This summer the RBC Center’s 100 Level is getting a long-awaited makeover. New seats are currently being installed and the good news for State fans is that they are, indeed, RED. RBC Center General Manager Dave Olsen said that the upholstery of the building’s original, 12-year-old seating is still in excellent shape, however the fading and failing red plastic seat frames were past their lifetimes. As seen in the accompanying photo, the seats had turned an awful mauve color that not even the ‘80s would have wanted back. Installation of the new seating has begun and will continue throughout the summer, dodging long-scheduled events.

I was able to visit Section 120 recently and saw that not only are the seats a solid, fairly bright red (though not as bright as Memorial Auditorium’s, thank goodness), the new frames for the seats are black, insuring against color slump from exposure to the arena’s bright playing surface lighting. The chairs are the same size as before, however the armrests feel slightly shorter and are bowed slightly.

Sections containing only the large chairs are being replaced first, so I still have not determined what style chair will be used in the upper rows in the end sections which previously contained smaller, less confortable chairs.

While the chairs themselves are a nice replacement, the aisle lighting is emphatically not . The RBC Center has followed the technology bandwagon and installed white LED lighting under the last armrest of the row. Unfortunately the lighting is distractingly bright during a concert and has a yucky, almost blue hue that probably reaches the upper 5000K range of temperature . The lighting from the original seats was an extra-warm amber that was a perfect balance during dark events.

The seating replacement is expected to be completed before the first exhibition game for the Carolina Hurricanes in mid-September.