I’ve just been to way too many shows where there are just as many empty chairs as there are people trying to squeeze into the silly little lawn section behind them. It’s like having an airplane where the first 20 rows are empty but the last 10 rows are completely full and no one spreads out to be more comfortable haha
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3 maybe 4 new covered canopies, I could have been mistaken about the seating layout, I don’t think much has changed.
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Well… Better than no improvements I guess
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perhaps increased city center transit options will also grow or reappear
If we got Music Midtown to come to Raleigh I’d be elated. Nice to see Cooper throwing the idea out there. Just about every year they have some of my favorite festival lineups.
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Coop saw the Hopscotch lineup and was like “Alright, guess I gotta do ALL the work…” (I’m mostly kidding - very happy Hopscotch still exists, regardless)
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Very in depth article about plans to eventually expand the convention center, although the timeline for that was mentioned as 2030. I wanted to share this one tidbit, since we’ve had a lot of speculation about Red Hat Amphitheater’s future.
As for the Red Hat Amphitheater, the current plan is to keep the site in downtown, Painter said. The amphitheater was opened with the intent of being a temporary space, but the venue drives a lot of business to nearby retail and restaurants and its view of surrounding towers adds to its charm.
One suggestion had been to move it to Dix Park. But to keep the venue downtown, a plan has formed to shift the amphitheater to a nearby property, leaving room for a 500,000-square-foot building in its current location.
Painter does not specify an exact location for the venue, which holds about 6,000 people, but the intention is to keep it in the complex.
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I’m actually really pleased RedHat is staying at least 10 more years. Expanding the convention center will add nothing to my life living downtown. But walking to a concert on Friday night, which brings some decent talent, then grab dinner or drinks before and after, is one of my favorite things about living downtown.
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Yeah same. I’m aware of the financial impact, etc. for convention center event (though the article mentions it’s been operating at a loss for many years). But downtown, especially that area, needs more cool interactive stuff for the people that actually live here. The shows at Red Hat activate the whole area around it, and give off a much more fun vibe.
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We can keep talking about this in the thread about downtown hotels or the convention center’s expansion, but it’s also nice to see that our community’s intuitions on needing more hotels near the RCC falls in line with what the experts are thinking:
…and you could argue that the benefits of expanded hotel space would be just as relevant for the Red Hat Amphitheater (and its successor, however it comes about), too.
As a side note, if you look at the raw data for where the numbers on the article’s infographic came from, a fairer average number of hotel rooms within 1/4 miles of a major convention center for a Raleigh-sized-ish city would be 1,669 rooms (and a maximum of 2,060). That’s still much higher than Raleigh’s current 929 rooms, but much more attainable than the 2,465 that the article suggests.
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Lack of walkable hotels and not having the convention center be surrounded by night life are two of the biggest complaints I see about events at RCC on Twitter. So valid but like did the 500 room convention center hotel request get any proposals at all? The city seems way too quiet on the project.
Edit
To add to this, one of the eSport events, the organizers PAID to rent a whole hotel in the suburbs (Cary or Morrisville?) and would bus in people to the convention center. 
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That’s mentioned in the article. JLL (the same firm that did the market analysis) closed the request for proposals last August, and City Council is waiting on them to get back with recommendations.
If it’s taking this long, then that probably means their analysts are busy doing due diligence on several proposals. So I’m convinced there’s something on the way -but we’re very much at the part where it’s normal for things to be happening behind the scenes even when the general public is getting total radio silence.
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I’m the exact opposite. I still haven’t been inside the amphitheater but been to numerous events at the convention center. 
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I still attend probably 5-6 events each year at the Convention Center. Every boat and car show I’ll go check out new stuff coming for next year while drinking several beers, then scooter home.
But my point being, would expanding the Convention Center be worth losing the amphitheater completely?
The Convention Center will still hold their events regardless just less floor space, will the ability to hold a larger event be worth not having anymore concerts downtown that have a skyline view?
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Nerd alert!
LOL
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Article mentions JLL to provide results at February city council meeting for RCC expansion. Would hope the RFI results for hotel are presented as well.
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Sounds like we’re getting both - and as an amphitheater user, thank goodness! It’s one of the most scenic urban concert venues in the country with the shimmer wall and skyline right behind it.
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It really is, you’d think now that the city plans on keeping it longer than anticipated they would use it for marketing and tourism.
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