Carolina Hurricanes: Tom Dundon Doesn’t Want Games Without Fans

Carolina Hurricanes majority owner Tom Dundon understands that play may need to resume without fans, but believes they are absolutely necessary.

Hockey has been gone for longer than anyone may have anticipated. There are still no finalized plans to return the league to play although there are rumors that the Carolina Hurricanes may play host to the entire Metro Division in an attempt to finish out the regular season.

Let’s be honest. We all miss hockey and wish it would be back sooner rather than later. So do the players, coaches, staff, and owners. Tom Dundon has been vocal in his concerns on if, when, and how the season would return.

He has made something clear, however; that the fans are the most important aspect of the game. And he is completely correct. The fans are who the players are playing for. Talking with 99.9 the fan on the radio he had this to say:

“I think the start of next season, everybody has to be careful with [it] because I think you need fans. And so if it means pushing back the start of the season for any sport, then they should consider that, because what’s the point of having sports if you don’t have fans, right? They wouldn’t exist. They’d be called the YMCA,”

To break down what he is saying, he is focused on making plans to have fans in the seats for next season. There are ways to do this while keeping everyone safe. Limiting the number of fans is one way. But let’s be honest, there is no good way to socially distance in an arena, no matter how large it is or how few people there are in the area.

But another way to make sure this is done correctly is to delay next season until it is safe to do so. Go ahead and take the time to finish out this season, play out the playoffs and try to give the fans at home as much of the experience as possible as they wait to safely come back.

Tom Dundon had as much to say about that concept during the same interview with 99.9 the fan:

“I would think it’s a pretty good idea to push it back as long as you need to, to make sure you can have your buildings occupied. Whether that’s 100% or 50%, I have no idea. [If] it’s zero, I don’t know why anyone would want to start a new league season with no fans, but my vote doesn’t count for much,”

Now, I know what you are thinking; “What is the point of playing out the rest of the season without fans? What is the point of having the playoffs without fans?”

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I get the hesitation. But it plays a vital role in figuring out how we are going to play next season. It becomes a safe testing ground for the many concepts the league is trying to experiment with. Between the concepts of players traveling safely back and forth to the new measures to disinfect everything from jerseys to pucks.

There is a lot that needs to change that can benefit from testing without thousands of fans in the seats. Everyone is at least somewhat happy in the end. The players can figure out how this new normal can bring them together again, and they can do so without the pressure of the fans judging their every move on the other side of the glass. Everyone is going to be rusty coming back, so why not give them the chance to break that rust off?

It also wouldn’t hurt the sport or the Carolina Hurricanes to be one of the new live sports on TV, even without the fans in the stands, the fans at home clamoring for sports of any kind would tune in. Tom Dundon was very clear on the radio talking about wanting to finish out this season and leave nothing on the dinner plate uneaten.

“I think so because we were 70% of the way through. Especially the playoffs, you get a lot more ratings, it’s more of a national event. Given there’s less going on, you have a bigger platform. I think when you’ve invested what everybody has invested to get through 75-80% of the season, you’d want to finish it. That’s very different to me than starting something fresh with no fans,”“That’s just me, though. The NHL is talking about a lot of things. That doesn’t mean they’ll agree with me.”

Time will tell how the season will come back and what next season will look like. For now, all we can do is protect ourselves, our loved ones, and do our best to flatten the curve and rid the world of COVID-19.

Question for CC Readers: How do you feel about the lack of fans at Carolina Hurricanes games?