The Hurricanes are "declining to reveal" ticket sales
for their '99-2000 season in Raleigh, according to Cecil
Harris of the Raleigh NEWS & OBSERVER, who wrote that it
"suggests strongly that sales are not good." Gale Force
Holdings President Dean Jordan, when asked about the team's
attendance potential: "Are we going to average 18,000 fans a
game? Absolutely not. I'm not even going to suggest that.
How many fans are we going to average? I don't know. But
it'll be significantly improved over what we averaged the
previous two years. I hope we'll surprise a lot of people."
Jordan sees no benefit to releasing ticket sales figures:
"If we sold 6,000 season tickets, for example, and averaged
14,000 fans, the story wouldn't be that our attendance
average is one of the best in the league. The story would
be that we only sold 6,000 season tickets." NHL VP/Media
Relations Frank Brown: "The Hurricanes aren't required to
release season-ticket information. ... They're not an
expansion club, so there's no maximum figure that they have
to reach." Harris wrote that ticket sales "seem to concern
Jordan less" than the Hurricanes' TV-radio deal that "made
it difficult to market" the team last season. Jordan, who
"favors" a RSN that would air Hurricanes and Hornets games:
"We need to improve that situation. I would love to see a
Fox Sports Carolinas" (NEWS & OBSERVER, 7/27).
