Carolina Hurricanes: Tom Dundon’s 1-Year Report Card, Part Two

In-Game Experience

I have already spoken to this a little in the first portion of the report card. The Fan Tunnel has already enhanced the in-game experience for many looking to come face-to-face with their favorite players. Promotional nights such as Whalers night and Home Grown games continue to deliver refreshing experiences for the fan base. Tom Dundon went further than that and started asking a question that Peter Karmanos never did: what else can we add to PNC Arena to make it a better in-game experience for those who come?

The answer came in the shape of more and more upgrades to the 10th-largest indoor sports arena in the United States (by max capacity). It started small in the previous season. Fans began to realize that more concessions were open during the game, even in the higher level seats. Breast-feeding stations were added for mothers to find privacy while feeding their infants.

Beer carts and walking beer vendors were introduced to games where the attendance was expected to be higher. As the attendance number continued to rise, the number of concessions and beer vendors increased to meet them, ensuring short lines. These were some things Hurricanes fans were not used to seeing in PNC Arena.

It started to get bigger. The eye started carrying so much merchandise it spilled out onto the concourse. Dundon took advantage of the extended off-season (after missing the playoffs for a ninth year successive year) to introduce healthier options to the collection of concessions. It came in a even more convenient “grab-and-go” convenient store-style mini market that allowed fans to grab whichever beers they want from a fridge and pay for it at a cash register.

The off-season also saw the installation of new seats in the third deck as well as some in the lower bowl. Earlier this season saw the construction of a 3D light projector. It has been used during the Whalers Night game to project the Whalers logo onto the ice as well as the military appreciation game to display the American Flag. NC State Basketball also began using it for their games in a much more creative way:

This is something most other teams already have. Some, like the Calgary Flames and New Jersey Devils, use it masterfully. Others, like the St.Louis Blues, leave a lot to be imagined with their lack of use of such an amazing system. The Hurricanes are yet to be determined. If they use it as well as NC State did, there will be much hope. With some new creative personnel being hired, perhaps Dundon wants to be the best in the business. Only time will tell.

But not all the in-arena upgrades were strictly for the fans. The players received a new locker room with plans to build an indoor turf warm-up area with a viewing area for fans. How well that turned out for the players will be discussed later. For now, the warm-up area remains a promise not yet kept by Dundon.

The biggest yet-to-be-seen promise made by Tom Dundon is the addition of a new center-ice video scoreboard. Dundon’s vision is a scoreboard that extends from blue line to blue line. Examples of what that would look like are the Blues and Lightning scoreboards. He wanted it installed and ready for this season, offering to cover the costs himself, but it was delayed to the next season.

The current scoreboard has already been used to its very limits this season, but the aged technology and video screens severely limit the kind of products that can help better draw in the crowd during games. In-game experience isn’t limited to on-ice performance. Entertainment is the reality of what drives attendance to the seats and Dundon understands this, way more than Karmanos ever did.

Most of these in-game experience items aren’t fully dictated and controlled by Tom Dundon. It is based upon his ability to negotiate with the Centennial Authority, who technically own PNC Arena. But just being in the same room with them was doing more than Peter Karmanos did in the previous decade. With several promises still hanging in the air, this is one part of Dundon’s first year that still needs some work.

GRADE: B-

Hiring Decisions

Here is where some of the harshest criticisms for Tom Dundon come. After failing to make a trade at last season’s deadline that could help push the team into ending their playoff drought, General Manager Ron Francis was asked to step down from his role as GM and serve as the President of Hockey Operations instead. A month later, once the season was deemed over, he was officially terminated. Head Coach Bill Peters declined the optional final year of his contract to go and coach in his home province of Alberta with the Calgary Flames.

Without a GM or a Head Coach, Tom Dundon and the Carolina Hurricanes embarked into what seemed like a new adventure. Anyone with any experience should be able to do a better job than those two, who combined for a perfect 0.500 record over the years. It should have been easy enough to find qualified replacements, especially with the excellent talent that this team had on the books. Don Waddell, named interim GM, was tasked with finding replacements that Tom Dundon would agree to.

Months rolled by with no movement. Rumors of different individuals being interviewed came and went without avail. Suddenly, last May, both positions were filled simultaneously. While that sounded good, what took fans aback was the fact that they were filled internally. Assistant Coach Rod Brind’Amour was named as the new Head Coach while Waddell simply removed the interim label from his title.

With Dundon being a businessman by trade and the two hires being internal, the immediate response from the fan base was that Dundon was becoming more like Karmanos and pinching pennies. Naturally Dundon denied that accusation, stating that he believed that they were the best available personnel for the positions. Now, neither Don Waddell nor Rod Brind’Amour have completed a full season in their positions. We have already graded Brind’Amour at the half season mark. We will know how well these decisions were made by the end of the season.

So far Waddell has yet to impress the fan base. His first draft pick, Andrei Svechnikov, was an easy selection to make after the Carolina Hurricanes moved up to the second draft pick via the draft lottery. The same day, he committed a blockbuster deal with the Calgary Flames to bring in Dougie Hamilton and Micheal Ferland in exchange for Noah Hanifin and Elias Lindholm. The Hurricanes also received the rights to prospect Adam Fox.

There have been other moves as well. Some good, such as claiming Curtis McElhinney off waivers or signing Calvin de Haan. Others have been oh so bad. The worse offender was the trade that saw Jeff Skinner shipped off to Buffalo for table scraps in the form of Cliff Pu and a pair of draft picks, a trade that continues to haunt this fan base everyday as Skinner continues to be a top tier goalscorer for the Sabres, second in scoring only to Alex Ovechkin in the NHL.

Many believe that had Dundon been more patient and his pocketbook more loose, there might have been better options on the market. Coach Barry Trotz left the Stanley Cup-winning Washington Capitals and went to fill a void with the New York Islanders. Perhaps there could have been a way to coax him to the Carolina Hurricanes. For some reason, Dundon landed on Don Waddell and Rod Brind’Amour, for better or for worse. For now, the results are not good enough for a playoff spot. Perhaps the future will be different, but we aren’t grading the future.

GRADE: C-

Questions for CC Readers:

How would you grade Dundon on in-game experience or his hiring practices? Did you have an especially good or bad in-game experience (outside of on-ice performance) that you would like to share? How do you feel about the hiring of Waddell and Brind’Amour in their respective roles?