RALEIGH -- With the NHL All-Star Game finally on its way to the Triangle, there remains one long-delayed, long-anticipated organizational transition that still has to happen for the Carolina Hurricanes.
For years, owner Peter Karmanos has been talking about winding down his affairs at Compuware, the Detroit software company he founded, to move south and take a more active role with the Hurricanes. He hasn't been able to do that yet.
"I'm close, very close, to being able to retire from that job," Karmanos said last week, just as he did four years ago.
This is something that needs to happen, for Karmanos' sake and the franchise's sake. The former is obvious: As deep as his roots run in Detroit, the man is a huge hockey fan and this is his team. As for the latter, the team needs an advocate in the Triangle's halls of power and prestige. No one would fit the bill better than Karmanos.
The disconnect between Karmanos and the team and the market was underlined by last Thursday's news conference awarding the 2011 All-Star Game to the team. When you open your remarks by saying your television broadcaster isn't enough of a homer to your taste - and we like John Forslund just the way he is, thank you very much - you're watching too many games on TV.
Karmanos has put a lot of time, money and effort into making this team as successful as it can be in this market. He deserves to kick up his feet, pop open a beer and watch his team play in person. At 67, he has earned it, but Compuware just won't let go. Karmanos appointed longtime Compuware executive Bob Paul his successor as CEO last June but has yet to relinquish power.
Even before the Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup in 2006, Karmanos was talking publicly about reducing his role at Compuware and taking a more active hand with the hockey team. But a year later, with the company foundering, Karmanos personally took over the company's struggling sales force.
Compuware stock quickly soared to a five-year high of $12.15 and was still near that level a year later but hasn't reached those heights since. Compuware closed at $8.51 Monday, in the same price range it has been in for the past eight years.
Meanwhile, Karmanos has been caught up in the scandal surrounding disgraced former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. Karmanos, it has emerged, loaned Kilpatrick money in an effort to get him to resign, then gave him a lucrative sales job when he got out of jail.
Karmanos is torn between the company he founded and the hockey team he moved to this market. They both need him as their public face, and there's not enough of him to go around.
Jim Cain brought his local connections to that role as the hockey team's president, and general manager Jim Rutherford has done a commendable job since Cain left in 2002, but it's too much to ask of one man to build a hockey team and a franchise at the same time.
Karmanos would do a fine job with the latter. While his sporadic public appearances here haven't always gone smoothly - witness his awkward comments about Peter Laviolette last season - he moves in elite charitable and political circles in Detroit, and there's no reason to think he wouldn't be able to do the same here given the opportunity to work at it full time.
The All-Star Game is a great opportunity to elevate this franchise's profile locally, nationally and internationally. So is opening next season in Finland. The sooner Karmanos can wrap up his day-to-day involvement in Compuware, the more the Hurricanes will be able to make of both opportunities.
