In an “attempt to generate revenue" from empty suites, PNC Arena plans "an experiment to renovate one of the boxes into a sort of semi-suite area -- ‘theater’ or ‘loge’ box -- in which individuals or companies can buy groupings of seats as part of a larger box that they share with others,” according to Jason deBruyn of the TRIANGLE BUSINESS JOURNAL. As many as “one-third of the 66 suites” at PNC Arena for Hurricanes or N.C. State men's basketball games “go unsold.” Plans for the suites, which were previously priced between $80,000-$150,000, “show the loge box will have 30 seats, sold in four-seat or six-seat sets.” The “proposed price-per-seat for a season of hockey and basketball games will be $12,500, with an additional cost of food and beverage of $1,860 per seat.” For the six seats, that comes to an “annual cost of $75,000 and, if all sell out, would mean $375,000 of total projected revenue for the arena.” In addition, the arena would “sell those seats for $1,875 per seat for the roughly 25 other events held at the arena, including concerts and other shows.” However, before the arena "jumps in with both feet and renovates all of the empty boxes” -- something that would cost in excess of $2M -- the Centennial Authority, which manages the venue, “wants to try out an experiment with one box” (BIZJOURNALS.com, 5/23).
