Friday marked the dawning of a new era of Carolina Hurricanes hockey. The team held a news conference with new majority owner Tom Dundon, former owner Peter Karmanos Jr., general manager Ron Francis, team president Don Waddell and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman to officially introduce Dundon as the team’s owner.

The purchase agreement between Dundon and Karmanos was announced last month, and Thursday, the league approved the sale and it became official that Dundon had purchased 61 percent of the franchise, becoming the new majority owner and governor of the team.

Dundon, a 46-year-old Dallas businessman who is the chairman and managing partner of Dundon Capital Partners, a private investment firm in Dallas, along with the majority owner of Employer Direct Healthcare and director of Topgolf, is ready to jump right in and make his mark on the Canes, bringing constant improvement to the franchise.

“I’m probably not going to do a whole lot of speeches and talking,” Dundon said. “We’re just going to go do stuff. People will decide if they like it and if they don’t like it, we’ll try to do better. When I met with the people that run this place, I was trying to be open about it’s not good enough. What we’re doing today isn’t good enough. We’re going to do better. What I was excited about is they all want to do better. Everyone who works at this arena and works for this team, they’re ready. They’re ready to do something better than they did yesterday.”

For the NHL, allowing a person to take over one of its franchises is not an easy decision. The league and its leadership has to make sure a person is the right fit, and is committed to long term success for the team they are purchasing. They have to be able to bring stability and sustainability to a franchise. For Bettman and the NHL, Dundon checked all of those boxes as the new owner of the Hurricanes.

“He believes in hockey in North Carolina,” Bettman said. “He believes in this franchise and he is excited about the opportunity to take the foundation that is in place and take things to the next level. He’s committed to excellence organizationally, excellence in terms of the team’s performance on the ice, excellence in terms of being involved in the community even more than we’ve seen to date.

“Everything that Tom is going to do is part of his vision to not only bring a championship, the Stanley Cup, to Carolina but to make sure that this franchise is a vibrant and important part of this community more so than perhaps we have ever seen before. I’m sure everybody is excited about that vision.”

While on the subject of sustainability, Bettman addressed the relocation speculation that plagued the Hurricanes throughout the time Karmanos’ for-sale sign was up. Despite repeated insistence from the league that these rumors had no factual basis and the Hurricanes were not going anywhere, media in places such as Quebec City continued to try to fuel those fires.

While introducing Dundon (who signed a standard seven-year no-relocation agreement with his purchase), Bettman reiterated the league’s commitment to Raleigh as a hockey market and that the Hurricanes are here to stay.

“This is the first place that I can ever recall in my 25 years of people tailgating for a hockey game,” Bettman said. “During the Stanley Cup Final, game seven, this is the first time at a professional sporting event, that I can recall, that everybody stood for the entire game. This is a community that has embraced NHL hockey and the Hurricanes. I know over the years that there has been speculation and rumor and innuendo about the future of this franchise. Let me tell you, as I’ve repeatedly said over the years, this franchise wasn’t going anywhere and it isn’t going anywhere.”

Karmanos has owned this franchise, formerly the Hartford Whalers, for 24 years, and ever since its move to Carolina in 1997. He is in the Hockey Hall of Fame as a builder, and has done a tremendous amount to grow the game both in this market and throughout the United States.

Stepping aside from something you’ve been doing for so long is not an easy thing to do, and finding a person to take it over is no easy task. That being said, Karmanos is very comfortable with Dundon stepping in as his replacement.

“I’ve been looking for someone that I thought would move this whole franchise forward,” Karmanos said. “I’m extremely excited that Tom came along. I knew that it would be really good. It’s not bittersweet. It’s still a very, very positive feel that I have. Nobody can take away 24 years of ownership, but there’s a time and this is the time and we have the right person.”

For Dundon, the fact that the Canes have a strong, young, competitive team (the Canes enter tonight’s game against the Washington Capitals currently occupying the Eastern Conference’s final wild card spot) that can win right now thanks to the building job Francis and head coach Bill Peters have done over the last three years added a big part of the attraction.

“I’m not patient,” Dundon said. “It’s not going to work for me to be patient. The fact that they had a team that can win right now and we can then hopefully do some things to bring more fans and bring more resources and they can continue to sustain what Ron and these guys have built, that probably was the big difference. Most of the time when people are selling things, they’re not selling the best stuff. There was an opportunity on the business side, but there’s a market that clearly has supported the team and loves sports.”

One aspect that Dundon wants to start improving and putting his stamp on right away for Carolina is the fan experience at PNC Arena. It’s something he’s not satisfied with as is, and a big part of his success as a businessman comes from the drive for constant improvement. That aspect of the Hurricanes figures to receive the first benefits of Dundon’s itch for success.

“What I think is the most important thing we have to do is figure out how to get a great fan experience,” Dundon said. “I don’t think I’m happy with what a fan gets when they come here tonight. Other than the great hockey, we need to do more than that. That’s our focus right now. We want to make sure when someone comes here, they feel that they got value, they got entertainment, they want to tell their friends and they want to come back.”

Dundon knows that to improve the fan experience and get more people in the building, the team needs to build an emotional attachment in people to this team. That’s something Dundon himself already has in just a short month of being around the Canes.

“When they win I can’t sleep, and when they lose I’m just miserable,” Dundon said. “I just need more people on that with me.”