Lenovo Center revamp features swank seats, spiffy bar for Canes fans (Gallery)
Triangle Business Journal 03.03.2025
A dramatic reimagining of the Lenovo Center in Raleigh and space around it begins for the next National Hockey League season, with new premium experiences along the ice a part of the changes ahead.
The ice level, what team officials call the “Event Level,” will add five to seven bunker suites next year, generally accommodating 16 fans. The fans will have access to a bunker inside the bowl of the arena and then a short walk to their seats in the first two rows of the arena.
“You are feeling the action on the floor,” said Brian Fork, the CEO of Hurricanes Holdings. He added that the experience overall is “something new that evokes more memories.”
Also ahead is an ice-level premium club called the Lenovo Legend Club that will be on the lower level and offer new, higher-end options for fans. The new space will be in an area that had been used for storage and other uses.
“This will be nicer by a wider margin than anything you have right now,” Fork said.
Those with tickets in the new bunkers also have access to a premium club that will feature top food options such as hand-rolled sushi and higher-end drinks.
Gallery: Changes at the Lenovo Center
A “corner bunker suite” at the Lenovo Center. Expand to read more
Fork and Doug Warf, the president of Hurricanes Holdings, both said interest in the premium experiences has been high. The 58 suites are basically sold out, and the Canes are looking at ways to add a variety of options for premium packages. Fork called the new bunkers and other changes ahead a way to create “a lot of different options for the premium fan and the business client of varying sizes.”
More changes are coming in the upper bowl as well. The 300 level also will be revamped and refreshed for the 2025-26 season, with more grab-and-go market options designed to be convenient for fans.
But the most notable change will be the removal of three sections to create a new “view bar,” where fans can hang out in essentially a sports bar with a view of the ice.
“That’s something that’s been lacking on the 300 level, something that feels like more of a premium space for the 300 level customer,” Warf said.
Fork said many fans in the 300 level are more occasional fans who might come a few times a year. Even though the Canes are playing in front of sellouts, the goal is to create a better experience that gets more fans coming to games more often, buying T-shirts and merchandise and becoming loyal, long-term fans.
Other changes are coming on the upper levels, including removing some stairwells to create more space for fans to hang out.
More changes are ahead in the coming years — both inside and outside of the Lenovo Center — in an evolution that will include more development and amenities around the complex. As Fork noted, an agreement between the Canes and the Centennial Authority “requires a minimum of $800 million in capital investment. We anticipate it will be more than that.”
That begins after the football season, when new parking decks begin to rise. Then development will follow over what Fork said is likely eight to 10 years.
The arena opened with high hopes for attracting development in 1999, but the transformation of the Blue Ridge Corridor has only recently begun to accelerate.
“We’ve got a lot of real estate that is busy 155 nights a year,” Fork said. “But there is another 200 nights when there is just an empty parking lot out there.
“We want to make this a 365-day a year community asset,” he said.
As Fork noted, the state of North Carolina has exploded in recent years and he’s confident Raleigh can support such an ambitious project. And Warf, looking at the changes ahead, said, “This becomes the center point of the Triangle — this becomes a focal point for the entire state.”