Tobacco Road Tour (Photos)

Tuesday night the PawSox and Reno Aces (Diamondbacks) will play in the Gildan Triple-A National Championship game at Durham Bulls Athletic Park in Durham, Nc.

There have been plenty of festivities leading up to the game, including a Tabacco Road tour Monday afternoon.

Our first stop was to the University of North Carolina and the Dean Smith Center. Even if you’re more of a Duke guy (like me), this was a tremendous experience.

With a capacity of slightly over 21,000, the Dean Smith Center has mare than twice the capacity of Duke’s Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Here is what the players see as they run onto the court from the locker room before tipoff (minus the 20,000+ fans).

Outside the Tar Heels’ locker room.

Apparently they don’t let just anyone inside the Tar Heels’ locker room. This James Bond issued hand scanner is located next the door.

Inside the UNC locker room I get a chance to show the peak of my athletic abilities.

Flatscreen TV, Xbox 360, and leather couches. Not too much is missing inside the “lounge” portion of the locker room.

Can’t forget about the ping pong table and gigantic basketball hanging from the ceiling.

We also had a chance to check out Kenan Memorial Stadium. I took this picture from one of the end zone suites which will set you back a cool $50,000 for one season.

After a fun visit to UNC, we jumped on the bus and drove about 20 minutes to PNC Arena, home of the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes and North Carolina State men’s basketball.

View from press row. Gotta love the huge projection screen TVs!

Directly across the street from PNC Arena is Carter-Finley Stadium, home of North Carolina State football. Unfortunately, this is as far as we were able to go inside.

Many thanks to the Durham Bulls for setting such a fun tour. Later Monday evening we were able to spend ample time at Duke University and Cameron Indoor Stadium which was the absolute highlight for me. (Separate blog to follow.)

It’s been raining almost all day in Durham and it’s looking like there won’t be much let up for the next several hours. If for some reason tonight’s game gets rained out, the PawSox and Aces will play Wednesday night.

Hopefully we can get this one in this evening!

-AG

@aaronmgoldsmith
agoldsmith@pawsox.com