Falling concrete, sizzling circuits at UNC

Phase I of Kenan Stadium renovations are scheduled to begin after this season, and after Saturday’s victory over McNeese State, they can’t start fast enough.

Not only did a lightning strike short out a circuit board in the PA announcer’s box (the school had a spare), interfere with cable and wireless connections in the press box and delay the game in the second quarter for almost two hours — but a chunk of concrete fell into the stands around section 220, spokesman Steve Kirschner confirmed Saturday.

It landed in an area where there were no people, so no one was hurt. And the school is still looking into what caused it. But it will be fixed before UNC’s next home game, against Virginia Tech on Sept. 28, Associate Athletics Director for Media Relations Steve Kirschner said.

“An aging facility and a bad storm are not a good combination, to say the least,’’ Kirschner said.

It was just another strange occurance during a night of many. Before the game, an aerial team that was supposed to parachute into Kenan with the game ball instead landed at Duke’s Wallace Wade Stadium.

Then after the game, the lone beat reporter covering McNeese State got stuck in the press box elevator for about two hours. He was eventually freed around 1 a.m.

Just another thing to fix at Kenan.