What Tom Dundon said about Canes success, massive parade turnout and MLB hopes

Triangle sports fans riding high off the Carolina Hurricanes’ Stanley Cup victory now have another reason to dream big.

After he watched 150,000 people pack downtown Raleigh for the Canes celebration parade and rally on Saturday, Tom Dundon said his hockey team’s success and support shows the region is ready for another professional team.

Dundon has expressed interest in Raleigh’s bid to get a team should MLB decide to expand. He’s confident baseball owners will respect hockey’s success.

“I think the numbers that we’ve done, and the amount of the amount of interest, the amount of economic activity this has generated,” Dundon said Saturday. “I also have to pay for the team, you know, at some point, and I have - I was already pretty confident. I have way more confidence now, and if I do, they will, too.”

Dundon’s comments came after two of North Carolina’s most powerful politicians said it’s time to bring Major League Baseball to Raleigh.

Senate leader Phil Berger, a longtime Yankees fan, told reporters Thursday he’d love to see an MLB team land in the Triangle, and that lawmakers could help make it happen. Democratic Gov. Josh Stein voiced similar support a day earlier, making the case that the region has earned its shot at the big leagues, according to The News & Observer.

“Well, Charlotte has two, three major professional sports: the MLS, NBA and NFL. Of course, Raleigh and the Triangle has now the NHL and World Champions, Stanley Cup champions, Carolina Hurricanes,” Stein said.

He went on to say the Triangle “is a lucrative and potential market for the MLB — baseball — and we’re going to be working to do all we can.”

Why the Triangle has a real shot

The numbers Stein and Berger are citing should sound familiar to anyone who’s watched this region grow.

“I think that the region really showed out, the viewership on this NHL playoffs were the highest in like seven or eight years. People care about what happens here. One of the fastest growing metro areas in the country, 22nd largest media market, which places them bigger than any other potential expansion site in the country. So we’re eager for this opportunity to be considered, and we’ll do all we can to support it,” Stein told reporters in Charlotte.

Berger pointed to a different stat that should grab MLB’s attention.

“All projections are we’re going to be the seventh most populous state when the next census comes out. We’re the largest state that does not have a major league baseball team. … If someone had told you 20 years ago that a professional hockey team drew the kind of response that we’ve seen — not just in Raleigh and not just in Wake County, but across the state of North Carolina — you wouldn’t have believed it,” Berger said.

“And I just think sports has a way of doing that, and if there’s an opportunity for North Carolina to get an expansion baseball team, I’d love to see that.”

Berger said he’s “agnostic” about exactly where the team would play, but argued the Hurricanes’ success makes a strong case for the Triangle.

What lawmakers can do

Asked whether the state budget could include money for an MLB project, Berger said, “I don’t know.” But he suggested the General Assembly could play a role in authorizing local taxation to help finance a stadium, like other states do. He pointed to the Centennial Authority — which includes the state, Raleigh and N.C. State — as “a starting point.”

That stadium piece is no small thing. A 2025 study from N.C. State Professor Emeritus of Economics Michael Walden estimates a new MLB ballpark would cost roughly $1-2 billion, with tax dollars likely covering most of the construction, The News & Observer reported.

Dundon and a possible new investor

Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon has been the loudest voice behind the Raleigh push, and he’s not backing down after winning a second Stanley Cup.

“I think we’re gonna put ourselves in a really good place, and if they decide to expand, we’ll have a compelling offer,” Dundon said Sunday on the ice in Las Vegas.

Hurricanes CEO Brian Fork — who happens to be Berger’s former chief of staff — has said the team would need public financial support too, though no specific numbers have been floated.

Now another deep-pocketed investor is circling. Marc Lasry, a former Milwaukee Bucks owner and current investor in the North Carolina Courage, told WRAL he’s interested in investing in an MLB franchise here. Lasry’s Avenue Sports Fund launched in 2023 and has raised more than $1 billion, with stakes in the Baltimore Orioles, a NASCAR team and the PGA Tour, among others.

“MLB is going to pick the city they think has got the best finances where people will be able to build a new stadium, where they’re comfortable with ownership,” Lasry said. “It’s hard. Getting a city to get a team is just hard. I’m not going to tell you it’s easy. Raleigh has as good a shot as anybody.”

Lasry said he’d be willing to partner with Dundon to bring big league baseball to the Triangle.

The competition is stiff

Raleigh isn’t the only city in line. Nashville and Salt Lake City are widely considered the consensus frontrunners.

Music City Baseball has been working since 2019 to bring a team to Nashville, proposing the name “Nashville Stars” in honor of the Negro League franchise that played there from the 1930s to the 1950s. Nashville is the No. 25 media market.

Salt Lake City’s bid, led by Big League Utah and backed by the Miller family, already has plans for a $3.5 billion mixed-use development built around a stadium. SLC ranks as the 28th-largest media market.

Sacramento, Portland, Charlotte and Montreal are also in the mix. Charlotte’s bid has some advantages — it’s the 21st-largest market with a metro population of about 3 million — but the 250-mile distance from Atlanta and the location of Truist Field in Uptown raise questions.

The timeline

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred wants to add two teams before he retires in 2029. The current collective bargaining agreement ends in December, and expansion is expected to be a key focus once a new deal is settled.

Even in a best-case scenario for Raleigh, opening day is still a few years away.

But Berger, whose term ends in December after losing his primary, said he isn’t done with baseball yet.

Asked if he might want a role if MLB does come to North Carolina, Berger said he’s made no plans for life after the Senate, “but if they’d allow me to manage a major league baseball team, I’ll apply.”

This article was compiled with the help of AI tools and edited by journalists. The full story in the link at top was reported, written and edited entirely by journalists.