about the (Sweet) 16, we start ramping up our plans … [and] if we get to the Elite Eight, we begin exercising our plan and dusting it off from last time and updating it. So it’s a pretty iterative process starting late season all the way, hopefully, through the championship game.

Keck: So walk us through what Saturday night is going to be like, step by step. How’s it going to go?

Blue: You know, we don’t necessarily do this [for] an ACC championship game or even a Duke-UNC game, but [we’re] anticipating many tens of thousands of people coming downtown just to watch the game. And certainly most of them will be out celebrating, hopefully, a Tar Heel victory shortly thereafter. We’ve got to think about potential damage to people’s vehicles and those kinds of things…

So pretty early Saturday afternoon, we will start coning off parking places. As people leave parking places, we will block them, so new cars cannot get in there. Around six o’clock, we’ll actually start towing cars out of the (area). That’s not to penalize people in any way, and we’ll be publicizing that broadly … but we wanna get those cars out of there, knowing that many tens of thousands of people, not intentionally, can potentially damage people’s vehicles. So about six o’clock we’ll start towing cars. And about that same time, we’ll start bringing in those many hundreds of people who will be working the event, briefing them, giving them their assignments, answering their questions, giving them some nourishment to tide them over, and then putting them out on their posts.

What we have seen the last few years, and I am including back in 2017 – we had a heck of a party then too – but what I’m so proud of about our fans, the last 10 years or so particularly, is they’ll come out, they’ll celebrate, it’s a happy crowd, appreciative of all of those town employees who are out there trying to create a safe space for the celebration. And then generally after an hour and a half or two – people start to go home. And that’s nice too. That’s the second best thing of the evening. The best thing is winning the game, and then when folks go home, that’s pretty good too.

And I’ll just say this, and you’ve heard me say this around Halloween event before – if you’re not downtown well in advance of the game, and certainly at the end of the game, you’re not gonna get there. Traffic’s going to be difficult. We will have traffic diversion plans in place to direct traffic away from downtown. We want to minimize vehicles and people mixing, particularly when there’s folks running into the street. So I would just say, if you can’t walk there, get there real early and expect also to be there for a long time. If we win, you’re not going to be able to drive out of a parking lot if it’s anywhere close to the event area until things have wound down – and in years past, I can remember way back when, sometimes that corresponds with the sun coming up. I don’t expect that this year, but it’s always a possibility.

Keck: I always get on my soapbox every time these events roll around because – as you know, I grew up in Michigan. I’m from Spartan country, and East Lansing does it very differently. There are college towns around the country where when their team is in a situation like this, and students are out celebrating, they go out of their way to shut it down. They break out the riot gear and the tear gas, (and) people get arrested, expelled for doing what in Chapel Hill is celebrated and facilitated. And y’all are out there keeping it safe and making sure everyone’s celebrating okay, and it’s just so much better the way we do it. It really, really is.

Blue: I think so too, for a few reasons. One, it is a celebration, overwhelmingly people are out there happy, appreciative, supporting our team, enjoying being together – and, you know, after the last few years we’ve had, I think people want that more than ever. And we tell all of the folks working the event, not just the police officers, that how we present ourselves goes a long way towards informing how people react to us, particularly in an event like this. So let’s smile. We’re here anyway. So let’s smile, let’s enjoy the festive atmosphere, and people will respond in kind. And that has been our experience for sure, actually increasingly so over the years. So I think that strategy is really important.

And then just as a practical matter – and I say this with a smile on my face – they got us outnumbered anyway. So the idea that there’s gonna be a conflict that we can win, that’s wacky to even think that. So let’s try to keep everybody feeling good and positive and safe.

Keck: Final message to the community heading into what’s hopefully two celebrations on Saturday and Monday?

Blue: Pace yourself. We talk about this as town teammates also. You know, the Final Four weekend, assuming that we, he participate in both games, is kind of like our largest Halloween event we ever had – back to back. It is grueling and exhausting. And I’ll say that for fans too. You know, not to wag my finger too much, but if we win Saturday night, keep a little in the tank for Monday night. We always appreciate it when you high-five us as you’re heading home safely that night, and we hope we see you Monday night, too.

It is not lost on me, and I think this is absolutely true – Saturday night’s game will be the biggest college basketball game ever played. Period. And I don’t think that’s lost on any of us as fans, and as people working the event and the folks who want to come celebrate it – but we gotta win Monday night, too. So look, pace yourself. Be careful, have fun, be smart about driving – and be considerate of each other. And particularly if you’re trying to come downtown, don’t park in somebody’s front yard, in a neighborhood that you don’t know anybody. Just be courteous.

And I’m so proud of our community, because typically that’s exactly how we behave, and that’s why we’re able to enjoy the success we do. And we’re looking forward to it. And finally – go Tar Heels!

Keck: You got any superstitions for Carolina games?

Blue: Not really – although I’ve found, in my current role, the last few national championships, I haven’t been able to actually watch the end. And that has gone well. That’ll probably happen again this weekend – and we’ll see how it goes. Nothing is in the bag, but I got a real good feeling.

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