Canes will extend lease

RBC Center to be home until 2024

The Carolina Hurricanes will continue playing home hockey games at the RBC Center until October 2024 under an extended lease agreement being announced today.

The five-year extension comes after nearly two years of negotiations between Gale Force Holdings, parent company of the Hurricanes, and the Centennial Authority, the public agency that owns the RBC Center.

"It makes a big statement on our belief in the continued growth of our sport and the Hurricanes and the market," said Jim Rutherford, the Hurricanes' general manager.

Rutherford said a key aspect to the deal is Gale Force receiving additional money from the authority to cover rising utility fees, terrorism insurance and game-day expenses. The Hurricanes' previous 20-year lease was signed in 1999, before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and before energy costs began to rise exponentially.

Financial details of the new agreement will be revealed at a news conference to be held this morning.

Ray Rouse, the chairman of the Centennial Authority, said none of the additional money for the Hurricanes is coming from the hotel and meals tax collected by Wake County and Raleigh. Those funds, he said, continue to be used only to make improvements to the building.

Under its current lease, Gale Force pays a minimum of $2.7 million in rent a year. If it makes more than $50 million in gross revenue, it pays 6 percent of the first $5 million after the $50 million, and 3 percent of anything over $55 million.

The new agreement also calls for improvements to the RBC Center's basketball facilities and parking lot that were requested by N.C. State University, which plays basketball games at the arena. NCSU will also have more say about how the authority spends $6 million earmarked for upgrades to the arena.

Rutherford said fans should notice a number of upgrades inside the arena by the beginning of next hockey season. Those improvements will include a new sound system, a renovated club-level restaurant, new flat-screen televisions and the ability to pay for food at concession stands with credit cards.

Rouse said the agreement is an achievement in itself.

"All gave some and got something in return," he said. "This really is a remarkable partnership."

The RBC Center cost $155 million to build; it opened in 1999. The arena was paid for with money from the state and NCSU and with bonds financed by the city and county hotel and meals tax. Both Wake County and Raleigh are partners in the Centennial Authority.

For years, critics have complained that the arena, which is west of the Interstate 440 Beltline in a lightly developed area, is not close enough to the restaurants and hotels that would encourage ticket-holders to spend money.

In 2006, the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association basketball tournament left Raleigh and the RBC Center for Charlotte, in part because the Queen City's venue is closer to a downtown.

Rutherford said the Hurricanes will have the option of another five-year extension when the current agreement expires in 2024.