NC State wants to move some basketball games to campus and pay lower rent at PNC Arena
N.C. State has asked that it be allowed to play 11 men’s basketball games at PNC Arena in the 2020-21 season and pay a lower rent per game.
In a letter sent by NCSU chancellor Randy Woodson to the Centennial Authority, the arena’s landlord, NCSU said concerns about the coronavirus pandemic and the limited capacity for indoor events in the state had led the university to seek what it said would be a temporary adjustment.
Woodson requested that the Pack be allowed to play its 10 ACC games and one nonconference game, against Campbell on Dec. 19, at PNC Arena this season. Two nonconference games would be moved to Reynolds Coliseum on the NCSU campus, the letter said.
The NCSU request, which was unanimously approved Wednesday by the authority finance committee, noted that the university pays $58,000 per home game in accordance with the arena use agreement — a figure, NCSU said, “appears extreme and unreasonable in light of the strict capacity restriction currently in place.”
NCSU asked that the rent be lowered to $13,925 per a game, which it said was an estimate of PNC Arena’s game-day expenses under the capacity restriction. The letter said that if Gov. Roy Cooper adjusted the restriction during the coming months, the parties would discuss an “equitable payment under those changed circumstances.”
“The inability to host fans in PNC Arena will profoundly impact the budget of the NC State Athletics Department, and was obviously unforeseeable to either party at the time NC State and the Centennial Authority executed the Use Agreement in 1997,” the letter said.
The recommendation from the authority committee will be forwarded to the full authority for final approval as a one-year waiver. Woodson is a member of the authority.
The Wolfpack played 16 regular-season games and one preseason exhibition at PNC Arena last season.
“We are certainly all in uncharted waters and we all need to work together to help each other out to get through this process,” authority finance chair Robert Seligson said Wednesday.
