Carolina Hurricanes: How to fill PNC Arena

Over the last several seasons, the Carolina Hurricanes have had a difficult time filling seats in PNC Arena on an average basis. What can the Hurricanes do to attract more fans to watch the team?  

It’s no secret that the Carolina Hurricanes have the worst attendance in the league. We have all seen the joking and trolling on social media by other teams. PNC Arena is consistently the least attended arena in the league. This has led to calls from NHL fans in the US and Canada to relocate the team.

Some fans attribute it to the poor play of the team. I have debated if on-ice performance affects attendance or if it is the other way around. Other fans have said that North Carolina just isn’t a place for a hockey team. Buffalo has not been playing very well in the last several seasons either, yet have no issues filling their arena. What if neither location nor on-ice performance affects attendance? After all, Nashville, in our neighbor state to the west also has no issues with attendance.

Perhaps it’s time for the Carolina Hurricanes to step up to the plate in terms of fan development. If Buffalo and Nashville can keep fans coming to the games, so can we. Fan development is as crucial to the success of a team as player development. Here are a few ways the various departments including marketing, promotions, and event coordinations can help in that task.

How the Canes can improve attendance at PNC

Most believe that if you build it, they will come. By build it, they mean a championship team, and by they, fans. Perhaps there is truth to that. But what if it’s the other way around and it’s “if they come, we can build it”.  After all, revenue from ticket, concession, and other sales fund the team and its ability to go after expensive hockey talent. So what else can the team do to help boost the numbers that continue to fall year after year?

Look Past Raleigh

Carolina Hurricanes Billboard on the beltway going towards Raleigh

No, this doesn’t mean pick up the team and relocate it. This means the Canes need to look outside the Triangle and Charlotte in their marketing efforts. Many Carolinians outside of those two cities are surprised when told that we have an actual National Hockey League team in the state. Canes have multiple food promotional deals with companies like Bojangles and McDonald’s. But how often do Caniacs demand a free biscuit the morning after the Canes score a powerplay goal in Fayetteville, NC? How many McDonald’s patrons in Asheville understand what the logo on their coffee cups in the mornings symbolize?

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There are very few Carolina Hurricanes Billboards advertising the team. Where are they? In and around Raleigh. Perhaps it’s time to expand the reach of Canes Marketing to the smaller cities and towns inside the state. But why stop there? Without the Thrashers down in Atlanta, the reach of support for the Canes further south shouldn’t stop until we get to Panthers fans. To the North, the Virginias should be tearing themselves apart on whether they are bigger Canes fans or Bigger Caps Fans. To the west we should be stealing fans from the Preds. This entire chunk of south eastern United States should be the REDvolution.

Popularize the Star Players

The Carolina Hurricanes definitely do not have the biggest names in the NHL. That shouldn’t stop our best players from becoming some of the biggest names in the Carolinas. Names like Justin Faulk, Jeff Skinner, Jordan Staal, Justin Williams, and Sebastian Aho should rival those of Luke Kuechly, Cam Newton, and Michael Jordan. So far only Justin Faulk seems to get recognition from even the most casual of fans.

Exposure

What can the Canes do to get the rest of our star players more cred’? More exposure. The more people from the area I mentioned above see our star players, the more likely they will be intrigued. Get them out to these far areas. Let them loose outside of the big cities and get them to interact with soon-to-be fans. Bonus if they run into real fans. Make them into a bigger deal than they actually are. When people see a long line of folks waiting on something, they want to know what it is for. In the warmer offseason, get these guys to random towns and cities for autographs, and the Caniacs will follow.

Endorsements

I have only seen one non-Hurricanes related commercial featuring a player and that is the 86it.com promo featuring Justin Faulk above. This is excellent. There is a need for more. Different players to help represent and endorse all of North Carolina and other areas with potential for fan development. This will allow them to be more than mystery athletes who play a mysterious sport in a mysterious arena.

Promote the Red, White, and Blue Line Defense

Speaking of popularizing players, the Canes have something unique about their Defensive players. Of the seven Defensive players currently on the roster five are from the good ol’ US of A.  To double down on that notion, our new starting goalie, Scott Darling, is also American. In a state that prides itself on its patriotism, home to several military bases, this is very marketable. The Carolinas host very prestigious military units. This includes the 82nd Airborne Division, 18th Airborne Corps, 1st Army Special Forces Command, the Marine Expeditionary Forces in Readiness, and the 4th Striker Wing. Representing a state(s) that has so much military history is a responsibility and an honor.

