Hurricanes' Karmanos Increasing Role To Boost Sales Efforts

Karmanos Taking More Hands-On Approach To Hurricane's Sales Effort

Hurricanes Owner Peter Karmanos said that he is going to attempt a "hands-on restructuring" of the team's sales force, according to Luke DeCock of the Raleigh NEWS & OBSERVER. Karmanos indicated that what the Hurricanes spend on players this offseason "will be determined by what the franchise makes on advertising and tickets." Karmanos: "I plan to come in and actually help work on both those areas myself two or three days a week starting in July." DeCock notes the Hurricanes "could lose as much as $10[M] this season because of the absence of playoff revenue, a larger-than-budgeted payroll, reduced NHL revenue-sharing payments and decreased attendance." Karmanos: "We need to put more people in the building. We need to do a better job of selling advertising. It's not so much a cap that we put on [GM Jim Rutherford]. It's the cap we put on ourselves. We're just not maximizing our revenue streams." Karmanos' efforts come "at a critical time for the franchise." Due to the "fall-off in revenue" this season as compared to the '06-07 campaign, the Hurricanes "lost a quarter of their NHL revenue-sharing money when they failed to meet the league's growth benchmarks." Karmanos' increased involvement with the Hurricanes "comes at a time when he is beginning to reduce his role" as Chair of Compuware. Karmanos since the team relocated to North Carolina from Hartford in '97 has been "somewhat removed from the day-to-day operations of the Hurricanes" (Raleigh NEWS & OBSERVER, 4/30).