NC State’s ‘Red Reckoning’ with Will Wade has helped ticket sales, NIL funding reach recent highs

By Noah Fleischman

Will Wade arrived at his introductory press conference inside Reynolds Coliseum with a certain confidence in late March. Donning a grey pinstripe suit with a light blue dress shirt and a red and white candy-striped tie, NC State’s 21st men’s basketball coach appeared as if he needed to revitalize the Wolfpack fanbase. 

One way of doing so? Using his confident bravado to test those clad in red and white with something that hadn’t been done since 1999: to fill the Lenovo Center to capacity on opening night.

“If we maximize everything we’ve got, we can compete with anybody in the country. We have to maximize what we have,” Wade said on the stage in his first public appearance with the Wolfpack. “I challenge everybody who’s watching, all of our fans … I want to sell out the Lenovo Center. I want 19,500 people in there. We need to send a message. We need to let the state, the ACC and the nation know the Pack is back, and we are not to be messed with.”

It was a daring statement. But that’s who Wade is. He’s unapologetically confident, and as he set the table for what was to follow in the eight months after, Wade’s new boss seemed to be energized by the opportunity to capitalize on the momentum he brought to Raleigh.

“We don’t mind a challenge,” NC State Athletic Director Boo Corrigan said in a recent exclusive interview with TheWolfpacker.com. “That’s who Will is. He’s going to say some things that make you go ‘holy cow, he just said that.’ But we knew that’s what we were going to get.”

Wade’s words that day didn’t fall on deaf ears. Instead, the Wolfpack fan base rose to the high bar he had set for them. NC State’s season opener against NC Central, which is set to tipoff at 7 p.m. on Monday night, sold out in record time as the program ran out of tickets on Sept. 23 — 41 days before the season began. 

Not only did the Wolfpack pass Wade’s first test with flying colors, but the program’s season tickets sales have reached pre-COVID-19 pandemic numbers, while its NIL collective has been on a rocketship of growth since the 42-year-old coach arrived in Raleigh.

“This is about everybody being in it together. I think when all of us are in it together, NC State’s a force multiplier,” Wade said. “It’s going to be a reckoning for the ACC and college basketball. You’re going to have to deal with us. … We’ve got one of the best fanbases in all of college athletics. We just haven’t always been aligned and on the same tune. We’re aligned now. And when we’re aligned, there’s nothing we can’t do.”

Welcome to NC State’s ‘Red Reckoning.’

NC State’s ticket sales soar

After selling at least 10,000 season tickets in 16 of the first 22 seasons in the Lenovo Center, NC State’s sales dropped under 8,000 in each of the past four years. Part of that has to do with the COVID-19 pandemic as some fans have been cautious to make their return, Corrigan thought, but a combined 72-62 record  with just two NCAA Tournament appearances over that stretch of  “not the greatest years we’ve had” also seemed to play a role. 

Even after winning the ACC Tournament and making a trip to the Final Four in 2024, NC State sold just 7,808 season tickets for the 2024-25 campaign. While it was lower than before the pandemic, those sales marked the most since the world was flipped upside down by the unprecedented illness. 

But once Wade arrived, a new energy around the fan base seemed to follow. The Wolfpack sold 9,111 season tickets this season (trailing the 10,252 in 2019-20), while distributing a total of 10,302 to reach marks not seen since the 2016-17 campaign (11,033). 

“To see a season ticket number go up to pre-COVID times, that’s awesome,” Corrigan said. “I think more people are talking about basketball than they had before.”

As NC State’s season ticket sales have increased, it’s been a healthy mix between new account holders and existing ones adding to their totals. The Wolfpack added 783 new season ticket accounts since Wade was hired, while it sold 2,243 new tickets ahead of his first season. The Lenovo Center’s lower level is sold out of season tickets, while the club level only has limited supply going into the opener. 

While NC State’s season ticket purchases have reached heights not seen in nearly a half dozen years, the program’s ability to sell out its home opener is just as impressive. The Wolfpack has averaged 14,135 fans at its first home game over the past decade, but it hadn’t sniffed a sellout since the building’s opening night in 1999. 

Now, as the Pack prepares to host NC Central, it will mark the first sold-out men’s basketball game inside the Lenovo Center for an opponent that wasn’t Duke or North Carolina since Feb. 25, 2023 when Clemson visited the arena. It’s also believed to be the first sell-out crowd in the cavernous building for a buy game since the Wolfpack moved to the venue 27 seasons ago.

