Hurricanes' On-Ice Success Slowly Moving Outside The Rink
The Hurricanes have played five seasons in NC, and excluding the first two years of the team's "existence as a team in exile in Greensboro, ... the club has made great progress," according to David Fay of the WASHINGTON TIMES. But while the Hurricanes "started out with a season ticket base of zero five years ago, was at 6,000 as recently as last season and now stands a hair short of 11,000." While the Hurricanes had 14 sellouts and their attendance increased 15% in '01-02 over '00-01, the club's average attendance of 15,506 "was not nearly enough to cover payroll," and the team "still lost a ton of money." Fay writes the Hurricanes have "an identity problem — not a crisis but a problem. Four ... sports stores in the same upscale mall [in Raleigh] carried not a piece of Hurricanes merchandise. ... This is a team with an AM radio outlet that isn't strong enough to be heard very far away and one that doesn't have its own TV network. ... It hasn't been able to reach a deal for naming rights for the awkwardly labeled and otherwise nice Entertainment and Sports Arena and has little in the way of corporate sponsorship." The Hurricanes share TV airtime on FSN South with the Hornets, and Hurricanes President & COO Jim Cain said while he would "hate to see the Hornets leave Charlotte because it casts a negative reflection on the city and state, ... if anybody benefits because the Hornets are leaving, it's us." Cain: "It takes away competition for TV time, and we've had some trouble with clearances. Same with radio. And it creates an opportunity for us in the Charlotte market" (WASHINGTON TIMES, 4/25).
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