Come from the west like I do. Hillsborough Street by NC State is a nice entrance… 
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This will not take away from acts that go to these spaces. It will draw acts where 2500-3500 is the sweet spot, and currently, those acts aren’t coming here or they are disappointed when they go to a bigger venue that’s half empty. I’ve been talking about this gap in venues for some time, and couldn’t be more excited for this one.
This is how I think about it: Realistically these are the three true smaller music/concert venues we have:
Lincoln Theater: 750
The Ritz: 1,400
Red Hat: 6,000
DPAC and Duke Energy are different draws, in my opinion. Although there may be some overlap - a theatre venue and a music venue are fundamentally different.
That said, compare that to DC capacities of the major commercial music venues:
Union Stage: 850
9:30 Club: 1,200
Echostage: 3,000
The Anthem: 6,000 (max)
An Echostage sized venue is the one we’ve been missing, and this has the potential to be better than that one. Echostage is a major draw for artists that don’t normally come to Raleigh. It is in a terrible location, but it consistently fills out and draws artists/producers/etc. because of acoustics and lighting. Very common for people from here to make the journey to DC for shows there.
Population differences aside this is a gap, and will serve us well.
I would be careful about mincing words on the term “ballroom.” This group owns another fantastic ballroom in Denver called Mission Ballroom (3,950 capacity). Here’s what that looks like under various scenarios:
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Just sharing; I went to DC’s The Anthem last week for the Idles show, and holy F’ing S that place is astronomically huge. Blew my mind that an indoor venue could be that big and still have such great sound. Would not mind something of that caliber here - The Ritz is smaller yet somehow has worse sound, and Red Hat is around the same capacity yet of course also has terrible sound given that it’s outdoors (not my preference, ever) and in the canyon between the Shimmer Wall and that parking deck.
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Red Hat’s days are numbered as the City has plans for the land. It was only intended to be a temporary use any way until such time as the Convention Center needed it for expansion.
Walnut Creek Amphitheater is really too far from the urban center of Raleigh. And, it will likely get sold off and plowed under for housing stock.
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Not to mention Walnut Creek just absolutely sucks unless you can afford/manage to secure tix under the pavilion. But even then it sucks because no matter what, you’re going to spend at minimum a f’king hour trying to get out of that clusterf_k. I haven’t been to a show there in years nor do I want to, unless it’s like Radiohead or something unbelievable lmao.
I appreciate that the shows that very well could’ve booked at Walnut Creek that I’ve seen over the past few years booked at PNC Arena instead. I will 1000% always prefer an indoor venue vs an outdoor one.
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It’s funny you mentioned Red Hat amphitheater’s future. Bill King had some interesting updates to provide about that yesterday:
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“sounds like” or “reads like” RedHat AMP could move to Dix? 
IMO, the lawn at Walnut Creek is pretty great as far as 20k amphs go.
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I saw Blue Man Group at Walnut Creek so many years ago that I can’t even count. Was under the pavilion, too.
Have lived here since 1992, and have probably been there about three times. Never impressed with the venue to want to go all the way out there.
Living in Columbus during the 80’s spoiled me for good concert venues.
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I would travel as far as DC or Atlanta to see Radiohead again. I miss living in a city that they actually toured in.
But yeah I’ve been to 2 shows at Walnut Creek and the whole thing is a giant cluster. Inside both times, and this past time was a lot smoother getting in and out, but it’s still in the middle of nowhere for me and the logistics are the worst.
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One of my favorite indoor venues in the country. If we were a bigger city I think Hoffman would have considered a venue like this at Seaboard. At least, that’s my guess as it has been so successful at the Wharf.
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A venue at Seaboard would be so much better than Downtown South (not to say we couldn’t have both!) - I do wonder what that large planned “experience” space will be…
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Ingress/Egress for traffic is way better at DoSo with 40 being right there.
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Sure, but Seaboard is close enough to Capital that it’s not horrible for large swathes of traffic- plus it’s infinitely more walkable from downtown than 1.5miles south of downtown. I’d be supportive of a Seaboard venue that perhaps wasn’t quite as big, but still big enough to get some known acts - perhaps a 1,500-2,000 cap venue like the Ritz.
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What year is this. 2008?
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This isn’t that relevant, but I was reminded looking at the first picture. How is there a billboard right there? It’s one of the only ones I’ve noticed in the city. Did it slide through before any rules were put in place?
yes…late 2008 a few months before i left for NV.
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I thought they were going to build around the red roof but in the master plan it looks like they’re building on that parcel as well. Unless I’m looking at it wrong.