Time for NHL to keep its promise

ATLANTA -- The NHL All-Star Game is only six hours away from the Triangle this weekend. It should be only four years away from coming to Raleigh.

With the pace of hotel development in the Triangle quickening, the time has come for the NHL to live up to the pledge commissioner Gary Bettman made in 2001, even if it's six years late.

The Montreal Canadiens will host the event next year, and there's no game in 2010 because of the Winter Olympics. The Phoenix Coyotes, who were scheduled to host in 2006 before that game was canceled because of NHL's involvement at the Olympics, are likely to get the 2011 game -- although no announcement is expected this weekend.

That leaves 2012 for the Hurricanes, and all indications are they're first in line for that date, although an NHL spokesman said any speculation for 2011 or beyond is "way premature in terms of prospective cities."

Bettman offered the Hurricanes a giant carrot for a sales campaign in the spring of 2001: Get the season-ticket base to 12,000, and the league would bring an All-Star Game to Raleigh within five years. (A draft was awarded, without conditions, and duly held in 2004.)

Fans bought tickets -- lots of them. While there was some debate over whether the final numbers were fudged to meet the goal, the league was thrilled with the response, and as far as Bettman was concerned, the goal was met.

Since then, the league has awarded All-Star Games to St. Paul, Minn.; Atlanta; Phoenix; Dallas and Montreal.

Raleigh, meanwhile, continues to wait. The team acknowledged in an August 2002 letter to the league that the market wasn't ready, primarily because of a lack of high-end hotel space that forced unhappy teams to be spread out over too far an area at the 2004 draft.

But that landscape has changed dramatically. With The Umstead open in Cary, high-rise hotels going up downtown, at North Hills and at Crabtree Valley, and the convention center on the verge of completion, Raleigh is not only ready to host an All-Star Game, it's overdue.

With more than 5,000 deep-pocketed visitors, an All-Star Game would add more than $10 million to the Triangle economy -- more than an NCAA basketball regional, an NHL draft and a U.S. Open in the Sandhills combined.

The league entertains its most valued sponsors and dignitaries with a whirlwind of fan events, galas and, sometimes almost lost in the shuffle, the game itself, broadcast to an international audience.

It's a substantial logistical commitment to host the event, but it offers untold rewards. While the 2002 and 2006 Stanley Cup finals put the Triangle on a world stage, the All-Star Game takes that exposure to another level.

Hurricanes owner Peter Karmanos told Bettman a year ago at the All-Star Game in Dallas that the Hurricanes were ready. Now, it's up to the league.

"I know the Hurricanes have made it clear to the NHL that Raleigh is ready and fully capable of hosting the All-Star Game anytime starting in 2011, which is the next available year," said Scott Dupree, the director of sports marketing for the Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitor Bureau.

"So we are certainly hoping and anticipating that we'll have the opportunity to host somewhere in that time frame."

It's impossible to complain too loudly if Phoenix gets 2011. After all, the Coyotes were actually awarded the All-Star Game, only to have it taken away.

But it's also impossible to deny the Triangle now. There's no reason to wait any longer than 2012. It's still four years away, but the time has come.