Time to park concerns over tailgating and let PNC Arena upgrades proceed

We’re not seriously going to put the brakes on a $2 billion development that would revolutionize the PNC Arena (and Carter-Finley Stadium) experience over parking spots, are we? In the year 2022?

That’s somehow become the biggest talking and sticking point as we move inexorably toward the long-overdue transformation of the 80 acres around the arena, which for 25 years has sat plopped in the middle of nothing, surrounded by a scrim of pine trees and acre upon acre of empty asphalt.

Everyone else, from the state to the county to the city to the arena authority appears to be on board, or at the least not standing in the way, of letting Carolina Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon (in concert, presumably, with a plethora of local developers) convert those parking lots into bars, restaurants, retail, hotels, apartments, offices, a sportsbook (eventually) and a live music venue – the kinds of things that downtown arenas have by virtue of their locations and PNC utterly lacks by virtue of its location.

A consultant recently recommended that the Centennial Authority, which oversees the arena, move forward with Dundon, who has a right of first refusal to develop the land in the Hurricanes’ lease. But that’s contingent on N.C. State’s approval, among the many others, and N.C. State chancellor Randy Woodson has talked about protecting “N.C. State’s ability to provide the best fan experience, generate revenue, and remain competitive in the ACC in men’s basketball and football.”

That includes, foremost, the parking lots that get used for N.C. State football games six or seven days a year, and the difficult conversations no one wants to have with big Wolfpack Club donors who might have to park somewhere new — or even in a parking deck.

Of course, that didn’t stop the university from plowing under hundreds of spots on its own to build an indoor practice facility, but these are legitimate concerns. Somehow, though, those concerns have metamorphosed into a public referendum on tailgating.

It’s all a false choice anyway: This isn’t a decision for or against tailgating. There will always be tailgating. That culture isn’t being threatened.

Nothing’s going to happen to the 4,000 parking spots south of the arena around Carter-Finley Stadium (unless N.C. State does something on its own). And even the 4,000 spots that surround PNC aren’t all going to be dug up and converted to deck parking overnight. It’ll happen gradually, over the course of a decade or so, with plenty of time to adjust and adapt.

The reality is, there’s a huge tailgating culture around N.C. State football and basketball and Hurricanes hockey in part because there’s no other way to get a drink or have a meal before a football or hockey game.

Give people the option to park in a deck and have a beer and a bite to eat while watching the early games on TV – in the comfort of air conditioning for those September noon games and heat for those November night games and most of hockey season – and maybe even placing a wager, and many would snap it up.

Especially if there are infrastructure upgrades that make the arena and stadium easier to access, alleviating the traditional traffic snarls. (There are still people trying to get to the U2 concert, 13 years later.) If you can pull off Wade Avenue and directly into a deck, showing up four hours early for a football game becomes a choice, not a necessity.

And anyone who wants to set up a tent and lay out a spread that would make Roman emperors blush, they’ll still be able to enjoy that at their leisure. Maybe not in the same place they have been for the past 20 years, maybe on the roof of a deck lined with extra-large spots for that purpose, but still within howling distance of their seats. Some may prefer a communal tailgating area already set up with bespoke tents and power and ice, as many other schools do nowadays. There are ways to do this that not only protect the experience, but enhance it.

Tailgating isn’t the issue. Parking is. But it’s far from insoluble. Woodson just has to cut the best deal he can for the university to let the project proceed, and the upside here for N.C. State is unlimited. Brand-new basketball practice facility next to the arena? High-rise residences for football and basketball players overlooking the stadium? Wolfpack retail megastore to rival the Adidas flagship in Times Square? Tesla hyperloop to deliver well-heeled boosters to a secret elevator under their suites?

With the leverage Woodson has, he can get anything he bloody well wants. Imagine taking recruits to see all of that instead of parking lots. With a little imagination, the potential for revenue generation, combined with the reduced supply of and increased demand for surface parking, means N.C. State can make more money than it does now.

Either way, this has to happen. The arena has sat there for too long, lonely and unloved, in one of the last great undeveloped parcels in Wake County. Along with Bandwidth and the state Department of Health and Human Services across Wade, there’s a chance to create a new urban center just outside the Beltline, a brisk walk or short shuttle bus ride from a potential future commuter rail station, a focus of commercial activity whether there’s a game that day or night or not.

This all goes together with the proposed renovations to PNC itself: Dundon gets the green light to develop the land, the Hurricanes sign a new 20-plus-year lease, the city and county turn over the money to upgrade the arena. Block the development, and the aging arena won’t get the new amenities it so desperately needs. Or, as authority member Rod Malone put it in a meeting last week to discuss renovations, “If we don’t get a lease agreement, we don’t have any money.”

Inside and outside, this is the long-awaited opportunity to propel the fan experience at PNC – and Carter-Finley – into the 21st Century. Everybody wins.

There will still always be tailgating. This isn’t about tailgating. It’s about using some — not all — of those parking spots to bring something other than tailgating to the party.

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This story was originally published October 17, 2022 at 6:05 AM with the headline "Time to park concerns over tailgating and let PNC Arena upgrades proceed."

Luke DeCock

The News & Observer

Luke DeCock is a former journalist for the News & Observer.