The Armed Forces

Defenseman Noah Hanifin and Justin Faulk have already jumped on this, introducing their “True Defenders” program honoring our men and women serving our nation. Hurricanes also feature a hero of the game and special discounts for military as well as military rush tickets. Yet fans who wear various shades of green to work have yet to come kicking in the doors of PNC and eating all food and drinking the place dry. This is because these promotions (outside of the free tickets) are only available at one place; the box office where IDs can be verified. This is inconvenient for troops who are unsure if they want to drive that hour from Lejeune or Bragg only to wait in line for possible tickets after they have paid $20 in parking.

Go to them

What can the Canes do to alleviate this? Sell tickets where the troops are. Each Service Branch has a leisure travel service that sells Tickets to events directly to the servicemember. The US Army has the MWR, Marines have Marine Corps Community Services. These organizations sell discounted tickets to service members on behalf of locations such as DisneyLand. Nothing motivates a fan to do a long trip for an event more than having tickets in hand. It definitely beats waiting in a long line filled with college kids who have been bussed to the game. These Fans will also spend plenty on food and drinks at the arena, as is tradition.

Pump up the fun in PNC

Now here is something that the Canes have been seriously lacking. How to have fun regardless of the events unfolding on the ice. Outside of special events such as Star Wars Night or Social Media Night, there is very little engagement with the fans. Fans roaming the halls to find their seats won’t find much more than the usual concessions. Fans who show up early to tailgate before the game end up tailgating alone in the cold. There used to be events which happened by the box office between PNC and NC State football stadium. There fans of all ages could participate in fun events before going in to watch the game. Sadly these events have yet to return this season. How else can the Canes pump up the fun and get the fans engaged in the sport of Hockey?

Think Baseball

The Carolinas, as well as southern Virginia is Baseball land. Don’t let the lack of Major League Baseball teams fool you. There are around 30 AAA and lower baseball teams in these states with most of them being in NC. Baseball doesn’t have the same level of excitement that hockey has to offer. This forces teams to fill the lulls in between innings with fan engagement. This involves letting the fans know that the team cares about them. In comparison to a Major League Hockey team, baseball teams in NC don’t have much when it comes to budget, however, they have plenty to offer their fans when it comes to the experience. Stormy and the Canes should probably go to several Durham Bulls Games next door at the DBAP and take notes from Wool E. Bull and their fan development teams.

Make Hockey Great Again

No, I don’t mean build a wall around PNC or kicking out all fans of opposing teams. I’m talking about thinking outside the box and creating a reason for fans to get excited for Canes games. Before the Metropolitan Division was a thing and the Thrashers left Atlanta, there was the Southeast Division. There were rivalries and fans and players alike showed passion and fire for the team. Rivalries are starting to show again. Carolina Played two home games recently against teams closest to Raleigh, Predators and Panthers, and the results were electrifying!

It’s time to make rivalries a thing again for Carolina and make Hockey great again. Games against teams closest to us like those two should be marketed heavily, even if they aren’t in the same division. Allow trash-talking and raise expectations of a passion-fueled 60 minutes of hockey. Time to instill a pride worth defending in the Hurricanes. Time to make being a Caniac more than being a depressed hockey fan.

Carolinian Identity

The weirdest thing about the hurricanes is that they don’t feel like a North Carolina team. Stormy the mascot, which is a hog, was the first step towards gets a more NC feel. Hogs are local to NC, but are not a part of their identity. To their credit, the Canes have been pushing hard to give the Canes more of a NC feel. The homegrown series have been an excellent way to connect the team to the state and all that makes it Carolina. However outside of that, the game feels like a foreign experience, a cold weather sport, Canadians, Finns, and Northerners representing the home ice, and an experience that can be improved upon.

Let’s start with the Storm Warning Siren. Why is it only used at the beginning of the periods? Its an excellent identity piece for the south and should be used when scoring goals as well. If Columbus can fire a Cannon, we can make Goal scoring much more annoying and noisy for the visiting team. Its also time to change songs too. While the “Wooo” song is entertaining, it doesn’t do much for NC identity. There are a multitude of songs of all genres which speak of or originate from NC. Perhaps it’s time to for the Canes to prove that they are proud to represent the Carolinas in the NHL?

The Great Outdoors

Another idea I saw bouncing around the twittersphere was the idea of an annual outdoor game between the Canes and the Preds. There are definitely enough stadiums and ballparks around both Raleigh and Nashville to accommodate an annual game played in each state intermittently. And perhaps it only gets cold enough to play this sort of game a small segment of the year which makes it a logistical nightmare. But we placed a man on the moon, we can figure this out too.