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Sky high Deacons
Wake Forest's football tower has all the amenities ... and more
Journal photo by David Rolfe
Construction on Deacon Tower began in December 2006 and is basically complete. The tower will be open to the public on Aug. 28.
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Published: August 20, 2008
If the late Marvin "Skeeter" Francis could see the new Deacon Tower at BB&T Field, his likely reaction would be: "Oh, yeah."
Francis, a former sports-information director at Wake Forest in the 1950s and '60s and then an assistant commissioner with the ACC, would love the spacious media area and other amenities that make up the seven-story tower.
The tower is 125 feet tall and 122,000 square feet and has all the bells and whistles a modern college football stadium needs. By comparison, the old press box, which was built in 1968, was 7,100 cramped square feet.
The construction on Deacon Tower began in December 2006 and is nearly complete, except for a few minor alterations. It was open for a media tour yesterday.
Athletics Director Ron Wellman said that the cost of the tower was about $48 million.
"The end result is even better than I anticipated," Wellman said. "You work with drawings and plans, and you think you have some idea of what it's going to be, and then you walk into it for the first time, and I was shocked. I was thrilled, of course, by just the magnitude of it all."
Wellman said he has visited Deacon Tower several times since it opened and that he usually finds something new each trip.
"We think it's going to have a positive impact, not only on the football program, but the athletic department and the university and the community," Wellman said. "We want this facility to be used by all of those organizations within the university but also to be used by the community."
Fans who want to see Deacon Tower and other upgrades at BB&T Field will have that chance Aug. 28. The stadium will be open, and tailgating will be allowed when Wake Forest opens its season at Baylor.
The Deacons home opener will be Sept. 6 against Mississippi.
"We want to let fans in for that game with Baylor, and it's free of charge," said Steve Shutt, an assistant athletics director in charge of media relations.
Deacon Tower could eventually have a new name, if Wake Forest were to sell naming rights. The school did that with Groves Stadium, changing the name to BB&T Field before last season.
"We are looking at that possibility and (the tower) is available for a naming opportunity, and we've talked with some individuals about that," Wellman said. "Nothing is on the immediate horizon, but we are hopeful for the future."
In addition to suites, boxes, concession stands and different levels of seating, Deacon Tower has an office to handle catering and special events, including weddings. Nick Jarvis, a former long snapper who graduated last spring, plans to be married at Deacon Tower next year, Shutt said, and six or seven other weddings have already been booked.
Shutt said that the views from the tower are also pretty impressive.
"I love that when you go on the photo deck on the seventh floor on the south side, there is a phenomenal view of the skyline of Winston-Salem," he said. "We hope to get the TV reporters who do their shots from the stadium, that they will use that as part of the back drop.
"The whole thing is an incredible facility."
Other things fans will notice about the upgrades are more seat-back chairs and 500 more seats in the end zone just outside Bridger Field House. The new seats have been set up for groups and have raised capacity to 32,000.
"The response thus far has been one of awe," Wellman said. "Everyone has had exactly the same response, ‘I can't believe it's this good.'"
Wellman said that other parts of Deacon Tower could be named but wouldn't commit to the pressbox being named for Francis, who used to announce football games with a unique flair.
"Skeeter was an icon and not only at Wake Forest but for the ACC. In fact, we have an award named for him in the ACC," Wellman said of Francis, who died in July 2004. "We have a lot of details to work out, but we are really in the first hour of this."
■ John Dell can be reached at 727-4081 or at jdell@wsjournal.com.
Deacon Tower Specs
Square feet: 122,000
Height: 125 feet
Exterior: Brick and glass (600,000 bricks, 80,000 brick pavers, 1,196 panes of glass)
Audio-video: 45 surveillance cameras, 184 flat-screen TVs, 464 speakers
Wiring: 90,000 feet of data cable; 125,000 feet of security-camera cable; 200 miles of electrical cable
Seating/suites: 16 box suites that hold 17 people each ($30,000/season each); six box suites with exterior balconies; 628 club seats; 24 indoor/outdoor tables; Moricle Suite that holds 84 people; President's Suite that holds 76 people
Pipes/plumbing: 12,370 feet of cast-iron pipe; 23,730 feet of all-thread pipe; 649 feet of black-steel pipe; 98 lavatories; 26 sinks; 30 water heaters
Total cost: About $48 million
Open to the public: Aug. 28, during the Wake Forest at Baylor game
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