What's The Hockey Culture Like in the Cary/Wake Forest Area?

[HockeylessInHouston]

I am seriously interest in relocating to Cary or Wake Forest from Houston for retirement in say the next two years (I have family who moved back to Durham recently for the same purpose). I was a Houston Aeros season ticket holder for 15 years before Le$ Alexander gave them the boot in 2013.

Besides actually being able to see NHL hockey live rather the "bad high school" level which is all we have here now, what else is available in the suburbs?

Really impressed with what I see in Cary on the web as a great place to live (haven't been there in 20+ years). It seems like The Woodlands here with less heat in the summer.

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[HisIceness]

Cary and Wake Forest both have ice rinks.

The Factory

Home

I believe some of the posters here play beer-league at these facilities and others. Garner and Raleigh itself also have rinks.

Ball Hockey sort of has a following in the area as well. Home

NC State has a really good non-NCAA squad. Duke and UNC have squads as well, they both play in Hillsborough. Not sure which High schools have teams, I think Cardinal Gibbons (Catholic school located across the street from PNC Arena) has one, or did.

The "culture" in general is probably a lot better than most would think, for the SouthEast it's about as good as you will find. The area probably could use another ice rink or two, even with the new one in Morrisville where the Canes practice.

 

[tarheelhockey]

One of Cary’s major selling points is quick accessibility to the entire Triangle, and that applies to hockey as well.

Most of the town is between 10 and 30 minutes from PNC Arena, notwithstanding potential parking lot delays. There’s a somewhat outdated ice rink on the Raleigh-side edge of town, and the new rink/Canes practice facility is about 5 minutes past the town line on the Morrisville side. Roughly 20-40 minutes away are rinks in Raleigh, Garner, Wake Forest, and Hillsborough. That’s 6 rinks and an NHL arena within a 40 minute radius.

As far as off-ice “culture” goes, I guess it’s about what you’d expect for an NHL team in a suburban part of a small southern market. It’s not like there’s an overwhelming amount of Canes stuff around, but you routinely see license plates and tshirts and what not. You see folks with youth hockey stickers on their minivans. A lot of the STH base and other long-termers live in the area, so you see the superfans heading to and from games. Usually the Cary-area bars will have the game on (less so when they were unwatchably bad). So you notice the team’s existence and some general hockey activity, even if it’s not at the level of the ACC teams which are the local major sports presence.

I’d imagine Wake Forest is similar. They definitely have a nicer rink than Cary (but then so does everyone else).

 

[Navin R Slavin]

Clarify if you mean "watching" or "playing".

The "watching" culture has long depended on the state of the team. Right now the team is awesome, so the culture around it is awesome. It's not Toronto, but all my neighbors are Canes fanes right now.

The "playing" culture is growing, with rinks all over the Triangle, with leagues of players of all skill levels. The rink in Wake Forest is nice, with two Olympic size sheets. The new facility in Morrisville, which is where the Canes now train, is supposed to be amazing. Rink closest to downtown Durham is in Hillsborough, which is where I play, and it's decent.

 

[chaz4hockey]

Triangle is a great place to live with easy access to Mountains, Lakes and Beaches. Plenty of restaurants, culture and health care is superb with Duke, UNC and Wakemed providing about as good as you’ll find in the US.

Folks are very friendly and traffic can be challenging but not as bad as most US cities.

btw: although a younger area there are plenty of retirees in the Triangle (and some dedicated 55+).

btw2: NC has a State Income Tax (versus TX) but real estate taxes are reasonable.

 

[Svechhammer]

As far as off-ice “culture” goes, I guess it’s about what you’d expect for an NHL team in a suburban part of a small southern market. It’s not like there’s an overwhelming amount of Canes stuff around, but you routinely see license plates and tshirts and what not. You see folks with youth hockey stickers on their minivans. A lot of the STH base and other long-termers live in the area, so you see the superfans heading to and from games. Usually the Cary-area bars will have the game on (less so when they were unwatchably bad). So you notice the team’s existence and some general hockey activity, even if it’s not at the level of the ACC teams which are the local major sports presence.

.....for now, at least.

The thing about this fanbase is that even though we've had a team for basically 25 years, we've never gone though the slow build of long term sustainable competitive play. Every playoff run we've had, prior to the current iteration, was immediately followed up by an outright horrible season (2003) or a disappointment that still ended in a year without playoffs (2007, 2010). Hard to build a strong base when the foundation was on such shaky grounds.

And that is why what we are doing now is so exciting. It looks like we are entering a period of time where we should finish as a playoff team more times than not over the next 10 years. Our potential looks to be a legitimate Cup contender that should reach the finals at some point. There's long term hope here that we've never had before. It has the potential to be a franchise altering period of time, for the better, and its pretty exciting as a fan to be seeing it all play out like it is. It also makes it easier for the fanbase to be more engaged to the future of the franchise rather than just flipping the switch on for the playoff run in the spring. We might not win the Cup with this current core, but I think its going to establish the fanbase in this area the ways that have needed to happen since the relocation.

 

[tarheelhockey]

.....for now, at least.

The thing about this fanbase is that even though we've had a team for basically 25 years, we've never gone though the slow build of long term sustainable competitive play. Every playoff run we've had, prior to the current iteration, was immediately followed up by an outright horrible season (2003) or a disappointment that still ended in a year without playoffs (2007, 2010). Hard to build a strong base when the foundation was on such shaky grounds.

