How bonding with his sons made NC Gov. Josh Stein an ‘intense’ Canes fan
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Stein supports affordable access to major sporting events and local Canes watch parties.
- Stein says bonding with his sons helped deepen his Canes fandom.
- Games 1 and 2 vs. Vegas occur Tuesday and Thursday at Raleigh’s Lenovo Center.
North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein’s main sport is soccer. He grew up playing it in Chapel Hill, and has been a longtime fan. He just watched the U.S. men’s national team play in Charlotte this weekend.
He’s also governor of the state with an NHL team in the Stanley Cup Finals.
The Carolina Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup 20 years ago, and fans are hoping it will happen again. Games 1 and 2 against the Vegas Golden Knights are Tuesday and Thursday at the Lenovo Center in Raleigh, and there are several watch parties around the Triangle for those not at the games.
Stein’s a Canes, fan, too. He didn’t jump on the bandwagon this season, however. It was bonding with his sons that got him to the point of saying: “I live and breathe it.”
“LET’S GO CANES!!!” he posted on social media with a video from the seats during the playoffs.
It was also a bit of influence from his gubernatorial predecessor, Roy Cooper, who is such a fan, he dressed in a Canes uniform on Halloween.
“He definitely played a role, because he’s been a season ticket holder since, I think, the beginning, like early 2000s,” Stein said.
Cooper, a fellow Democrat, served two terms as governor before Stein took office in 2025. Cooper’s campaign has emphasized his fandom this year as he runs for U.S. Senate in a nationally watched race.
Stein served as attorney general when Cooper was governor, and before that he worked in the Department of Justice led by Cooper when he was attorney general.
“When I was at the Attorney General’s Office, working for him, he would give me tickets. And so I started going to regular season games in the early 2000s, and I would usually go to a game or two in the regular season, and then if they make the playoffs, I go to a game or two,” Stein told The News & Observer as he talked to reporters after a Council of State meeting on Tuesday.
“But I would say three or four years ago, I just became almost — I’m not, I will never claim to be a Cooper-level fan — but I became an intense fan,” he said.
“My boys really got into it, and so they were both out of state in school, and it just gave me an opportunity to stay really connected to them, and so now I live and breathe it,” Stein said about his grown sons, Adam and Sam.
‘Tickets cost too much’ for major sporting events, Stein says
Stein said he hasn’t studied the high ticket prices for Stanley Cup Finals games, but told reporters that “tickets cost too much,” both for games like those and for the World Cup.
“I was actually in Charlotte at the USA-Senegal soccer game, which was a really big boost for the region there. It was the second to last kickoff before the World Cup starts, but the griping I was hearing about the cost of the FIFA World Cup in these cities all around the country — it’s legitimately concerning that these tickets are incredibly overpriced,” Stein said.
“FIFA is changing where you sit in the stadium after what they told you you were going to get, and so there’s all these misrepresentations that are alleged. So, look, I’m really concerned about people being able to afford entertainment. That’s why, when I was attorney general, I sued Ticketmaster” over unfair price increases, he said.
“What we need to do is have a competitive system that gets prices as low as they can, because I want as many people to enjoy this as possible,” Stein said.
As far as the Canes in the final, “what’s great about the Hurricanes is I was just talking to somebody and they said, ‘you know, I can’t afford the tickets, but I’m going to go to the watch party downtown.’ Whether you are in the building or not, you can feel the excitement, you can share in the enthusiasm, and you can cheer on the Canes.”
This story was originally published June 2, 2026 at 1:35 PM.
