UNC Junior Plans Peach Bowl Excursion for 800 Students

Burgess Foster has secured hotel rooms, luxury busing and 800 tickets to the Dec. 31 Peach Bowl for his program, Ride With Carolina Spirit.

The cost will be $199.99 per package, with 2 percent of the proceeds going to a charity, which organizers said probably will be the Sonja H. Stone Black Cultural Center.

Tickets will go on sale Wednesday at the Carolina Union Box Office.

"It's a promotion basically to garner team spirit in going to the Peach Bowl," Foster said at a Nov. 20 press conference.

Foster said he thinks a demonstrated commitment to sending UNC fans to the Peach Bowl will help the team secure the bid. Usually the third place team in the Atlantic Coast Conference goes, but the bid is not guaranteed, he said.

"We want to show the Peach Bowl committee that we will buy tickets right now," Foster said. "I am in receipt of a letter from the Peach Bowl committee guaranteeing me 800 tickets."

The Peach Bowl is played in the Georgia Dome. The 800 tickets will probably be located in sections 110 and 121 or the first 10 rows of sections 318 to 325, according to the letter.

Foster stressed that students will not lose their money if the football team falters on the field and fails to make it to the Peach Bowl.

The UNC football team will likely go to the Peach Bowl if it defeats Southern Methodist University on Dec. 1 and if Florida State beats Georgia Tech. "If we do not go to the Peach Bowl, it is no problem," Foster said. "100 percent refund."

A major benefit of Ride With Carolina Spirit is that the seats all will be together, Foster said. "I want to pull up to the stadium and let them know that North Carolina is here," he said.

Fine hotels and bus transportation are another selling point for the trip, Foster said. The 200 rooms, booked by Circle Travel of Chapel Hill, will hold four students each and be spread among the Fairfield Inn Midtown, Hampton Inn Midtown, Regency Suites Hotel and Marriott Atlanta Suites.

"This is not the Motel 6, guys," Foster said. "We're going in style here."

Ride With Carolina Spirit is associated with Groove Phi Groove Social Fellowship Inc. so tickets can be sold through the Student Union box office.

"We're trying to coordinate this to try to sell the tickets on campus as a convenience to students," Foster said. "I could go to Ticketmaster or Record Exchange, but this is Carolina."

When students go to buy the tickets, they must buy them by the room in blocks of four, Foster said.

Foster said he is confident of the football team's ability to win its game this weekend. He said he has stuck with the team all season, even when some fans doubted it.

"I came up with the idea for Ride With Carolina Spirit when we were 0-3," Foster said. "I knew we would turn it around."

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.