HURRICANES YET TO CATCH CAROLINA'S EYE: TICKET SALES SLOW

          The NHL Carolina Hurricanes have sold "only" 3,000
     season tickets three months before the season, and ticket
     directors for other NHL teams "say they would be worried,"
     according to Steve Politi in the Raleigh NEWS & OBSERVER. 
     Stars Ticket Dir Brian Byrnes: "I'd be very concerned at
     this time."  Panthers Dir of Ticket Operations Scott
     Wampold: "Three thousand?  Wow."  But Hurricanes GM Jim
     Rutherford said, "There's going to be a period of adjustment
     for the people here to get used to major-league sports, the
     prices, and the fact that we're in 90-degree weather trying
     to see a winter sport."  The NEWS & OBSERVER's Politi added
     at the present pace the team would sell about 6,000 season
     tickets, "well below its goal of 10,000-20,000 for the first
     year."  Politi wrote that the team "has only begun to hit
     the big companies like Nortel and IBM, which are likely to
     purchase big blocks of tickets" (NEWS & OBSERVER, 7/10).