Greg Bailey WCNC Sports Director

Whoever works in the city office that's responsible for advertising the Lynx Light Rail for the ACC Tournament, you get a raise. No make that a big raise.

By Friday, people in Wyoming had heard the good word. The light rail is a convenient, cheap, clean way to ride the rails right up to Bobcats Arena for all the ACC action. By Friday morning at 11, the Lynx was a convenient, cheap and clean way to miss the beginning of the North Carolina game at noon.

I tried to find a parking spot at the South Boulevard Station right off 485. I started at 10:40 this morning and I'm still looking. After 12 trips around the parking garage -- it's lovely, even when it's full and there are no more spots -- I asked if there was more parking anywhere. "Try to go to the Arrowood station," was the polite reply. This wasn't good advice, it was great advice. Right up there with my dad telling me my grades would be better in college if I would start going to class.

I made the train at Arrowood. So did a few hundred of my closest friends. At each successive stop, every platform was full of more fans, but space ran out. We were packed in so close people started talking to strangers simply because it was awkward not to. One Carolina fan told me she got her tickets from an Iron Duke. Nice move. The same woman would turn her head to breathe every time the doors opened. She would also tell all the fans/potential Lynx riders that there was "no more room." At two stops someone tried to wedge his way in. Both times the packed-in patrons repelled the intruders with cries of "don't even try!"

Finally, at one of the late stops, two women abandoned their husbands. The mens' gaping mouths made it obvious that they didn't know how the women packed in, either. As stranded fans were crying out, "We've waited for 3 or 4 trains, but there's no room!", the women plunged in. The shock value of their audacity meant the pack in the train cars simply absorbed them without complaint. I asked one woman about leaving her husband behind (my spot was right by the door) and she explained with no trace of remorse that "I had the kids yesterday by myself." No more questions about her husband or her kids.

Just before noon the train pulled into the station by the arena. I've decided the Lynx Light Rail is convenient, cheap and clean if you leave 4 hours before tip off. I'll see you Saturday morning at 9:30.

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