It’s been 12 years since the Carolina Hurricanes hockey team brought the Stanley Cup to North Carolina. It’s been nine years since the Hurricanes have had a spot in the playoffs. With a new owner, a new head coach and a brand new second overall draft pick, the Canes are coming together ready to shake off the last decade and start on the road to building something new.
Despite years of disappointment, the Hurricanes have a relatively strong fan base that holds out hope, year after year, for a place in the Stanley Cup playoffs. One of the ways that owner Tom Dundon wants to give back to the fans and build a better foundation for hockey culture in North Carolina is through an open-air game hosted in Carter-Finley Stadium.
Open-air hockey games are nothing new in the NHL. The first-ever open-air hockey game was held in 1954, an exhibition game between the Detroit Red Wings and the Marquette Pirates of Michigan’s Marquette Branch Prison. More recently, the first-ever outdoor regular season game was held in 2003, in which the Edmonton Oilers and the Montreal Canadiens played in what they called the Heritage Classic.
Today, the NHL primarily uses three brands of outdoor games: Heritage Classic, Winter Classic and Stadium Series. The proposed Carolina Hurricanes outdoor game would, at first, be in none of these three categories.
According to Tom Dundon in an article in the News & Observer, “I want the outdoor game for our fans, our market, our community. Traditionally, the Winter Classic is more for a national audience. We’re not ready for that. We haven’t earned it.”
As a fan, there are several reasons why I am supportive of having an open-air Hurricanes game played in Carter-Finley stadium. The first, most obvious argument in favor is that Carter-Finley stadium is literally right there. It’s within walking distance of PNC Arena, the home of the Hurricanes, and has the capacity to seat almost 60,000 people.
Furthermore, hosting an open-air game in Carter-Finley stadium is a fantastic publicity opportunity for NC State and a great overall partnership between the NHL and college athletics. Lastly, an outdoor game for the sake of building a stronger community around hockey in North Carolina is exactly the kind of reminder this city needs about hockey being something fun for players and fans.
As captain of the Carolina Hurricanes, Justin Williams said in a tweet following their 8-5 win over the New York Rangers Sunday night, “Hockey is our life and job…but it is still a game. Enjoy the good times and have fun with it…let’s celebrate more this year.”
Although it doesn’t seem possible that the outdoor game will happen any time before the 2019-2020 season, given logistics and planning, the fact that it’s happening at all within the next couple of years in a city that has experienced a playoff drought for nine years is an exciting prospect.
According to the article in the News & Observer, the NHL had a team come and survey Carter-Finley in September as a potential site for outdoor hockey. Until further steps are taken toward pulling off a first-ever Hurricanes open-air game, I’m ready to buckle down this year and watch as the Hurricanes hopefully end their nine-year playoff drought.
