Canes at 25: A new home, and a fresh start for the Hurricanes in Raleigh
Editor’s note: This story was originally published in the News & Observer on Sept. 26, 1999.
One day in June, Paul Maurice took a tour of the Entertainment and Sports Arena. The Hurricanes coach stood on the floor, looked up at the rows of new seats being installed and felt a sensation unlike anything he has experienced since the team moved to North Carolina.
“It was a rush,” Maurice says. “I had ... chills. It’s hard to explain, but it has been 3 1/2 years, even when we were in Hartford, since we really felt like a building was ours. You forget what it’s like to have a home building.”
The Greensboro Coliseum? That was never more than a temporary way station, a two-year docking point while the ESA was being built and the team awaited its chance to play its first “home” game in Raleigh.
While there were several large crowds in Greensboro, while more and more fans began to show up dressed in their red-and-black Hurricanes jerseys and begin to act and sound like an NHL crowd, the Canes never could quite escape the league-wide “Green Acres” ridicule - that is, jokes about the expanse of empty green seats at the coliseum.
The Canes always pointed to their new $154 million arena in Raleigh as the real starting point for the franchise. Once in the ESA, they believed, things would be different. They finally would be home.
On their drive to Greensboro, many players would pass the ESA and eye the construction. They watched as the steel went up, as the roof was completed. Slowly, ever so slowly, the arena began to take shape.
“It’s been exciting to see it,” forward Martin Gelinas says. “It’s like we’ve had to play 82 road games each of the last two seasons. It was a grind, one we’re glad is over.”
But the Canes also know it won’t be a matter of swinging open the doors and filling the place, game after game. Even though the Canes won the Southeast Division last year and reached the playoffs, team officials and players alike realize there are hockey neophytes that need to be won over and skeptics to be convinced.
Hockey in North Carolina, in the heart of ACC country? Many still insist it will never fly.
“We’ll definitely have to win some fans over, and for a few years,” winger Gary Roberts says. “But I think what the people saw last year in the playoffs was an exciting style of game.
“Hopefully, the fans will get excited about watching us play. Hopefully, we’ll put wins on the board and win over even more fans.”
But the Hurricanes’ long-awaited home opener, against the New Jersey Devils, isn’t until Oct. 29. Their first nine games are on the road, a scheduling quirk necessitated by delays in building the ESA.
Sure, it’s just nine games, a slice of an 82-game season. But for the Canes, they could be the most crucial nine games they’ll play.
The nine games will determine whether the Hurricanes can build some early momentum on the ice. More important, they could influence the momentum of early ticket sales for a franchise that is looking to generate enthusiasm and build a core of fans in an arena that will seat 17,500 for hockey.
“It goes hand in hand,” Maurice says. “It’s important to get off to a good start because we all know how easy it is to falter out of the gate and play catch-up the rest of the year. But to create excitement for the fans, we need a decent start.
“The quicker we can get off to a strong showing, the quicker it will catch on. If we get off to a slow start, it will be a little slower building.”
The ESA isn’t the only new place in the NHL. The expansion Atlanta Thrashers will open the $213 million Phillips Arena and the Avalanche soon will move into the Pepsi Center. The difference: Both teams had no trouble selling season tickets.
The Canes won’t release numbers on season-ticket sales, leading some to guess it could be about 5,000. Which means, of course, that they must find a way to lure people into the arena.
“We think the building will sell itself,” general manager Jim Rutherford says. “It’s a state-of-the-art building, and once people can come and see what all the squabbling was about, they’ll be happy. It will create excitement.”
For now, the home opener may be the only guaranteed sellout, and the Canes would like a winning debut. Still, it shouldn’t be a killer if they do lose to the Devils.
“I don’t think people will say, ‘If they win that game, let’s go buy season tickets’ or ‘If they lose, that’s it, the team’s done,’ “ Maurice says. “In the South, it’s not just a hockey game but an event, a night out.
“With the new building, being a new hockey team in town, there’s a lot of novelty surrounding it all. We have a little window where the newness will be an advantage to us in Raleigh, and we need to win games to fully take advantage. But I think the fans will be there regardless.”
The Canes believe in their demographic studies, believe the Triangle can support a big-league team, that locals won’t be put off by the “sticker shock” of $40 tickets. They believe they will have an attractive product with the likes of fiery Roberts, future Hall of Famer Ron Francis, swift winger Sami Kapanen and All-Star goalie Arturs Irbe. Many hope the captain, center Keith Primeau, soon will his contract dispute and join the team.
“If we could play .500 hockey on the road trip to start, it would be terrific,” defenseman Glen Wesley says. “Do that and everyone would be excited and we’ll be going into the new building looking forward to being there almost all of November. Then we could really get things going for this hockey club.”
In its new home.
This story was originally published September 1, 2021 at 12:00 AM.