KRIME Universal Stadium

Written by: Tahoma

Sports venues named after corporate sponsors is nothing new. After all, who hasn't been to Aztechnology's Stuffer-Stadium? What we don't see every] day, is a venue named after a sponsoring gun-manufacturer. Formerly the Carter-Finley Stadium, and still honoring the names of its original namesakes on a lot of golden plaques and such, the Krime Universal Stadium, Krime's contributions to the overwhelming and overfunded renovations in the late '70s saw not just a general improvement in the building and expansion of its footprint but a massive expansion in the number of sports and events the venue could handle, from baseball to concerts to ice-hokey and demolition-derbies. Especially demolition-derbies, much to its sponsor's delight, as even with all our modern fancies a lot of people just can't get enough of cars smashing into eachother and monster-trucks flipping over dirt-ramps.

In all fairness, your modern monster-truck is a whole different beast from the ones of old. Megasaurus used to breath fire and trundle along on treads, now it's basically redneck mecha.

— Anonymous poster

If you want directions, don't worry: Just wait until you see the some plumes of fire erupt from the giant 'KRIME' sign and listen for a guitar solo, you'll know the way from there.

Architecture

Elements of the old Carter-Finley architecture can still be found around the base of its outward-parts, but most of its exterior has been overran by modern southeast designs while the exterior, at Krime's insistance, looks like something out of a heavy-metal music video with plenty of unbrushed metal fixtures and propane fire-pits. The main field is the real pride and joy however, being mounted on twenty-seven giant hydraulic lifting struts, either to elevate the regular field for a better look of the action, or to drop the whole thing beneath the stadium and put alternative grounds in its place, such as ice-rinks or track-fields.

History

Raleigh's favourite football stadium's been an institution of the city since 1966, first named the Carter Stadium after Harry and Nick Carter, two graduates of NC State University who put a lot of funding, then named the Carter-Finley after another big contributor to the university. Over the decades, the stadium's had nearly a dozen major renovations, and despite the economic ups and downs of the times Raleigh city-council always found room in their budget to make sure the NC State Wolfpack could continue to play in a venue the whole city could be proud of.
That all changed in 2053 when another change in standard field-length was again made, requiring entire portions of the stadium to be torn down and rebuilt so the field's length could reach the new standard of 200 meters long and 80 meters wide. Between the construction of the Downtown Elevated Plaza and the impending failure of Forestville that would become The Concrete Forest, the stadium's monumental renovation nearly became a nail in Raleigh's economic coffin. The city survived the expenditures, but barely. For long time after that, the stadium's budget for upkeep was hit hard and the venue began to fall into delapidation.
Then, in 2076, Carter-Finley recieved a miracle. A miracle in the form of a steaming-drunk troll and a botched Shadowrun.
Now I'm not personally sure on the shadowrunning-side of the incident - Null Kit's still compiling that info - but I was at the stadium when it happened. Wolfpack was playing the Louisville Cardinals in a charity-gig, commentators were doing their best to keep the audience's minds away from the growing number of technical-difficulties, and in the front-row seats was a long-time fan of ther Wolfpack, Brent Goodwin. Now Brent was always a die-hard fan and always made time for the big matches, but even he was struggling to remain in denial of the stadium's condition. Being high up on the totem-pole of Krime, Goodwin already had the potential connections to help get the venue back on its feet, but despite being one of America's past-times it would still be an uphill battle to convince the company to lend a hand.
Then, during the half-time entertainment, there was a sudden commotion in the north end of the stadium. Security-guards were huddled around one of the main entryways onto the field and the washed-out tridstar they had singing the state-anthem was ushered off. Soon as he'd left the field, an armored van careened through the entryway and onto the field, with four Lone Star pursuit cars following behind. What followed was a tragic but hilarious farce as all the cars tore and span through the field, fruitlessly trying to outmanoeuvre and incapacitate oneanother while the stadium-staff argued as to what the hell they should do.
And Brent Goodwin was watching the whole site unfold with what can only be called religious reverence, as if the stars themselves had aligned and god himself told old Brent how to get Krime aboard with his passions. He recorded as much of the vehicular carnage as he could on his commlink, then once the carnage was over - rest in piece to Patch Audio - Brent sent the recording to Old Man Krime and his subordinates, along with the message: 'DEMALITION DERBY???[sic]'.

Goodwin wasn't the only one enjoying the show, unsurprisingly: Even nowadays, people show up to the stadium wearing bootleg merch of the 'Carter-Finley Battlevan', and said van's driver left shadowrunning to drive in NASCAR.

— Cr4nk

See, football isn't everyone's cup of coffee in Krime, but it seems like enough people on the board of directors can agree on the simple joys of tricked-out cars smashing into eachother at mach-2. A few phonecalls were made to Raleigh city-council on behalf of the company, and soon the stadium was getting a hell of a hefty paycheck to bring some love and care to the neglected old stadium.

Krime might've put the most money into the stadium renovations - hence the name - but a good chunk of funding also came from a private citizen, and a Free Spirit of all things. One-Night (short for 'One Night Under the Revenant Gaze of The Vengeful Dancer's Maw Above The Stars That Cry For Our Lost Sorrows', but try fitting THAT on a business-card) contributed around 9% of the renovation's funding, on the condition that the stadium pumps up its magical security and refrains from hosting monster-truck rallies on nights with a waxing moon. Strange flex, but sure.

— Redhat

On March 20th 2078, the construction had finished, and rising up from the wreck of the old grounds like Frankenstein's monster was the Krime stadium, a spiky colosseum whose spacious and modular grounds would have it ready to host the Superbowl one week and smashing monster-trucks to Krime employees on company-vacation the next.

Alternative Names

Carter–Finley Stadium, The Big K

Type

Stadium

Parent Location

Raleigh, North Carolina