WINSTON-SALEM -- What covers 122,000 square feet, rises 125 feet and includes 600,000 bricks, 184 televisions, 45 surveillance cameras and 464 speakers?

A dream building that cost $47 million?

The dream has become reality.

Wake Forest's Deacon Tower, which dominates the west side of BB&T Field, is complete and ready to go as the Demon Deacons approach their first home football game on Sept. 6 against Mississippi.

Construction for the seven-story structure began in December of 2006, a few months after eager Wake fans bought all of the available box suites and club seats. They had faith that coach Jim Grobe could build a consistent winner, and the Deacons enter 2008 with 20 victories, one ACC title and two bowl appearances over the last two years.

Wake Forest's football program has arrived. And so has Deacon Tower.

Did the building turn out to be everything that Wake athletic director Ron Wellman expected?

"Better," he said on Tuesday afternoon during a media tour of the facility. "It really did. When you work with drawings and renderings for so long, you think you have a feel for what it's going to be like, but I was blown away the first time I walked in.

"I was pleasantly surprised and just about shocked with the quality and the way it looked, the flow of it and everything about it."

Wake's football home, formerly called Groves Stadium, was built in 1968. Not much had changed with the east and west stands until Deacon Tower came along.

It makes a stunning difference, with the tower's 98 lavatories, 26 sinks, 22,500 square feet of carpet, 200 miles of electrical cable and much, much more.

How long has such a facility been needed?

"Oh, gosh. You tell me," Wellman responded. "You have been to other stadiums and you know the amenities and how other universities have been able to host their fans, and we haven't had that capability. There has been an awful lot of pent-up enthusiasm for the program, as indicated by the premium seat sales."

The premium seats went on sale in August of 2006 and all were sold less than two months later. That was before Wake went to the Orange and Meineke Car Car bowls, the first time the program has gone to consecutive bowl games.

"That was maybe the crowning moment for me, in recognizing how much enthusiasm there is for Wake football," Wellman said.

In 2007, Wake set a school record for highest average attendance at home games, drawing an average of 32,595. The Deacons ranked fourth in the nation in attendance by percentage of capacity (103.5 percent).

Given the fact that Wake's undergraduate enrollment is about 4,000 students, the attendance is even more amazing.

"Our football stadium is nine times the size of our undergraduate enrollment," Wellman said. "Compare that to other universities. If the other schools in our conference had a stadium nine times the size of their undergraduate enrollment, what size stadium would they have? Would they be able to fill it."

It's unlikely that N.C. State and North Carolina, with undergraduate enrollments of more than 20,000 each, would be able to fill a 180,000-seat stadium.

"That puts a completely different complexion on our sellouts," Wellman said.

Deacon Tower will help keep the school's football momentum alive. The building is just the third phase of a six-phase project of the football stadium that will eventually include - among other things - a renovation of Bridger Field House, expanded bathroom and concession areas and the joining of Deacon Hill to nearby Ernie Shore Stadium, which Wake Forest will purchase in September.

"When people come in for the first time, we want there to be an "Awe Factor,'" Wellman said about a fan's first look at Deacon Tower. "We want people to say, "Oh, my God! Look at that!' And we want them to have a great experience watching the game. We want to win the game. But win or lose, we want our fans to have such a great experience that when they are leaving, they are saying, "I can't wait to come back.'"

Expect fans to come back. The Deacons have a school-record seven home games this season, and Deacon Tower will provide a spectacular backdrop for all of them.

This article appeared in Wednesday's edition of the High Point Enterprise.