The aura of Cameron Indoor Stadium will spread to the opposite side of campus next semester.
Beginning in January, local sports bar Seasoned Ticket will be hosting students at the Devil's Den on Central Campus during 14 men's basketball games. For a still-to-be-determined fee, anyone with a Duke ID will be able to watch the games on the Den's widescreen TVs and munch on a catered buffet.
Passes will be pre-sold at the Bryan Center ticket office, said Nick Tiornack, the restaurant's co-owner.
The first event will be Jan. 10 during the away game against North Carolina State University, and the Den will open for about an hour before and after the game.
Tiornack said the building will be open for every game next semester, with the exception of the Jan. 20 game against Georgia Tech and the Feb. 4 game against Florida State University-both of which are afternoon games.
The cooperative venture brings a veteran team-which runs two sports bars in the Durham area-to a facility that has had trouble attracting patrons.
"The idea is to get students to go [to the Den] for different events, to revitalize it with the Seasoned Ticket's ability to develop a reputation during the basketball games," said Jim Wulforst, director of Dining Services. "I'm just spread too thin to do what [students] would like me to do."
The entrance fee will cover all food and non-alcoholic beverages, and if a license is approved beer and wine will be sold separately. The menu has not been decided.
The Den is currently open only for private functions. When it hosted students two years ago during basketball games, the events were widely considered a success. They were discontinued when Dining Services was unable to attract patrons on other nights. Since the building will undergo no major physical changes, Tiornack does not expect any delays in its reopening.
Tiornack's business partner, Peter Savarino, is the son-in-law of men's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski.
The plan is a scaled-back version of an earlier idea by the Seasoned Ticket to open the Den for dinner three nights each week. Tiornack said that scheduling would be too inconsistent for the plan to work, due to private events already slotted for next semester in the Oregon Avenue facility.
However, he added that the restaurant may still be willing to cater other private events in the Den.
"We'll probably entertain the idea if other groups on campus want to hold an event there, but we're not going to solicit that at this time," Tiornack said.
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