And that is why what we are doing now is so exciting. It looks like we are entering a period of time where we should finish as a playoff team more times than not over the next 10 years. Our potential looks to be a legitimate Cup contender that should reach the finals at some point. There's long term hope here that we've never had before. It has the potential to be a franchise altering period of time, for the better, and its pretty exciting as a fan to be seeing it all play out like it is. It also makes it easier for the fanbase to be more engaged to the future of the franchise rather than just flipping the switch on for the playoff run in the spring. We might not win the Cup with this current core, but I think its going to establish the fanbase in this area the ways that have needed to happen since the relocation.

Yeah, there have been way too many times in our history where we finished the season on a high note, and the bandwagon crashed into a ditch before the following Christmas. From the standpoint of expecting visible community support (bars identifying as Canes bars, stores carrying merch) that is an absolute killer.

This is the first time that we have ever had really-seriously-nokidding levels of momentum that could actually form a general local fan culture outside of the already existing hard core.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

This is the first time that we have ever had really-seriously-nokidding levels of momentum that could actually form a general local fan culture outside of the already existing hard core.

Covid has put a huge damper on this the past two seasons. Hopefully, next year can really build on the success with full attendance, tailgating, watch parties at bars, etc

 

[Svechhammer]

Yeah, there have been way too many times in our history where we finished the season on a high note, and the bandwagon crashed into a ditch before the following Christmas. From the standpoint of expecting visible community support (bars identifying as Canes bars, stores carrying merch) that is an absolute killer.

This is the first time that we have ever had really-seriously-nokidding levels of momentum that could actually form a general local fan culture outside of the already existing hard core.

And this is why I loved hearing Dundon talk about trying to develop a Carolina Hurricanes fanbase here rather than a hockey fanbase during his podcast interview last week.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Covid has put a huge damper on this the past two seasons. Hopefully, next year can really build on the success with full attendance, tailgating, watch parties at bars, etc

Yeah, I try not to think of what we're missing right now because it honestly is really sad.

I'm just hoping we can make a deep enough run to get past the mass-gathering restrictions (meaning society in general needs to do its part along with the Canes) and get a little taste of that energy before the end of the season.

 

[GIN ANTONIC]

Please tell me that people make jokes about students and people around Wake Forest University by calling it 'Woke Forest'.

That's all I can contribute here.

 

[Svechhammer]

Please tell me that people make jokes about students and people around Wake Forest University by calling it 'Woke Forest'.

That's all I can contribute here.

You'd need to travel to Winston-Salem to find out

That said, considering WF is a private baptist university, woke would be the last thing I would use to describe their student body

 

[GIN ANTONIC]

You'd need to travel to Winston-Salem to find out

That said, considering WF is a private baptist university, woke would be the last thing I would use to describe their student body

I would but Prime Minster Trudeau says I'm not allowed to leave my house until a Canadian team wins the Stanley Cup.... so probably never.

 

[LostInaLostWorld]

You'd need to travel to Winston-Salem to find out

That said, considering WF is a private baptist university, woke would be the last thing I would use to describe their student body

At least they split from the Southern Baptist Convention.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

You'd need to travel to Winston-Salem to find out

That said, considering WF is a private baptist university, woke would be the last thing I would use to describe their student body

There is not now, nor will there ever be, a "Woke Forest"

 

[DaveG]

You'd need to travel to Winston-Salem to find out

That said, considering WF is a private baptist university, woke would be the last thing I would use to describe their student body

They're pretty non Baptist for a Baptist college I'll say that much, this is from knowing plenty of people that went and work there, definitely not going to be confused for Baylor at least. Considering that was the big reason i didn't go to Mercer despite a pretty hefty scholarship offer that should be pretty telling.

 

[Navin R Slavin]

They're pretty non Baptist for a Baptist college I'll say that much, this is from knowing plenty of people that went and work there, definitely not going to be confused for Baylor at least. Considering that was the big reason i didn't go to Mercer despite a pretty hefty scholarship offer that should be pretty telling.

I mean, it ain't Liberty, but it ain't the People's Republic of Chapel Hill either.

 

[DaveG]

I mean, it ain't Liberty, but it ain't the People's Republic of Chapel Hill either.

Exactly.

 

[tarheelhockey]

FWIW, there is no longer a formal connection between WF and the baptist church. That ended decades ago. It would probably be most accurate to say they have a Baptist "tradition" at this point, and considerably less religious influence than other baptist schools like Campbell and Wingate.

 

[GIN ANTONIC]

Listen guys, I just wanted to make a clever joke for the modern man. We don’t need to dissect it.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Listen guys, I just wanted to make a clever joke for the modern man. We don’t need to dissect it.

Lol. This is F26. We dissect everything.

 

[MinJaBen]

Lol. This is F26. We dissect everything.

Well, I’m not sure dissect is the term I’d use. More like critiques with deep analysis.

 

[HockeylessInHouston]

Thanks for the info, guys. Hopefully I can pay you and my family members a visit soon. Haven't been there since they relocated 20 or so years ago. Definitely want to check out the Del Webb communities. Hopefully they are like the ones around here without the oppressive summer heat and huge mosquitos.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

Well, I’m not sure dissect is the term I’d use. More like critiques with deep analysis.

Is that code for “argue ad nauseam”

 

[MinJaBen]

Thanks for the info, guys. Hopefully I can pay you and my family members a visit soon. Haven't been there since they relocated 20 or so years ago. Definitely want to check out the Del Webb communities. Hopefully they are like the ones around here without the oppressive summer heat and huge mosquitos.

Yeah, we have the pollen clouds and chiggers. It’s awesome.