Honest question from a Canadian who has never been to Raleigh... do people live around the arena at all or is it pretty much purely NC state territory and university students?
it looks like it’s only a 10-12 minute drive from downtown Raleigh, and maybe this is a stupid thought/question, but don’t you need to have some sort of decent public transit option to get people to and from? I can’t imagine that 15-20k can all drive or be walking distance, right?
There's a small community of houses past Edwards Mill on Trinity toward Drive Shack and there is a new row of townhomes/condos along Trinity near Duraleigh, but outside of that, not really. Everyone pretty much has to commute into the area for games. The good thing is that they actually have a pretty good system for getting people into and out of the area for events. On Edwards Mill they are able to flip the middle lanes to whatever direction they need to better control flow, which helps empty the lots a lot quicker than you'd expect. They also have some 'pressure valve' roads they open up for quicker exit after events, like the side road that dumps directly onto Wade Avenue.
What really helps with the location is that its right next to some major roads in the area. The complex is surrounded by Wade Avenue, Edwards Mill, Duraleigh, and Trinity. The only road that is less than 6 lanes across is Trinity. And believe me, you can feel that fact when you are directed to empty there rather than the other 3. That road, and the side roads next to it, back up
badly after games, where you more or less get free flow through the others.
Reason I bring this up is that the infrastructure downtown was not created to handle traffic volume. The issues you see on Trinity would basically be every path of exit from a downtown arena. Without major infrastructure changes that creates heavy traffic solutions downtown, its a venture that sounds good on paper, but would be an absolute mess in practice.
