Cumberland County Closes Crown Arena, Theatre Over Structural Flaws

Two of the Fayetteville area’s biggest entertainment and event venues, the Crown Theatre and the Crown Arena, were suddenly closed September 10 after construction experts cited structural concerns about the buildings.

The two facilities, part of the larger Crown Complex entertainment and events campus, won’t reopen until they are renovated, Board of County Commissioners Chair Kirk deViere said. Those renovations, initially expected to cost between $80 million and $100 million, will now cost more, the renovation’s project management firm said.

The renovations are to repair and modernize the nearly 60-year-old facilities and make them compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. The county was sued in the 2010s because the spaces were not sufficiently accessible to wheelchair users. The county settled out of court with a promise to address the problem.

Worse Condition Than Expected

The Cumberland County Board of Commissioners voted 5-0 to close the Arena and Theatre after project management firm Turner & Townsend Heery reported the buildings are in worse condition than expected. Large portions, including exterior walls of the Theatre and the concrete floor of the Arena need to be demolished and rebuilt, commissioners were told.

In interviews, commissioners gave two reasons for the closure: First, so the design team can more thoroughly inspect the condition of the buildings without working around events and audiences; and second, out of concern for public safety considering the state of the buildings.

“It may not be ready to fall down tomorrow, but until we get more information, it scared me enough to think ‘safety first,’” Commissioner Marshall Faircloth told CityView.

DeViere said closing the facilities will “allow a complete assessment” by the firms overseeing the renovation project.

“It made operational sense to do that now, because as we move forward and we finish this assessment, we can move right into restoration and modernization,” deViere told CityView. “And at some point, you’re going to have to cease operations in those two facilities to do that.”

18 to 24 Shows Affected by Closure

The shutdown affects 18 to 24 shows and events, said Seth Benalt, general manager of the Crown Complex for the Oak View Group, which operates the facility for the county.

“We’re working with each individual show on a case-by-case basis to understand: Do they have the ability to play the show in another venue?” he said. For example, he said, some might be able to perform in the Crown Coliseum, if the coliseum is configured for partial use of its space.

The Fayetteville Liberty professional basketball team played its first season in the Crown Arena. The Arena has had fundraising galas, roller derby competitions, livestock shows, visits by President George Bush and President Donald Trump, concerts, and other events.

Upcoming shows scheduled for the Crown Theatre include musical performer Zach Williams on October 3, comedian Daniel Tosh on October 16, the World Ballet Company’s performance of The Nutcracker on November 20, and The Rock Orchestra on December 3. 

J. Cole’s sold-out “Fall-Off Tour” stop on September 23 is scheduled for the Crown Coliseum and is not affected by the closures.

The Crown Complex has five venues: The Crown Coliseum, with 10,880 seats, which opened in 1997; the 60,000-square-foot Crown Expo Center, which opened in 1988; the 9,200-square-foot Crown Ballroom; the Crown Arena, which seats up to 4,500 and has 11,552 square feet; and the Crown Theatre, listed at 2,440 seats.

The Arena and Theatre were dedicated in January 1968 as the Cumberland County Memorial Auditorium and Exhibit Hall, according to advertisements and media reports. The two venues are joined by a connecting building which has a lobby, box offices, and concessions.

Project Likely Over Budget

The county in 2024 began building a new, $145 million events and performance venue in downtown Fayetteville to replace the Arena and Theatre, but canceled that project in June 2025 to renovate the old facilities instead.

A major renovation will exceed the $80 million to $100 million that commissioners planned to spend, said Jessica Killian, a vice president with Turner & Townsend Heery, at Thursday’s commissioners meeting.

The construction manager and a consultant reached this conclusion, she said, after the project’s design team made a 3-D scan of the buildings, and after experts in structural engineering, architecture, code compliance, accessibility, building systems, theater systems, acoustics technology, and hazardous materials examined the property.

“For the Crown Theatre, this is especially significant because we need to fully reconstruct the exterior walls, the support structure running across the stage—known as the proscenium—and the balcony,” Killian said. “And we cannot do any of the replacements or upgrades to the building systems without this work. And once we do all that, we still have not fully addressed the issues related to accessibility or operations.”

The Crown Arena also needs extensive work, she said.

“The entire concrete slab floor in the concourse needs to be rebuilt and the roof structure reinforced, which will trigger a significant amount of demolition and also result in the entire building needing to be brought to current code,” Killian said.

Repairs may require the removal of hazardous materials, such as asbestos and items made with lead, according to Killian’s presentation.

The county has three options, Killian said—a limited modernization within the initial budget; replace the properties by building something new on the Crown campus; or halt the project, and use the information gathered to inform decisions for future facilities.

5-0 Vote After Secret Discussion

The board sent the public out of the meeting room on Thursday to have a secret discussion about the Crown and other matters. They returned to public session and voted 5-0 to shut down the Arena and Theatre.

In addition to deViere and Faircloth, commissioners Pavan Patel, Glenn Adams, and Henry Tyson voted for the closure. Commissioners Veronica Jones and Jeannette Council were absent.

“I don’t think we could do the ‘invasive’ due diligence that the building requires without significantly disrupting the customer experience,” Patel told CityView.

Tyson said he is concerned because past evaluations of the property did not uncover these problems that Turner & Townsend Heery reported, yet some of the same vendors on the project now were the ones who did the previous inspections and reviews.

“If they’re finding deficiencies, and we had paid them in the past to find deficiencies, and they missed it, it may be that we need to find another provider that puts a fresh set of eyes on it to help us reconcile that,” he said. “So that there’s not a potential for the, at a minimum, the appearance of a conflict.”

Adams has long sought and voted to build the new events and performance venue in downtown Fayetteville instead of rehabbing the old Arena and Theatre.

The county years ago planned to tear down the old facilities over their condition, Adams said.

“When they did it way back when, even before I was on this board, they said it was a tear down,” he said. “And you know, there’s not much going to change in 15 years. If anything, it probably got worse. Which is why I’ve always voted against going back out there and doing any renovations or modernization.”

In June 2025, deViere, Council, Patel, Tyson, and Faircloth voted to cancel the downtown project that would have replaced the Arena and Theatre. Adams and Jones opposed halting it.

Senior reporter Paul Woolverton can be reached at pwoolverton@cityviewnc.com.