LOTCB Posted February 22, 2006 Share Posted February 22, 2006 My wife and I took a drive to Raleigh NC over the weekend...and for some reason I still thought the Carolina Hurricanes played somewhere else, like Greensboro or something....the entire weekend I was there...did not see one Carolina jersey, shirt, nothing selling in some stores we went to..ZIP...heck, we even drove RIGHT BY the arena on the loop...and I did not see any signs about Carolina....if there is...there is no clear sign that Carolina plays there. Don't the Hurricanes have the most points in the NHL right now? Again I was not there for days, but it makes you wonder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sammyk Posted February 22, 2006 Share Posted February 22, 2006 That's pretty sad. Even when I drove through Nashville there were Preds signs along the highways and whatnot. "Welcome to Smashville!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bruins4777 Posted February 22, 2006 Share Posted February 22, 2006 ya my dad lives down there, i noticed that as well, the fans are annoying as well. for their arena freaking ric flair comes on every break and goes WOOOOO how annoying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CRASHER Posted February 22, 2006 Share Posted February 22, 2006 ya my dad lives down there, i noticed that as well, the fans are annoying as well. for their arena freaking ric flair comes on every break and goes WOOOOO how annoying. Hey... respect your local legends boy !!! Don't make me pull a stubbs on you too !!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RowdyFan42 Posted February 22, 2006 Share Posted February 22, 2006 CRASHER's going to become a Hurricanes fan now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sammyk Posted February 22, 2006 Share Posted February 22, 2006 CRASHER's going to become a Hurricanes fan now. Doesn't he have a woman in every NHL city, and perhaps a few AHL cities? Time to activate the Carolina one! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CRASHER Posted February 22, 2006 Share Posted February 22, 2006 CRASHER's going to become a Hurricanes fan now. Doesn't he have a woman in every NHL city, and perhaps a few AHL cities? Time to activate the Carolina one! Hrrmmmm.... well not like I need them anymore but in my bestest of times.... it was... errr... St.Louis, Chicago, Orlando/Tampa (who also spent time in Columbus), Dallas (with time in LA ), Ottawa, central PA, Pitt... nope no REAL Carolina one... sorry!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MantaRay Posted February 22, 2006 Share Posted February 22, 2006 Carolina is no different than any other place, including NJ. When ever I fly into Newark I am dumbfounded that all they sell is Yankee refuse in the NEW JERSEY store, no Devils items in sight. If you go to the suburbs particularly in the Triangle region, you will find many Carolina Hurricanes bumper stickers and flags on the lawns. The Canes are very big with the kids in the area who are growing up with hockey, unlike their parents. Its hard to get Canes tickets in Carolina, most games are sold out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devilscup Posted February 23, 2006 Share Posted February 23, 2006 My wife and I took a drive to Raleigh NC over the weekend...and for some reason I still thought the Carolina Hurricanes played somewhere else, like Greensboro or something....the entire weekend I was there...did not see one Carolina jersey, shirt, nothing selling in some stores we went to..ZIP...heck, we even drove RIGHT BY the arena on the loop...and I did not see any signs about Carolina....if there is...there is no clear sign that Carolina plays there.Don't the Hurricanes have the most points in the NHL right now? Again I was not there for days, but it makes you wonder. I have family down there it is all ACC HOOPS & NASCAR They don't even have hockey equipment at Dick's sporting goods a large national chain Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olenwatson Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 As a resident of Raleigh NC I'd say that Carolina Hurricane marketing is abysmal except I'm not sure if I could spell "abysmal" correctly. My opinion is that the failure of marketed presence in the cityand greater area is a failure of the team to draw broad corporate sponsorship. This has nothing to do with the fans I hope you can see. I'm not sure you would see whole lot of NC State Wolfpack stuff all over the place either except on campus. That is the nature of NC and sports. But then again, there are almost no open seats for the remaining games of the year. Most of those are filled with real fans and not the carboard cutout big wigs the more traditional markets tend to sit. The Canes had 1 good year folowed by a REALLY bad one and a lockout. However, we have the most improved attendance in the NHL this year I think. ACC Basketball, and even football to a degree, has a real winning history. The indigenous population is used to that. If the team is even competative you will continue to see a growing fan base. Still, if you go to even the poorly attended games you'll notice the people there are really loud. I've always noticed a real problem drawing on week nights. The area just isn't used to a sport with an 82 game season. And don't ya think that Raleigh needs to be congratulated for their innovative use of the cheerleaders? Really who cares about tradition?!! We did it first in Raleigh. As for Rick Flair... growing up in PA I am well aware that as many or more northerners enjoy a minute of Superfly Snooka here and there. How self-righteous to be offput by that. Its entertainment and not exactly highbrow to begin with. In time this market will be hockey country. I'm sorry if you all were offended by our southern ways or our inability to understand you profound accent but we'll see if we can work our way around it the next time. Hate to hit and run but... Not really... Otherwise I gotta say the BBS is really slick people. Keep up the good work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thefiestygoat Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 Nice post Olen Watson. Welcome aboard! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sammyk Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 Otherwise I gotta say the BBS is really slick people. Keep up the good work. Did you just call this a BBS? Boy, that brings back some memories. