olenwatson

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.

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?

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.