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Canes sold.

It would be great if Dundon acknowledges the Whalers half of the franchise's history. Would an outdoor game between the Bruins and Canes at say the Yale Bowl be of interest?
 
It would be great if Dundon acknowledges the Whalers half of the franchise's history. Would an outdoor game between the Bruins and Canes at say the Yale Bowl be of interest?

I hope someday we might be in an outdoor game. I think those types of games have to have some rivalry associated with them and in order to have rivalry, there would have to be history, proximity and an actual competition between the two teams. Bruins-Whalers' history is 20+ years removed. The Canes have not won enough to be considered winners of anything. So in the words of BK, nope...
 
well the main thing the Canes would need for an outdoor game is a big name opponent such as Pitt or Rangers or Chicago for ratings. They are not going to show Canes vs . Tampa, Florida, Nashville, etc.
 
It would be great if Dundon acknowledges the Whalers half of the franchise's history. Would an outdoor game between the Bruins and Canes at say the Yale Bowl be of interest?

Yeah ... I thought about that the other night when they were showing Wesley's clips on the Jumbotron and his days with the Whale were absent. Ditto Francis. It's stupid and it's gone on long enough ... this franchise should loudly admit to the world that they used to be the Hartford Bloody Whalers. Hang the banners ... or a replica thereof. Quit pretending the club was born in 1997.
 

Agree.

An outdoor game against the Caps would work. They've played 1 in DC, at Nats Park and the 2018 Stadium Series is scheduled for the Naval Academy. God forbid, the Canes could host at Carter Finley. If they can do an outdoor game in SoCal or Santa Clara, there is no technical reason they can't do one here.
 
Number one thing he has to do is generate a sense of excitement. Francis and Peters don't exactly do that. And Waddell had better have been working his network for new opportunities, his record and approach don't align IMO with Dundon's.
 
Number one thing he has to do is generate a sense of excitement. Francis and Peters don't exactly do that. And Waddell had better have been working his network for new opportunities, his record and approach don't align IMO with Dundon's.

Yep. That should be numbers 1 - 15 on the list.

Good article. I'm optimistic that Dundon will make some changes - and make them quickly - to move this franchise forward.

There are worse owners to emulate than Mark Cuban.
 
Number one thing he has to do is generate a sense of excitement. Francis and Peters don't exactly do that. And Waddell had better have been working his network for new opportunities, his record and approach don't align IMO with Dundon's.

If I had to pick one person in Carolina's current front office to be the first to get the axe under new ownership, it HAS to be Waddell.
 
If you guys were the new owner and had omnipotent power, what would be the #1 change in each of these areas of entertainment:

1. Arena
2. In game experience
3. Concessions
4. Parking
 
If you guys were the new owner and had omnipotent power, what would be the #1 change in each of these areas of entertainment:

1. Arena
2. In game experience
3. Concessions
4. Parking

It’s stale all the way around, change most of everything! For years things have been real plain Jane in many of the music, video and in game experiences and offerings. You have to get more butts back in the seats and outside of winning, make the place a memorable night out again. Apparently, Dundon has done a really nice job of that with Top Golf, so maybe he has some creative ways to upgrade the overall experience.
 
Really, I'd tell him to start with parking. Drive to a few games, park in different lots, show up at different times. You have 82 chances a year with each customer to piss them off, coming and going... and the Canes come close to batting 1.000 on this one.

Next: In game experience... Abolish Arena Rock and all the trite tripe that you hear everywhere else. Get creative. Hire better announcers. Get the organist to expand his repertoire.
 
If you guys were the new owner and had omnipotent power, what would be the #1 change in each of these areas of entertainment:

1. Arena
2. In game experience
3. Concessions
4. Parking

Parking.

It's seriously low hanging fruit ... as in it's already on the ground, rotting. Train the eedjits out in the entrance areas. Pay a couple bucks an hour more to hire people who actually want to be there or to get current staff to at least pretend. Kill the dumber than dumb idea of scanning every single Premiere and VIP pass by hand ... which makes everyone have to tear their hang tag off the rear view and then somehow magically get it to stay when they put it back. Honestly ... a decent traffic engineering consultant could improve traffic into and out of the lots by 50% without breaking a sweat.

Oh ... and State games are even worse.

Everything else will take a bit of time ... so pretty much off season projects. And frankly, the building itself is great aside from some minor issues. You can thank the Authority with driving the cash to keep the arena at something approximating peak modernity. Ticket pricing and sales, corporate relations, group sales, providing real value to STHers, improving the POS system at concessions, training vendors (a little? please?), adding diversity of food and beverage options, improving the in game experience ... all that is relatively complicated to do with the season in full swing.
 
Agree with what others have said - especially about the parking. Individual ticket scanning is only slightly less intrusive than stepping outside the car for a full body search.

In game experience: I've always wondered why we don't play up the hurricane theme more? What about a massive howling windstorm? The siren at the opening of each period is not nearly loud enough to get people pumped up (and it's entirely dependent on the strength of the person winding it). I like the Homegrown events, especially the local musicians and would like to see more of that. And is it possible to get more high-quality replays and signage on the "mini" jumbotron where the fans can read what's written easier and plainly see what just happened on the ice? Bring back the kids artwork of each Cane and add more kid questions for the Canes to address - it's one of the best video features.

And I don't know if its feasible or allowable, but how cool would it be to hear John Forslund's "Hey, Hey" or "That's Hockey Baby" in the arena after a big goal?
 
Tweet from Luke......


BREAKING Carolina Hurricanes sale to Thomas Dundon scheduled to close later this morning. Press conference with Gary Bettman tomorrow.
 
:joy Complete awesomeness!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Finally Mr. Dundon will be able to break his absolute radio silence about anything having to do with the Canes. I'm excited to hear anything about the Canes from Dundon directly and no longer just have to rely on things his friends and associates have to say about the guy and how he likes to run his businesses.
 
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