PNC Arena renovation plans still on as new report projects venue will see $3.1B revenue over 5 years

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- The group that manages PNC Arena, Centennial Authority, released its latest economic impact report during a meeting Thursday.

The report projected the arena would bring in more than $3 billion of revenue over the next five years.

It's a massive number that officials said prove the building is worth investing in and renovating.

"I mean, these numbers are incredible. I truly, when I heard the number, I was blown away," Centennial Authority Chair Philip Isley said. "I don't think it doubles what the economic impact was in 2018, but it gets close to it."

Centennial Authority has been working for years on plans to renovate PNC Arena. It recently received guarantees that hospitality taxes would be available to use toward those renovations.

However, the team of architects working on those renovation plans for years was let go from the project earlier this month.

Isley said the decision to bring in new architects will not delay the renovation plans.

"We're not going to miss a beat," he said. "Our plans are still moving forward for 2025, 2026, 2027."

Isley describes the move as a mutual decision to get more new ideas into the project.

He said he expects the development team to present a plan for the initial phase of the project by the end of this year.

Within three years he expects visitors to PNC Arena will be able to notice obvious development projects underway. Eventually, the building will undergo a major renovation.

"At some point, we're going to have to shut the building down to do the big stuff, which means between seasons," he said. "So let's just say that's a four to five month period where the building at some point may be mostly dark."

The newly released economic report shows that PNC Arena averaged 600 events per year over the last two years. Approximately 1.5 million people visited the arena each year.

Of the people visiting, 54% of them live in Wake County, while the other 46% live in the surrounding area.

Events at the arena brought in an average of $279,000,000 in revenue each year over the last two years.

With the continued growth of the area, PNC Arena estimates it will account for more than $3.1 billion of revenue over the next five years -- that number includes both events at the arena and off-site impacts such as lodging, gas and food.