I disagree that the link between Wake and Winston-Salem has been burned, and I think a lot of the discussion on here reflects selective memory. A few examples of Wake and the community:
- You think Wake football attendance was better in the 80s and 90s? Unfortunately I can't find many box scores from back then, but here are some from 1997 (the earliest year I could quickly find).
http://www.wakeforestsports.com/sports/m-footbl/archive/97review/schedule.html You'll notice that we drew 22,000 for GT and 24,000 for NCSU at the beginning of the year. Despite having several down seasons, Wake football has averaged 28,000 fans at home games the last several years. Here are the numbers
http://www.ncaa.org/championships/statistics/ncaa-football-attendance I think it's pretty clear that football attendance in the past several decades was certainly not higher than it is now.
- Two years ago Wake Forest formalized a relationship with Twin City Soccer, the largest youth soccer program in the Triad. Thousands of kids attend Wake soccer games now each fall. It's completely different than it was in the 1990s. In fact, Wake Forest had the
highest college soccer attendance in the country this past season. Here's a great video from 2 seasons ago to give you an idea of the atmosphere if you haven't been
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imTQUu6gIwk
- The Skip Prosser Literacy Program has been extremely successful for 4th graders across Forsyth County, with Wake basketball players reading in schools in Winston-Salem and kids recognized at halftime of a Wake basketball game.
- The last two years the women's basketball team has had school day, where they play a game during the day and elementary school students attend. They shattered an attendance record this year with 8,500 students in attendance.
I could go on. Living in Winston, I don't see this burned bridge. Yes, men's basketball attendance is down, but that's because we've been bad for several years. Nothing more, nothing less.