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Little slow lately, so I've been thinking about arenas & stadiums again. This is completely off topic since it's just wishful thinking. What if Greenville could have a partnership with several surrounding counties to build a new 5-6,000 seat arena in Greenville. Greenville puts in 50-60% of the construction costs, and finds 4 or 5 surrounding counties to each pitch in 10% of the costs. In exchange, each county will get a small percentage of the profit from every show, game, and event held there. This would give each surrounding county incentive to make sure events are well attended by people in their county and make more back on the investment.
They would essentially share the arena with much of Eastern NC.
Pitt , Martin, Edgecombe, Beaufort. Lenoir, and Wilson could all chip in to get this taken care of!
I would love for something like this to happen, but It may be hard to get multiple counties to agree on terms. What do you all think?
I don't see these other counties giving Pitt County anything like that. It would look like a Rich county (comparatively) trying to exploit poorer surrounding counties. Unless the math could be proved otherwise.
But I do understand what you're thinking and thinking outside of the box.
I'm not saying that we would ever get top 10 acts ever here in Greenville.
I have researched cities with populations similar to Greenville's or lower. Huntington, WV is a place that has 50,000 people and is a similar distance to a larger city (Charleston, WV as we are to Raleigh. They have a civic arena that seats 9,000 people and the college in the city has their own on campus arena that seats 10,000 people. Checking the arena's website shows acts like Five Finger Death Punch, ZZ Top, and Seasame Street Live will be coming within the next few months.
I don't see why or how we wouldn't be able to get acts like Disney on Ice, Seasame street. Country music festivals, Possibly an indoor football team or hockey team and more if we built an arena.
There are many cities lower than Greenville's MSA (#234 of 380) that have an arena. Bismarck, ND (300 out of 388) has a 10,000 seat civic center and performing arts center. Broadway shows such as Mamma Mia and Memphis are coming to their center within the next year. To think that it can't happen here in Greenville is silly.
Even Danville, IL (377 out of 388) has built an arena (2500 for sports, 4700 for concerts) and have many acts and events throughout the year.
If you're an act with any kind of name recognition, are you going to choose stopping in Greenville over Raleigh, Norfolk, or Myrtle Beach? All of these places aren't that far away from their perspective when they're planning a tour. There's a reason ENC has a lower cost of living. Other than the OBX, it's not a destination.
The problem is that Raleigh is not much more than an hour away and has so much more to offer for a night on the town. Do people really have an aversion to going there for entertainment? The promoters know that and know that they can either put a show in Greenville and get a limited audience, or Raleigh and get sellout crowds that include the people they would have gotten in Greenville.
If you're an act with any kind of name recognition, are you going to choose stopping in Greenville over Raleigh, Norfolk, or Myrtle Beach? All of these places aren't that far away from their perspective when they're planning a tour. There's a reason ENC has a lower cost of living. Other than the OBX, it's not a destination.
Well i'm not talking about A+, 5-star talent coming here. Like I said, Greenville would not get that type of talent until population approached 200,000 or more (which would take over 30 years). Older rock bands and budding stars could add the city to their tour. A city our size would attract 2-3 star level talent. Greenville has had Ray Charles come to the convention center, we have had a few national acts visit the city to perform. With an arena, I think we would be able to attract more "brand name" acts, even if they are in the twilight or early beginnings of their careers.
The problem is that Raleigh is not much more than an hour away and has so much more to offer for a night on the town. Do people really have an aversion to going there for entertainment? The promoters know that and know that they can either put a show in Greenville and get a limited audience, or Raleigh and get sellout crowds that include the people they would have gotten in Greenville.
Well, people are willing to drive hours from the east to Visit Raleigh, Charlotte & Greensboro for a concert they want to see, I don't see why people from Raleigh and Greensboro wouldn't drive 1-2 hours to Greenville for a concert they want to see. People from Raleigh go to Greensboro, or to Charlotte for a concert all the time.
Besides, I'm not saying put up some huge 20,000 seat arena like the RBC center in Greenville. A small 5,000 seat arena is not going to attract the type of act that is used to performing in 15 or 18,000 seat arenas every night.
Well i'm not talking about A+, 5-star talent coming here. Like I said, Greenville would not get that type of talent until population approached 200,000 or more (which would take over 30 years). Older rock bands and budding stars could add the city to their tour. A city our size would attract 2-3 star level talent. Greenville has had Ray Charles come to the convention center, we have had a few national acts visit the city to perform. With an arena, I think we would be able to attract more "brand name" acts, even if they are in the twilight or early beginnings of their careers.
Like I said...an act of any kind of name recognition, which Greenville itself doesn't really have. Promoters don't see Greenville the way we do. Why should they?
Well, people are willing to drive hours from the east to Visit Raleigh, Charlotte & Greensboro for a concert they want to see, I don't see why people from Raleigh and Greensboro wouldn't drive 1-2 hours to Greenville for a concert they want to see. People from Raleigh go to Greensboro, or to Charlotte for a concert all the time.
Besides, I'm not saying put up some huge 20,000 seat arena like the RBC center in Greenville. A small 5,000 seat arena is not going to attract the type of act that is used to performing in 15 or 18,000 seat arenas every night.
No one from Raleigh wants to come down here unless they're 21 and they're coming to party with friends from high school who are at ECU. I'd love to see Greenville grow too but we've just got to be realistic here.
Even if we had an arena the acts that come to Charlotte/Raleigh or maybe Greensboro will not come here. A lot of big acts never even go into the state of SC period because of Charlotte. They want very large markets.
What's the standard size arena for major acts? Id bet Greenville could get some pretty large crowds.
Also, just drove by Campus store....closed.
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