Corrigan, NC State’s sixth-year athletic director didn’t make a new hire just to boost ticket sales, but it is a byproduct of acquiring one of the nation’s hottest coaches on this past carousel. 

“You hope for a bump, right? … It’s a little bit more than what I thought, to be honest,” Corrigan said. “We’ve got a really good home schedule when you look at who we play at the Lenovo Center. But I think most of it is as Will comes in and more and more players commit, as Paul McNeil and Jordan Snell stay — there’s a little bit of old, not a lot — a lot of new, the energy behind Will, I think it’s an exciting time.”

NIL donations continue to rise

Once OnePack NIL, NC State’s athletics collective, raised $790,000 at its football fundraiser ahead of the 2024 season, Executive Director Chris Vurnakes thought that number wouldn’t be touched at a one-night event. 

Then Wade showed up. 

At the collective’s preseason basketball event last month, that all-time record was topped — and it wasn’t close. OnePack raised $828,286 in one night, which will benefit both the men’s and women’s programs, and that seemed to continue on the momentum that the basketball teams have provided to generate funds to pay both rosters. 

OnePack had a 15 percent increase in its membership when Wade was a candidate for the job as the fanbase tried a grassroots campaign to woo the coach with support to build a roster. Ever since he arrived in Raleigh, the collective has seen a 40 to 45 percent increase in its monthly membership base, Vurnakes said. 

In addition to the bulk of the collective’s donors that pledge between $10 and $200 a month, OnePack began The Cornerstone Club, a high-end fund within the group to benefit the basketball programs. Monthly donations of at least $1,000 (and up to $5,000 at the founder level) are required to join, but the new group has already raised more than $500,000 in annualized donations. 

Wade’s arrival not only led to increased ticket sales, but it also helped kickstart a monsoon of NIL donations, topping the growth the collective saw during the program’s run to the Final Four two seasons ago.

“There were a lot of donations that we gained through the magical run of the ACC Tournament and March Madness [in 2024], but they still don’t match what we’ve been able to do as it relates to our men’s and women’s basketball programs [currently],” Vurnakes said. “There’s a lot to be said about the optimism and enthusiasm that I think urged people to get behind the program. They want to be on the bandwagon, and we’ll take anybody that we can get.”

Wade’s ‘Red Reckoning’ needed support in addition to the revenue-sharing payments provided by the university, and it appears the program has been able to capitalize on both entering the 2025-26 campaign. After all, the Wolfpack was the only ACC program to land multiple top-100 transfers in On3’s portal rankings this offseason, picking up four in total: forwards Darrion Williams (6th) and Ven-Allen Lubin (42nd), and guards Tre Holloman (68th) and Terrance Arceneaux (80th).

The new era is here

As Wade emerged from the home tunnel inside First Horizon Coliseum in Greensboro just moments before NC State took on South Carolina in its lone public exhibition of the preseason last week, the crowd of 8,000 fans rose to their feet for a standing ovation. 

Even though it was a meaningless game, in terms of the result not counting towards either team’s postseason resume, the crowd embraced Wade with open arms. It’s not a usual sight for that setting, but Wade appeared to soak it all in as he waved his arms at midcourt to rev the Wolfpack faithful even more going into tipoff. 

That greeting might pale in comparison to what Wade will receive as he walks out of the Pack’s tunnel inside the Lenovo Center on Monday night. Just over 19,100 NC State fans will be ready to greet their prized coach, one who promised a consistent winner in Raleigh. 

After all, that’s what the fans have been craving on the basketball court. It’s been some time since the Wolfpack was a perennial national contender — the 2024 Final Four run provided a small taste to those that weren’t around for the Norm Slone or Jim Valvano years in the 70s and 80s — and Wade appears ready to deliver on his word. 

“I’m excited,” Wade said. “You look up and see all the seats and go, ‘Dang, all of these are going to be full for the first game.’ I’m excited to see what it’s about. I don’t think I’ve ever been a part of an opener that had 19,000 people. That’s what makes NC State great, that’s what makes our fanbase great and that’s what makes our program great.”

NC State’s ‘Red Reckoning’ is coming. And it will begin with a historic sold-out crowd against NC Central, just as Wade wanted the day he took the job.