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olenwatson Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 (edited) Thanks for the hardy welcome... Some other things. IF you drove by the arena on the "loop" and failed to see any signage you obviously failed also to look in your rearview mirror. There has been for quite some time a humongous billboard with lighted and scrolling text that advertises upcomming events. The other feature of that billboard for years has been the presence of the team captain, first Francis, then Brindy. So if you were actually driving on the beltline (not loop) you were simply driving the wrong way. Now if you were driving anywhere else in that area you may have missed the exit signs that point to the arena. We have never been a big tourist town so anyone not knowing where NCState plays, more significantly for this discussion the Carolina Hurricanes play, probably just doesn't belong here anyway. Really! Who cares if any leafs fans actually make it to the arena? We'd prefer they made the flight, bought game tickets, and then failed to find the arena. The Rick Flair thing... It isn't used every break... just when we score and near the end to get the crowd into it. Dang! Its fun. Get over it. http://www.newsobserver.com/105/story/390010.html The biggest question that all the Canes fans have been asking recently is how many people have moved to Jersey from NC? We have tons of fans that apparently moved from all over the hockey world to Raleigh. Every game there is at least a contingent cheering for the other team. This is especially true for Devs fans. I don't know why they move here... maybe our world class university system, nationaly ranked primary schools in Wake county, jobs, or just a better enviornment... maybe the Bar-B-Que? Edited February 27, 2006 by Olen Watson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LizDevil30 Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 I attended UNC Greensboro back in the 80's and remember how Michael Jordan et al had the state in a frenzy. I even bought a bumper sticker, and I didn't even have a car, that read: If God is not a Tarheel, then why's the sky Carolina blue? It had to be explained to me what a tarheel was, but those were fun times. I considered moving the the Triad area, the other triangle I guess? Winston-Salem, Greensboro and High Point, but it never panned out. Welcome and btw KC swears they have the best BBQ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sammyk Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 Now that you know, Liz, what is a tarheel? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LizDevil30 Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 Well Olen Watson might to a better job, but tarheel has to do with the tobacco farms and the tar from the tobacco and folks would step in the tar and it would get stuck on their heels, hence they had tar heels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elias2600 Posted February 27, 2006 Share Posted February 27, 2006 My wife and I took a drive to Raleigh NC over the weekend...and for some reason I still thought the Carolina Hurricanes played somewhere else, like Greensboro or something....the entire weekend I was there...did not see one Carolina jersey, shirt, nothing selling in some stores we went to..ZIP...heck, we even drove RIGHT BY the arena on the loop...and I did not see any signs about Carolina....if there is...there is no clear sign that Carolina plays there.Don't the Hurricanes have the most points in the NHL right now? Again I was not there for days, but it makes you wonder. I moved to and now live in Raleigh, and let me tell you that you couldn't be more wrong. There is plenty of hurricanes support around here. In fact a lot more than the devils see in NJ. Yeah they could probably do a bit better, but don't forget that college basketball is by far the #1 sport here (I personally dont care about it myself), and hockey kind of gets to pick up the scraps. Also, Raleigh and the triangle is not a very large metropolitan area, so I would say they are doing pretty well to sell out so frequently. I would agree that some fans and game presentation is annoying, but you could say that about every single team in the nhl. most of the sports concentration is on NC State and the other college basketball schools around here though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pattyelias Posted February 28, 2006 Share Posted February 28, 2006 I moved to and now live in Raleigh, and let me tell you that you couldn't be more wrong. There is plenty of hurricanes support around here. In fact a lot more than the devils see in NJ. Yeah they could probably do a bit better, but don't forget that college basketball is by far the #1 sport here (I personally dont care about it myself), and hockey kind of gets to pick up the scraps. Also, Raleigh and the triangle is not a very large metropolitan area, so I would say they are doing pretty well to sell out so frequently. I would agree that some fans and game presentation is annoying, but you could say that about every single team in the nhl. most of the sports concentration is on NC State and the other college basketball schools around here though. I'm sure the Hurricanes attendance isn't hurt by the fact that their tickets are about 1/3 the price of Devils tickets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
insanity_gallops Posted February 28, 2006 Share Posted February 28, 2006 ya my dad lives down there, i noticed that as well, the fans are annoying as well. for their arena freaking ric flair comes on every break and goes WOOOOO how annoying. Good thing the Devils don't use vid clips of old wrestlers to try and pump the crowd up. Canes are still a young franchise. Hockey in the south is new, and it'll take time to see if it'll stick. Heck, if NASCAR moved from a southern sport to a California sport, hockey can head a little south. But that's a whole 'nother issue. Sounds like the Canes and Devils PR guys are best buds, given their similar approach to advertising. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olenwatson Posted February 28, 2006 Share Posted February 28, 2006 I'm an equal opportunity BBQ lover really... The Tarheel reference could possibly be because some of our beaches have a natural tar substance you can find, plenty of pine trees,etc... The absolute source has never been authoritatively identified. Alot of people disagree. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CRASHER Posted February 28, 2006 Share Posted February 28, 2006 Good thing the Devils don't use vid clips of old wrestlers to try and pump the crowd up. You mean like Randy Savage in the video when we score ? (not to mention the 3 WWE theme songs that get played during the games too) nothing wrong with a random WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO now and then (ok so the Ric Flaitr match is on now... sue me !!! ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
insanity_gallops Posted February 28, 2006 Share Posted February 28, 2006 heh, CRASH, that's what I was goin' for -- sarcasm. Glad to see you picked up on it so well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CRASHER Posted February 28, 2006 Share Posted February 28, 2006 heh, CRASH, that's what I was goin' for -- sarcasm.Glad to see you picked up on it so well. Hey you know me... anything to help promote the quasi-sport of pro wrestling on the site I miss when we would come out to the Brood's song for the second period that was one cool ass tune that was VERY Devil-ish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.