Field of Schemes
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October 22, 2009

Raleigh mayor wants to replace 10-year-old arena

Dog-bites-man story of the week: An online poll (in other words, not worth the electrons it's printed on) of Raleigh residents shows they're overwhelmingly opposed to Mayor Charles Meeker's proposal to replace the Carolina Hurricanes' RBC Center, which only just opened ten years ago. Nearly 70% of those voting said they were opposed to building a new downtown arena, while 28% were in favor; 2% for some reason chose to take the poll despite not having an opinion.

To be fair, Meeker doesn't want to replace the RBC Center until 2019, at which point it will be a mind-numbing 20 years old. At this rate, sports stadiums and arenas are going to have a shorter expected lifespan than cats.

COMMENTS

I wonder how long before teams start asking for venues to be retro-fitted with less premium seating because of a decline in corporate dollars.

Posted by Larry on October 24, 2009 07:49 PM

I can do you one better Neil. Here are the number of Stadiums/Arenas/race tracks younger than Garfield.

Answer

24/30 in Major League Baseball
22/31 in the NFL (Jets and Giants share a stadium)
NASCAR Cup Tracks: 7/22
NBA Arenas: 28/30
NHL Arenas: 26/30

For the record, Garfield is a cartoon cat "born" June 19, 1978 and the above tracks/stadiums/arenas are younger than that cat.

Note: Target Field, opening in 2010, is included in the MLB tally.

Posted by Jessy S. on October 24, 2009 10:09 PM

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