In February 1948, Case made alterations to the design of the still incomplete Reynolds Coliseum. Attempting to usurp Duke's Cameron Indoor Stadium as the largest basketball arena in the area, Case insisted that the blueprints be changed to increase the maximum capacity from 9,000 seats to 12,400. Construction resumed later that month after a final shipment of steel arrived in Raleigh. Reynolds officially opened its doors on December 2, 1949, with a Wolfpack win over Washington & Lee, 67–47, in front of a crowd of 11,020. At that time, the arena was the largest college basketball facility in the southeast. Soon after Reynolds' opening, the "Greensboro News & Record" wrote that Raleigh had become "the basketball capital of the world. Immediately, at once."