What were the previous nicknames? Wasn’t Redbirds one of them?
Love the “R”. Maybe we could incorporate it into branding today.
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Buck , Did you play for The Raleigh Capitals in the late 50’s ?
First grade. I remember the ballpark, though.
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Big update here: SE Raleigh downtown sports complex (and future home of MLS) versus upgraded PNC
"So Malik and Kane on Thursday unveiled plans to instead put the stadium on 40 acres in Southeast Raleigh. The NCFC is seeking more than $300 million to fund an MLS stadium that would be a mixed-use project developed by Kane Realty. NCFC is asking for $11 million per year for 30 years, beginning in the fiscal year 2022. The arena itself would cost around $150 million.
Calling the project the “Downtown Entertainment and Sports Center,” Malik told the group of roughly 100, ““The first word you see is downtown. And that is a refrain you will hear in this community: that this ought to be downtown.”"
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Let the games begin…I mean “fight” for the money…lot’s and lot’s of green! 
Any new concept images?
Sounds like he is pushing for a stadium before getting awarded an MLS franchise. I’m not sure that’s a great idea.
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You have to have a ‘shovel ready’ stadium BEFORE Major League Soccer will award the franchise. This is how every other city has been awarded a franchise. Nashville, Austin, etc.
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The dollars don’t have be awarded in a Canes vs. NCFC manner. City and County leaders all know that both franchises are important to the City and the region. Awarding all the funds to NCFC and none to the Canes or the other way around would be stupid…at best.
Where it gets interesting is if Dundon starts a push for a downtown arena as he’s indicated would be his preference. As much as I’d support building a stadium AND a new PNC downtown simultaneously, I can’t see any politicos reaching for those heights.
Maybe give PNC a few dollars to renegotiate a short-term lease with the Canes and provide some upgrades, and give the majority to NCFC because they don’t have a facility to fund a downtown stadium is the way to go. Once everyone can see for themselves how a downtown facility provides a tremendous economic impact versus say…an arena surrounded by a parking lot, it will be an easier ROI argument in a few years to bring the Canes downtown too…and maybe and NBA team to boot!
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It is true that you generally have to have a shovel ready MLS stadium before MLS will award a franchise. (Unless MLS decides that, on second thought, your NFL stadium will do just nicely after all.)
But nevertheless, @Kanatenah’s point that it is actually not a great idea for cities to conduct themselves in this way remains a really, really good point.
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Does the TBJ article specify where exactly this project would be built? 40 acres is … a lot of acres!
It did not give the exact Southeast Raleigh location of the proposed stadium . It did mention Cargill but as a possibility .
I don’t know where else you can get 40 acres in SE Raleigh and still call it “downtown.”
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I agree ! I don’t get The TBJ but a friend sent me the information . Their article said that the stadium would take up 10 acres & the other 30 acres would be development .
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Maybe so. But from what I read he doesn’t just want it shovel ready. Seems like he wants to build a stadium now and use it for his team in Cary and some youth tournament until he may get a franchise in a few years.
Sorry I will not support using public funds for a stadium built on spec. So that we maybe get an MLS team in 3 or 5 or 10 years while the stadium sits mostly empty.
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Glad that we can Agree To Disagree on this ! Being a older guy , 70 years old , I so support building a stadium with hotel / food tax money before a MLS Team is approved for our city ! For years , I have tried to get our city to do this concerning a sports stadium . I also support The Wake County / Raleigh Sports Stadium Project that is hoping to happen . I have spoken thru email to Former Mayor Tom Bradshaw about this . If approved , this project will be accessible from I-440 in Southeast Raleigh . Go Raleigh Sports !
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I think we need to think of ideas so we can have this stadium used as much as possible. MLS, women’s soccer, major league lacrosse, Shaw/St Augustine Football, college football bowl game, high school football playoffs, concerts, etc, etc.
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I am so with you on this…
I first wanted the original site as I truly want to transform the state government complex…
However, I am fully behind transforming this section of SE Raleigh. And as it has been pointed out, so close to I-40 access and who knows, maybe even help DTR change, grow, expaned in ways that I never thought of? 
For what it’s worth, I have never actually been a huge fan of spectator sports unless I am actually participating. But, as an “older guy”, I look forward to sharing DTR/Raleigh sports with family and friends who are and in that way, hopefully bringing about the true meaning of fellowship…off my soap box now…Lol 
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They’re talking about a 40-acre site, but they’re not even being specific about where they want to put it? 
@Will The thing is, though, there already are a lot of soccer-specific stadiums built for MLS teams, and the experience in pretty much all of them is that they rarely host anything other than soccer matches. (Many of the stadiums have their own websites with event calendars that you can look at.) Concerts tend to be extremely rare because a 20,000-seat stadium around a soccer pitch is a terrible concert venue. Some franchises do host their women’s team in the same venue as their men’s team, but the Courage draw about 5,000 people a game and they already play in a first-rate 10,000-seat stadium, so I’m not sure what would be gained by moving them to a 20,000-seat stadium. I suppose Shaw or St. Aug’s could play there, but, again, the stadium would be overwhelmingly empty seats, and that’s still only a couple of dates per year. There are currently no stadiums that house both an MLS team and a Major League Lacrosse team, probably again because MLL attendance is much lower, and Raleigh doesn’t have an MLL franchise, and it’s very questionable whether one would be viable here (a lot of MLL franchises have folded even in bigger markets). Everything else mentioned would be only the very occasional event even if it panned out.
The iron law borne out by the experience of cities with MLS stadiums is that soccer-specific stadiums tend to be soccer-specific, unfortunately.
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