Naming rights to Raleigh’s largest arena sold. Whose name will light up the building?
A new naming rights deal has brought another name to the 25-year-old arena that’s the home for the Carolina Hurricanes and N.C. State’s men’s basketball.
It’s no longer PNC Arena. Make way for the Lenovo Center.
The 10-year, $60 million naming-rights contract was approved Thursday by the Centennial Authority.
The arena in southwest Raleigh first opened in 1999 as the Raleigh Entertainment and Sports Arena, a generic name, then was renamed the RBC Center in 2002 and later PNC Arena in 2012 through naming-rights agreements.
PNC Financial Services bought the U.S. assets of RBC Centura Bank in June 2011. The Centennial Authority, the appointed body responsible for overseeing the arena, approved the name change to PNC Arena, which then took effect in March 2012.
“I think it’s going to be an incredible opportunity, given (Lenovo) is located just down the road and the largest computer manufacturer in the world,” authority chairman Philip Isley said Thursday. “We think having Lenovo here, in our site and ultimately putting their product in place, will make the fan experience better.”
A 20-year naming-rights deal paid $4 million a year — the revenue split among the Hurricanes, N.C. State and the authority. PNC then signed a two-year extension in 2022 than ran through August 2024.
PNC Bank will continue to have a presence at the arena through its sponsorship of the PNC Victory Club (formerly Champions Club) and the PNC Club Level on the second floor. That agreement was announced Monday.
Lenovo is the world’s largest maker of personal computers. The Chinese company is dual headquartered in Beijing and the Triangle. It opened its North American headquarters in the Triangle in 2005 and has approximately 5,000 employees in the U.S., most in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park.
Lenovo has been a partner of the Hurricanes since 2010 and a branding partner since September 2021, when the “Lenovo” logo was placed on the players’ helmets.
The arena is set to undergo a planned $300 million in renovations in the next few years. A mixed-use entertainment district planned outside the arena also will be a part of a remake of the arena and its surroundings, with phase one of the $1 billion project set to begin after N.C. State’s 2025 football season.
The old PNC Arena signage has been removed this week. The new Lenovo signage outside the arena will be unveiled Thursday, Sept 19, the company said.
“Lenovo has called North Carolina home for 20 years. This shows our commitment to the area as a good corporate citizen and community partner,” David Hamilton, director of communications for Lenovo North America, said Thursday.
Brian Fork, CEO of Hurricanes Holdings LLC, said the scheduled enhancements to the arena and mixed-use area outside it made it “significantly more attractive” for a new naming-rights agreement.
“The development is going to take a number of years to get done,” Fork told the N&O. “But that will bring a lot more people out to the area, so you will have a lot more people who will see the name as they go to the arena and see the building.
“A newer arena, brought more into the modern era (of arenas), should be more attractive.”
This story was originally published September 12, 2024 at 9:15 AM.
