Columbus Blue Jackets play downtown but I guess there are a few highways that are in close proximity. I still love the experience of being downtown, going to a game, being able to go out afterwards (or before).
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North Carolina, Notre Dame & Auburn all play football in the center of their campusesā¦with no highway. Is parking a chore at times, yesā¦but this isnāt Walmart. & you canāt beat the college football gameday experience on campusā¦well aside from my Tarheels actual performance on the field
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I will be a Red Sox fan for life 
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And UNCās tailgating culture is terrible, so there are tradeoffs.
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My unsolicited two cents. Downtown arenas are amazing! From all Iāve been to, access isnāt too bad since thereās usually a grid system and so many ways in / out. From my observations, traffic seems horrible getting to / from PNC compared to a lot of arenas.
Obviously downtown arenas work better when there is transit. But there is nothing like leaving an arena / stadium walking out into a vibe filled with activity and restaurants.
Iād love the arena to be downtown but a good compromise would be building a nice mixed use district around PNC.
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I disagree. I get it the NC State crowd likes to claim our tailgating is not as good as sitting in a giant parking lot nowhere near campus.
Donāt get me wrong I have had fun as State tailgates but being in the middle of campus is fantastic.
When the game is over I get to walk thru the quads, by 200-year old oak trees, by my old classroomsā¦& finish with a Blue Cup & Heās Not while traffic dies down. I am not stuck in a massive sea of cars as it it were a Walmart parking lotā¦all trying to leave at the exact same time because there is nothing else to do.
Notre Dame & Auburn & Georgia Tech are just a few pretty well known āfootball schoolsā that also embrace this tailgating experience.
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Good try by no. Been to many UNC games and thereās no comparison.
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Lemme guessā¦.you are an NC State fan?
I think the point was about tailgating. And objectively, NC Stateās is far far better. But as you said the other intangibles of the walkable to downtown as an alternative offers a different experience instead of tailgating.
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Throwing in my $0.02 here too just to play devilās advocateā¦
Iāve had a nightmare experience a couple times trying to get out of a Panthers game, which is a downtown (or Uptown as they call it) stadium. Iāve been to a game at the Linc in Philly, which is not downtown and on the outskirts, and had a super easy time leaving. However Philly has train stations on-site which is something we can dream of at this moment in time for Raleigh. Maybe as BRT happens itāll be better but I think the crappy traffic situation will most definitely continue for PNC for the foreseeable future IMO
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Need to get Huge Caniac Roy Cooper negotiating to handover some of the govt deadzone land for a arena next to the two huge developments Smoky Hollow & Seaboard (+Glenwood South nearby as well). + next to the rail line for potential transit and Capital Blvd (BRT).
Rough (but smaller) location of the original MLS stadium proposed downtown. Odd shape but probably doable? PNC arena footprint measures roughly 6 acres.
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When thereās something else to do before and after a game, it reduces the immediate demand for ingress/egress. PNC doesnāt have any of that outside of walking up to the Wade mini mixed use area or Backyard Bistro which between the two can maybe accommodate 1% of the audience?
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I think donāt think you can compare a college football stadium, which is used 6 times a year, verse an arena like pnc, which is used 150 times a year, downtown.
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1% would be generous! Haha
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Ole Miss and Alabama both have on campus stadiums, and the tailgating - really pre-gameing since there are no cars- at Ole Miss is utterly fantastic. 'Bama is pretty good, especially considering 100k+ for games, and another 30K or so just hanging out.
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Very true, and normally an arena is FAR smaller than a ftball stadium.
As many folks have mentioned, I really enjoy walking out of an arena into an active area and going for a drink to either commensurate or celebrate whatever just happened.
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This is the critical thing.
Also, very relevant to hockey, look at a lot of the Canadian arenas. Edmonton and Winnipeg have downtown arenas with minimal highway access, and Toronto, which has surprisingly bad public transit for a city its size and density, has all its sports arenas downtown.
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Virtually Everyone has downtown arenas or stadiums. Even Fayetteville built a baseball stadium downtown which is fantastic.
All except Raleighwoodā¦
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HUGE for Charlotte / the Carolinas as a whole. Whoever edited this clip is a LEGEND. This shit is SO HYPE. Iāve watched this at least 30 times and get chills each time. No matter what you say about him now, Cam Newton is a SUPERSTAR and truly put Charlotte/Carolina on the map, Iām so elated they made their amends and signed him back on. He is and always will be MY CAROLINA QB.
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I think you have to be a Carolina Panthers fan to get chills. Iām a Bucs fan so I canāt like the Panthers.
That said, I appreciate the attention Cam brought to the club and the state, so I can agree on that point. 
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