I grew up a Flyers fan following the team when Lindros didn't have concussion issues, and I was happy to have a team here in my hometown just so I could watch the Flyers in person. But getting playoff tickets and following the team in person through 3 playoff runs in their first 10 years quickly swung my fandom towards the Canes because its just more fun to be a part of that when its happening right here in your hometown. Don't get me wrong, I still like the Flyers, but if the two faced each other, I'm 100% for the Canes, because I selfishly want to keep following them and going to games.
We've had 10 years of fans not having to deal with that. We've had 10 years of fans being able to watch the Canes as their secondary team because there was no hope of the season actually doing something meaningful. We knew the last regular season game was the last game until opening day. For those dual hats, its been easy to not care about the Canes, because they didn't know what they were missing out on. Develop a team that is making the playoffs every year, bringing back that tailgating atmosphere that we were known for 10 years ago, and that changes quickly and suddenly those dual hatters realize its more fun to cheer for the home team. That's how you build the base, and that's how you grow hockey here in Raleigh. And that's what Karmanos absolutely failed at for the last decade of his ownership.
I had this exact experience, but as an NC native and local. Growing up in Charlotte, before the Canes, my local team was the Charlotte Checkers who were a Bruins affiliate. Therefore I was a Bruins fan.
When the Canes came, I had only a sort of abstract interest because they were 4 hours away and they weren’t “my team”. Of course I wanted them to do well representing NC but I wasn’t rooting hard for them or following them closely. I was too invested as a Bruins fan.
3 months after they knocked out the Bruins in 2009, I took a job in the Raleigh area. I was still primarily a Bruins fan at that point, but now the Canes were REALLY my local team. I had made Raleigh my home and I was in the trenches with the local fans. For a couple of years, I was the “dual hat” who shows up in a Canes jersey except for 2 games when I’m cheering for the road team, but as the years went on, I became more and more a Canes fan and less a Bruins fan. HF actually had a lot to do with that, but mainly it was just being immersed in the local coverage and experience. Eventually I just stopped investing myself in more than the odd glance at Bruins news, and that’s when the full conversion happened.
You put your finger on it about the culture change during that 10 years. Even though it didn’t last much longer, when I came to Raleigh the Canes were coming off a series of successes. There was real hype around the team... not PR by the organization but organic support from the community as a whole. I can’t imagine what it would have been like if I’d made that move in 2017. When the arena vibe is to have a bad time, the tickets aren’t worth buying in bulk, your old team is making playoff runs and getting outdoor games every year? Why be a STH? Why even go to a game other than to see your old team? The only real reason is to support the local hockey scene, and the sad truth is a lot of relocated hockey fans don’t give two ****s about that.
That’s part of the reason the Canes fanbase has the reputation for being smart and snarky. When you go to PNC and see only 9,000 people in the building, you’re looking at 9,000 people who are the hockey equivalent of the guy who still wears a 1997 band tour shirt and takes his vacations around their tour schedule. There’s nobody left in the building who isn’t a dedicated, hardcore fan. What’s missing is the guy who moved here 2 years ago from Pittsburgh and wears both hats, or the local sports junkie who just wants to have the hot ticket.
Funny thing is, I typed this post while walking through the PNC lot to today’s game. The tailgaters are back out. I overheard a guy in an old third jersey talking about how he went to certain games during the playoff runs. I heard a teenager complaining about how he wishes his family had season tickets. I see a lot of 2009-era jerseys all of a sudden. It’s not all the way back, but it’s not the funeral-like atmosphere of recent years. If that means a boost of 1000 fans next year, and those fans are dual-hats and general sports junkies, it’ll be incredibly important for the org on a generational level.
