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GREENSBORO — Step inside the ACC Hall of Champions.

First, you’ll see a circular entry dominated by 12 columns — one for each league member — and a massive globe that will serve as a screen for a video that will introduce you to the world of the ACC.

Farther inside, you’ll learn how the media, integration and women changed the league. And you’ll get the chance to become a broadcaster, creating your own play-by-play of famous games.

For now, the tour will have to be on paper.

But a year from now, says Matt Brown, the Greensboro Coliseum managing director, fans will be able to visit the real thing — an 8,100-square-foot tribute to the Atlantic Coast Conference, its coaches and athletes.

“It is meant to be representative of all sports,” Brown said. “We want it to be interactive and appeal to fans of all ages.”

That’s just the first phase. Several others will follow as funds become available.

For starters, the General Assembly has shelled out $2 million — plus $200,000 interest — for a project Brown first suggested in 1995.

“That is how old it is,” Brown said of his idea. “I think it is a unique opportunity for the community to develop a true tourist destination. It’s going to further this lifelong relationship between the ACC and Greensboro and give us future national prominence.”

And future ACC basketball tournaments. At least, that’s what Brown foresees.

But first, the hall must be built. And at times, it looked as if that would never happen.

Brown’s idea languished for years, in part because the City Council got hung up on spending $3.2 million to buy the proposed site — the vacant Canada Dry building next door.

Eventually, Brown switched to Plan B and moved the site to a section of the coliseum’s Special Events Center, a location he says he now prefers.

That wasn’t the only point of controversy. Some questioned using state money for such a project, especially during tough economic times.

Last June, state Sen. Phil Berger, a Republican from Eden, called the outlay “wasteful pork spending.”

But by that time, the council had finally released the $2 million — four years after the state awarded it.

The money will be used to transform a storage area in the events center into the Hall of Champions.

Slightly more than half the money —$1.1 million — will be used to build a new facade and entrance on the building’s west wing. The rest will be used for the interior and exhibits.

Brown says construction could begin later this month. He anticipates work will be finished this time next year, when the coliseum hosts the 2011 women’s and men’s ACC basketball tournaments.

“If they can get this started soon after the tournaments are over, I don’t think there is any question that we can have it open next year,” said Kim Strable, head of the Greensboro Sports Commission. “It won’t necessarily be a museum. There won’t be a lot of memorabilia. It’s designed to tell the ACC story. It will be a tribute to the ACC and what it represents.”

So what will fans see?

Last week, coliseum officials released a conceptual floor plan for the first phase. 

Proposed features include:

• The circular entry area, which is called the World of ACC.

Brown describes the globe and the continuous loop, 13-minute video as the hall’s “wow factor.”

In the same area, two additional screens will display photos of every athlete in the conference.

Another space, labeled “Greensboro,” explains why the ACC is based here and why the Hall of Champions is a part of the coliseum.

The area also features four display cases that will tell current ACC stories.

“The idea is to keep this as updated as possible,” said ACC Commissioner John Swofford. “ ... It can be something very special in terms of Greensboro and fans of the ACC.”

• Twelve stations that will allow each school to tell its own sports story. Next to those, organizers hope to display life-size mascots.
• A collection of ceiling banners that celebrate the various national championships won by ACC teams.
• Floor graphics that will highlight key ACC moments and rivalries and the shoe sizes of various athletes.

“We want visitors to look up, look ahead, look back and look down,” said Terence Healy, principal at HealyKohler Design near Washington, who has worked on the ACC project for several months. “ ... It is designed as this layered experience for the different types of visitors.”

• An interactive table where fans can test their ACC knowledge in a Jeopardy-style contest.
• A two-sided artifact case that will hold important items from the league’s past.
• A space where fans can do their own broadcast of ACC games. Fans will hear a 30-second clip of a famous broadcast, then make their own play-by-play and hear it repeated.

“You can be Dickie V,” said Brown, referring to ESPN basketball analyst Dick Vitale. “You can do a voice-over and make a call of the game.”

• A spot where fans can test how high they jump.
• Places to honor the current men’s and women’s ACC athletes of the year.
• Locations where fans can view short clips of the current year’s championship teams — 13 for women, 12 for men.
• An ACC timeline. This won’t be a year-by-year rehash of league history. Rather, it will examine areas such as the role of the media, integration, education, league expansion and the conference’s formation, which occurred in Greensboro in 1953.
• A wall to pay tribute to the league’s sports innovations.

“The goal is not to put people on a pedestal,” Healy said. “It is more an idea that is put on that pedestal ... how ACC basketball impacted the rest of college basketball.”

• A space to honor ACC champions in 25 sports over a period of 80 years.
• A display that highlights the culture surrounding ACC sports, such as tailgating, fans, bands, cheerleaders and tournaments.
• An ACC board room, reception area, office space and rest rooms.
• Later additions could include:
• An ACC Hall of Greats, a space to honor the likes of Arnold Palmer, Michael Jordan, Kay Yow, Mia Hamm, Doug Flutie, David Thompson, Dean Smith, Bobby Bowden and Mike Krzyzewski.
• Space for conference schools to tell their academic stories.
• A section on fitness and nutrition.
• Space where fans could shoot free throws, kick a soccer ball at a net or swing in a batting cage.

“It’s all subject to available funding,” Brown said. “We hope it will come from the state ... that they see this as a statewide tourist destination. The best recipe for soliciting more money is showing what we did with the first allocation.”

Brown said additional phases could cover another 25,000 square feet and cost an additional $18 million.
He said he would not ask the city or the ACC for money.

“It has never been something that we expected from them,” Brown said of the conference. “They are letting us use their brand name and use it to promote our community.”

Brown could not say what the hall’s economic impact might be on Greensboro, but a study several years ago anticipated that it will initially attract more than 170,000 visitors a year.

He also anticipates they’d pay an admission fee of about $5.

Organizers say the visit will be worth the price.

They say the finished product could be a one-of-a-kind venue in the nation — a way to recognize all the sports for a single, major conference.

“We were looking for one to visit,” Ken Mayer, a principal with Moser Mayer Phoenix Associates and the architect for the hall’s interior, said of other such attractions. “We couldn’t find one.”

Contact Donald W. Patterson at 373-7027 or don.patterson @news-record.com