20 years ago this month

[Boom Boom Apathy]

I'm not going to lie to you, if a team came back to Hartford it would be in the top 10 days of my life. Being able to bring my son to an NHL game regularly would be a dream come true, and I live close enough where I could drive comfortably to Boston or New York. For someone in GD Winnipeg the distance to another NHL team is what, 500 miles?

I'm not going to revel in someone else's misery, because I know what it's like.

Ya, I get that. It's a difficult situation when teams move and leaves a bitter taste that never goes away. I wasn't living in NC at the time the Whalers moved (was living in NY) and remember thinking "that sucks". I wasn't a Whaler's fan though. I thought "that sucks" when the Thrasher's moved also. I'm sure if the Canes ever move, I'll say "that REALLY sucks".

 

[HisIceness]

To this date, I never understood why the Canes' thought having Greensboro as a temporary home would be a good idea. It's never worked. The Houston Oilers thought playing in Houston for two seasons until the Nashville stadium was built would be adequate, but people stopped coming to games, and the team was forced to break their lease a year early. The same thing happened with Seattle in their last season in the NBA before moving. The Montreal Expos would average around 7,000 people in their final year, since it was well known the team was relocating.

Even the Winnipeg Jets only averaged 11,400 fans/game as it's hard to get excited for a lame duck team that is going to move to Arizona within a year. Did anyone here make the commute to Greensboro when the Canes' were playing there from 1997-99? Is that not a far drive for a NHL game?

Well the other option would have been to spend two years in Fayetteville at the 9,000 seat Crown Coliseum versus the 23,000 seat Greensboro Coliseum in the states third largest city and metro.

Yeah I know Karmanos admitted Greensboro was a failure but there's no way in hell Fayetteville would have been any better. Greensboro was easily the best of a bad situation.

 

[gocanes88]

Well the other option would have been to spend two years in Fayetteville at the 9,000 seat Crown Coliseum versus the 23,000 seat Greensboro Coliseum in the states third largest city and metro.

Yeah I know Karmanos admitted Greensboro was a failure but there's no way in hell Fayetteville would have been any better. Greensboro was easily the best of a bad situation.

It pisses me off how much this town doesn't care about sports. That's why the new Marksmen owners really have their work cut out for them.

 

[HisIceness]

It's almost kind of hard to wrap my head around that they've lasted as long as they have, while Greensboro and Winston-Salem can't keep a team for more than 5 years. They also had the Force who folded in 2001 and the current team now quickly took their place. So thats 20 years of professional hockey in the city.

 

[gocanes88]

It probably helped that there was an ownership group of several people rather than just one or two people. But with the new guys I think there's no doubt that the Marksmen will be around for years to come.

 

[HisIceness]

An unlikely duo brought the Hurricanes from Hartford to Raleigh

Article here today from Chip talks about the beginnings of moving the franchise to Raleigh. Found this bit interesting.

Before the coming of the Canes, Raleigh was bidding for an NHL expansion franchise. The ownership group, headed by Charlotte business executive Felix Sabates, made an impressive presentation to the NHL executive committee in New York in January 1997, and Raleigh appeared among the favorites – along with Atlanta and Nashville – to land a franchise.
But the constant haggling over the building of the arena – its size, its cost, who would pay what, a lease – finally caused the Sabates group to pull its bid. The push to get an NHL team seemed over.

I remember someone (TarHeelHockey?) posting a link to some internet forum from 1995 about the then mayor of Raleigh talking to Bettman about expansion. Everyone seemed to think it was never going to happen.

Sabates I believe is a minority owner of the Hornets

 

[sabremike]

There has literally never been a single day in the past 20+ years I haven't thought about my Whalers, and often I just end up a sobbing mess. Other than seeing my father die from cancer there has been nothing in my life that caused me more pain and anguish than my Whalers dying. There are so many people to blame for it happening and honestly Karmanos (as much as I despise him) isn't even at the top of that list as that honor goes to Ed Johnson. The Whalers really died on one awful day in March of 1991.