A limited planning timeline for a free Snoop Dogg concert left concert planners no choice but to move off campus, sources said Wednesday.
The concert, won as part of a promotional push for Electronic Arts’ new video game, “Bulletstorm,” was originally pitched as an on- campus event.
But formal planning talks between the University’s Division of Student Affairs and EA suddenly ended two days after they began, when EA’s events staff informed the University that the concert would instead be held in the Raleigh Amphitheater.
“We couldn’t make it work because of the timing,” said Sara Sprinkles, EA’s senior events manager. “If we had had a little bit more time, we probably could have gotten (the University) all that it wanted.”
Sprinkles called Christopher Payne, UNC’s associate vice chancellor for student affairs, last Tuesday.
“I called her back on Wednesday, and told her that we didn’t have enough information to make an informed decision,” Payne said. “We evaluated the specifications and plans like we would do with any other major event.”
Payne, whose office regularly handles large campus events like concerts, said that the planning process for such events usually takes at least two months.
As part of that process, Payne said that he asked EA for technical specifications and security coordination information, among other details.
After sending EA a second batch of questions last Thursday, Payne opened an email to discover that the company was moving the concert to Raleigh instead.