They don’t have a single site but there are several viable sites. I think Dundon would personally prefer PNC if it’s not in downtown. It could go in at Dix.
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Personally, if the city is footing the bill for a lot of this, I’d love to see it go in an area very close to downtown. Dix would be great if they could figure out logistics without removing a lot of the park.
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Yeah the hotel & tourism tax are regenerated yearly, I think they definitely could pay part of it.
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As regularly as Charlotte “USA” is snidely brought up on this forum, I think there is something Raleigh can learn from that. Which is, city awareness from a national perspective. From my observations, it seems like in the eyes of many casual observers, Raleigh isn’t really thought of as a serious candidate especially compared to other peer cities such as Charlotte and Nashville, even though in reality Raleigh is arguably the best choice of the three once you look past the names of the cities. I think Raleigh and Salt Lake City are the two best choices for MLB, but they’re not really the sexiest picks compared to Nashville, Las Vegas, etc.
Raleigh doesn’t even have similarly-named regional cities that confuse the unfamiliar, but especially in sports the “brand awareness” just isn’t there yet. Back in the '80s, Charlotte’s entire metro population was only around 1M but they were actively pursuing (and ended up being awarded) NBA and NFL franchises, despite a relatively small population and little name recognition. There was a famous sports writer out of Phoenix who was on record at the time saying something to the effect of “the only franchise Charlotte will ever get will be a McDonald’s”. Well now when conversations like this come up, Charlotte is the default response for the Carolinas. The Triangle is more than substantial enough now to command a place at the table, and Raleigh should take full advantage of opportunities like these because I don’t foresee many more expansion teams in any league being added after this. Maaaaybe a couple more NBA and MLS teams at some point, but I think 32 teams is about the max any league should bring on.
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The rise of Charlotte’s boosterism is easy to spot. It hit turbo-drive after the deregulation of banks in the 80s. Raleigh never had a Hugh McColl, and in fact the Park was built on the backs of outside firms. We can poke fun at Charlotte’s boosterism and still be amazed at how good Charlotte is at it.
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Technology Raleigh can bolster its image with that. There no excuse on that level.
I personally don’t think it would be a good idea to put it by PNC, especially when the Canes need to go on an annual long road trip due to the state fair. You already have NHL hockey, and D1 college football needing to work around those 2 weeks in October. Let’s say the new MLB team makes a deep run into the post season and the home games overlap with the fair. The state fair is not going to adjust dates and neither will the mlb. That area of Raleigh is already busy enough and we just don’t have the infrastructure around there to handle it all imo. Thats why I’m hoping interest rates drop back down just in time for DT south to progress yet again. Having the stadium in that area will 1, not pull too much of a draw from the Bulls (our future AAA team, I’m calling it), and 2 be easier access for people coming from Garner, Fuqua, other parts of so. Wake, & Jo co where baseball is a little more popular than in western wake from my educated guess. Oh, and don’t forget about Fayetteville. Lot’s of military personnel will make the trip up on the weekend to catch some games.
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They’ve had football games during the State Fair before. I particularly recall October 22 2004. It was ESPN College Gameday. (First and only time they hosted it at Carter-Finley.) Traffic was a mess, but the atmosphere was electric. I was a student at the time and lived at Westgrove Apartments just across Blue Ridge Road from the K-mart. State lost but it sure was a lot of fun.
They’re not going to want to have a bunch of home games in the midst of the state fair, but a game or two - it can work.
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Yeah, NC State-UNC fair games used to be a staple.
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Yeah two active areas is better both will also be better transit corridors. Also the city will have more income coming from 2 different places.
Some recent developments help a little bit. Dreamville is now well recognized internationally, MANY international carriers now flying to RDU, the success of the Canes, and some of the largest companies planting roots here (Google, Apple, etc).
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Oh for sure, I remember when that was a big event every other year or so. I just think that area has been built up quite a bit since 2004. A lot more residential, office, less parking, and not a substantial enough improvement on infrastructure to host 2 large events next to each other imo, especially with the steady increase in visitors to the state fair every year. Plus, its time to give another part of raleigh some love and help DT revitalize. What’s better than 81(+) home games of 30k+ ppl in close proximity to dtr? Out of the major sports leagues in America, baseball clearly has the best ROI.
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(Dreamville should be at the Fairgrounds instead of Dix)
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I disagree. Dix is good location. Fairgrounds doesn’t have enough space and is too far away from downtown. Music fans fill up downtown before and after shows.
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I was halfway trolling with that suggestion of sending Dreamville to the Fairgrounds, but let’s clarify:
Fairgrounds proper is about 100 acres, specifically designed to accommodate high-attendance events and basically closed off otherwise. It has the infrastructure in terms of bathrooms, roads, parking, and (in the future) transit to make it work. Between the fair, got 2 be NC, football, basketball, hockey, and whatever major performances go to PNC or Carter-Finley, there are a lot of events every year. They are staffed for it and have established traffic and crowd control plans to handle things.
Meanwhile, Dreamville is basically the Dix big field, no? That’s about 40 acres, so smaller. Being closer to downtown at Dix is a plus, but it’s a long walk and the transit and parking available downtown is not super well located for the festival. Dix itself is not really set up to handle crowds. It takes a big effort to make it work; it’s disruptive while it’s happening, and it makes nearly an entire public park into a tickets-only venue for a weekend-and-change during the most beautiful time of year in Raleigh.
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First, the music festival experience would be diminished if it were held at an arena or football stadium with extremely limited capacities. The state fair complex is more of a maze than Dix Park, far from downtown or any other attractions (popular clubs, bars, hotels, etc.), and is owned by too many parties (nc state, hurricanes, and state gov.).
Second, there are plans in place to improve both transit and active transportation options surrounding Dix Park. With those improvements and continued festival shuttle usage, traffic will decrease.
Third, there’s nothing like walking from or even throughout the park and seeing the skyline while also being a 5 minute Uber away from downtown. The state fair grounds are surrounded by: stroads; confusing highway interchanges; non-existent sidewalks/bike lanes; office parks; and cud neighborhoods full of culdesacs.
I think Dix Park is the perfect place to host music festivals like Dreamville, plus some of the revenue helps to fund developments throughout the park.
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Dix is good for music festivals like Lalalapoolza at Grant Park in Chicago. Or a large country music festivals not saying there could be some fair but it really good for large outdoors events I suggest there be hotel that flank around it.
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There’s but so much money and attention to go around, and Nashville’s brand/image is larger than they actually are in both population/growth and money.
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This won’t help Charlotte’s optics for Tepper/MLB.
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i spoke to a former canadian from detroit the other day who has/had a relative work at rex hospital in raleigh playing in now a roanoke va tennis league. small world.
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