The signage displaying the name “PNC Arena” was removed from the arena in Raleigh, North Carolina last week as cranes were seen removing the old channel letters with a new naming rights deal on the way, according to CBS 17 News.
The governing body of the arena, the Centennial Authority, held a meeting on the topic at the end of last week and announced that the building will now be named the Lenovo Center. According the local FOX channel, FOX 8, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, Lenovo executives and Lenovo employees celebrated the name change inside the arena.
The name change is part of a $60M, 10-year naming rights deal at the Carolina Hurricanes home arena. According to FOX 8, Lenovo North American Senior VP and President, Ryan McCurdy says fans should expect some technology upgrades.
“We have a tremendous suite of technology from pocket to the cloud and there’s a bunch of fan facing technology that we hope to integrate that you’ll see shortly and there’s stuff we’re working on longer term,” says McCurdy.
The arena’s former sponsor, PNC, will now enter into a ‘new collaboration’ through their sponsorship of the PNC Victory Club (formerly known as the Champions Club) and the PNC Club Level (formerly known as the club level).
“The naming lifts us up even more as a destination place. I think a lot of people are going to want to put Raleigh on their schedule. A lot of people go around the country and go to NHL games and I think this will be a place that people want to go and they’ll find out, ‘Hey, this is a great place to be. Maybe I’ll come back and start my business here’,” says Governor Cooper.
