Today, Oct. 25, the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners held a groundbreaking ceremony on the site of the new Crown Event Center, in the parking lot in front of the Judge E. Maurice Braswell Cumberland County Courthouse, 117 Dick Street, Fayetteville.

“This is a community project, and I want to thank the community advocates, and I want to really thank the community devil's advocates, because there's a lot of them. [Those who say] ‘we don't deserve this,’ ‘why are we trying to do this?’ I tell you, we do deserve this. Our community deserves this. The people that we want to bring here, our families deserve this. And I think it's important that whenever we heard the negatives, we did listen, we listened and we changed things as we went,” shared County Commissioner Jimmy Keefe at the ceremony.

The new Crown Event Center will serve as a modern replacement for the original Crown Theatre and Arena, which opened in 1967. While the Crown Theatre and Arena facility will close, the existing Crown Complex, including the 10,880-seat Coliseum, 60,000-square-foot Expo Center, and 9,200-square-foot Ballroom, will continue to operate and serve the community at 1960 Coliseum Drive.

“This facility is not just a building. It's really not. It's not just for arts and entertainment. It's an economic development project. It's going to make business around here better…it's going to change what people think of Fayetteville. It's going to be an image accelerator for us.” added Keefe.

The new Crown Event Center will feature a three-story main event hall with the capacity to seat 3,000 guests, a VIP level with suites and a lounge and a rooftop terrace. The project kicked off in April 2022 with site selection and design, and the new Crown Event Center is expected to open in Spring 2027.

The $145 million project budget is fully supported within the County’s Crown funding model, which includes revenue from a portion of the County’s occupancy tax, the Food and Beverage Tax and operating revenue from the Crown facilities. These funds are restricted for use exclusively on the Crown.

“The future Crown Event Center will spur economic growth within this downtown area, the County and throughout the southeastern region of the state,” remarked County Manager Clarence Grier at the event.