So it turns out that NHL commissioner Gary Bettman’s gripe that the Carolina Hurricanes‘ arena isn’t up to “today’s standards” was timed to precede a vote by North Carolina’s Centennial Authority on whether to go ahead with a $200 million renovation — paid for in part by $81 million in city and county food and hotel tax kickbacks — that was proposed in 2019 and approved last year but put on hold by the pandemic. The authority voted unanimously on Thursday to go ahead with the deal, so really this is just the final shoe dropping on a subsidy we’ve already accounted for, not anything new that would cost —
The authority, the government-appointed board that oversees the arena on behalf of Raleigh, Wake County and the state, will ask HOK and Ratio to update the arena enhancement plan prepared in 2019 for current arena trends and construction costs and prepare a menu of possible upgrades at various cost levels for the city and county to approve at some point next year. Three years ago, the authority was looking at a $200 million package of upgrades; that price will certainly be higher now.
Sorry, say what, now? Isn’t the $81 million tax subsidy what Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon agreed to in exchange for extending his team’ lease through 2029? Why offer him more money now just because Russia invaded Ukraine and sent oil prices soaring?
Whatever package of enhancements the authority, city and county choose will be predicated on a longer-term lease, and the team’s interest in that will be predicated on Dundon’s ability to develop the land.
Ah, okay: So that first $81 million and five-year lease extension was just an amuse-bouche for Dundon, who has his eyes set on getting more public cash in exchange for committing to stay put in Raleigh for a few more years beyond that. He has truly learned the Indiana Pacers lesson well.
As someone who has lived in the Raleigh area since its pre-NHL days, I say: let ’em go to Houston. Just replace the Hurricanes, Carolina Mudcats and Durham Bulls with a Major League Baseball franchise and a suitable 35,000 or so seat stadium. Sadly, the Hurricanes existence has hurt Raleigh; had we landed an MLB team first, we’d likely now have two “big four league” teams here. But due to hockey moving into what was then virgin territory, and it not drawing here unless the team wins consistently, it’s from time to time put Raleigh’s market into question.