Home to a little bit of
everything...
Story by Gene Metrick Like most public venues across the country, the Rocky Mount Event Center was forced to shut down operations in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. But the return of activity to the event center earlier this year brought a hopeful, cautious return to a semblance of normalcy to downtown Rocky Mount. “On Valentine’s Day weekend, after getting clearance and presenting our reopening plan to the city manager, we were able to safely reopen for sporting events and we were one of the first venues of our size in the state to do so,” said David Joyner, general manager of the event center. “Since restrictions began to ease, we were able to begin booking small events and small catering events and reopened for our first real sporting event, a youth volleyball tournament that brought in 140 teams on Feb. 12.” In addition to the volleyball tournament that marked the center's reopening in February, the center also was able to safely host a dance competition at the same time as one of the sporting events in different areas of the building. “The restaurants and hotels in the area are ecstatic that we’re able to do these events again,” Joyner said. “These events always have
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a big economic impact.” The 165,000-square-foot, $48-million event center opened in October 2018, and it immediately started attracting functions, bringing in $1.2 million in revenue during its first year of operation. The facility features eight basketball courts, 16 volleyball courts, locker rooms, 17 climbing walls and an aerial ropes course. It also has banquet and breakout rooms, an arcade center and concession areas. “The Rocky Mount Event Center is a crucial central component of... Rocky Mount’s longterm strategy to redevelop and reinvent downtown Rocky Mount,” Joyner said. “Our team’s focus is to make our facility a soughtafter state-wide destination that provides a unique and excellent experience for sports, entertainment and corporate and social events." Joyner said as safety restrictions were eased a bit, the facility became the scene of limited-size conferences and meetings. Joyner said he and the management team also began allowing the use of the Game Day Adventure and Arcade area — except for the foam ball pit — by limited numbers of people on a reservation-only basis. That setup includes 20 arcade games, 19
climbing walls, a ropes course with 12 different obstacles, an area where one can redeem prizes, four different party rooms, four foosball tables, two pool tables and cornhole games. “We have just about anything you can think of,” said Jajuan Mabry, the event center’s box office and family entertainment center manager. Joyner said the facility was opened to tours by limited numbers of officials, event holders and tournament directors, both from inside and outside the state. “They think it’s one of the most impressive facilities in the state,” he said. “They’re extremely shocked that a community our size has a facility this nice — and they all talk about the versatility of the facility.” Many of the center's employees had to be furloughed during the pandemic until the facility could reopen. “Except for the management team and a few hourly staff members, most of our staff had to be furloughed during that time," Joyner said. "During that shutdown period, our management team focused intently on the aggressive marketing and selling of our venue to position us for strong reopening. “Our strategy was that we knew we had to
