The rebranding of the Charlotte Hornets has led indirectly to some tweaks in premium-seat amenities at Time Warner Cable Arena.
Fans greeted the team’s change from Bobcats to Hornets, the name carried by Charlotte’s previous NBA team, with an overwhelmingly positive response, and the club has sold the equivalent of about 10,000 season tickets, team officials said. For the first time since the arena opened in October 2005, the new Hornets have essentially sold out the 6,900-seat lower bowl, including 24 new seats that make up the second row along the baseline at the arena’s stage end.
Starting last year, when the old Bobcats first began selling season tickets tied to the Hornets name, there has been greater demand for Inner Circle seats in the first three rows, resulting in an overcrowded Backcourt Club, the event-level lounge beneath the stands opposite stage end.
To relieve congestion this season, the Hornets have created a temporary lounge at stage end. For NBA games only, the team curtains off some back-of-house space and sets up high-top tables, chairs and televisions to create a club-like feel.
Those granted access to Club 109 (named for the section it’s near), as well as the Backcourt Club, pay $300 to $600 a game for tickets. There are no extra fees attached to the temporary lounge, said Pete Guelli, the Hornets’ executive vice president and chief sales and marketing officer.
In addition, last year the old Bobcats squeezed eight more Hardwood Club seats between the team benches and the scorer’s table, which was reduced in size to fit the additional chairs. The 52 total Hardwood Club seats are priced at about $1,000 a game, the team’s most exclusive ticket inventory.
Those seats sold out this year for the third consecutive season, prompting the Hornets to expand the small lounge reserved for that group behind the Backcourt Club. The project adds another 150 square feet of hospitality space for those high-end customers.
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“They are the only ones allowed to park in the garage under the building,” Guelli said. “It’s a very premium experience, so we realized we needed to expand [the lounge] during the offseason.”
The tweaks, including a $1 million remodel of the Hornets’ locker room and family lounge paid for by the team, are the first steps toward a $30 million, publicly funded arena renovation.
Over the next few years, the Hornets, teaming with the city of Charlotte, the arena’s owner, plan to replace loge box seating at stage end with 500 to 600 regular seats and reconfigure the FrontCourt restaurant on the lower suite level to provide views to the court.
Renovations to the Backcourt Club and suites and technology upgrades are also part of the proposed improvements. The Hornets also will consider building a permanent club space where Club 109 is situated, Guelli said.
Separately, another piece of the renovation potentially could “flip” the locations of the arena’s box office and team store one level below at street level, but no decisions have been made on that swap, he said.
Combined, those two spaces account for a total of 10,400 square feet, according to the city’s request for qualifications issued Oct. 14 for architectural services. Populous initially crafted the arena’s master plan for improvements that the Hornets and the city have used to define the scope of services.
Today is the deadline for designers’ qualifications. A selection is expected to be made Nov. 17.
