Hey Buck , Didn’t you play for The Raleigh Capitals in the 50’s ? Since The Atlantic League is a Independent League , the mileage rule between Raleigh , Durham , Zebulon does not apply . If you are interested in more information , check out their home page . They play AA level , 23 seasons , & they are partner with MLB . If High Point had played in 2020 in ALPB , 8 players with MLB playing time would have been on HP roster . Gastonia ,HP , Lexington , KY , Charleston , WV , Long Island , NY plus others play in this league . The league averages more fans per game than The Carolina League in 2018 / 2019 . Not sure about the other years . The ALPB does want to come to Raleigh per their President , Rick White , just need a stadium that will seat between 4,500 to 7,500 fans .
And if Tampa is going anywhere it’s Montréal
Hey Dwight,
Would you happen to know the league and or level of The Mudcats? and The Wood Peckers/Fayetteville’s new team? It is a lot to keep up with but one would think that as popular as baseball seems to be Raleigh would have something?
Please and thank you!
The Mudcats & Fayetteville has dropped this season from High A Ball to Low A Ball . Greensboro has advance from Low A to High A Ball . All of The Carolina League is now Low A Ball . MLB made this decision .
From the new media all I here are good things in regards to the Wood Peckers. Would love for DTR to have something…or am I thinking too small?
Just saw on WRAL News that Capital Broadcasting Co. has invested along with 4 others into NCFC The Courage Soccer Team .
With Jim G. he’ll probably want to help push the team to move to Durham 
Capitol Broadcast Co. is based in Raleigh.
I sure hope not ! I sure hope not ! Got to get my words in !
They may be based in Raleigh but they are invested deeply into the Durham Bulls and the ATC.
Jim Goodman is Raleigh’s silent enemy. Not so fast Goodman!!!
Moving this discussion to the appropriate thread.
Sources tell me efforts began earlier this week to coordinate getting the DTR LEDs red for the Canes playoff games. 
What’s the Canes fan base like around the city? I always notice a lot of flags and stuff but does the city actually rally around the team?
Sports were always an afterthought to most in Atlanta but in a 1-team smaller city I’m hoping for more here.
Lots of Canes fans. But it’s probably only third behind UNC and State.
Not as a big of following as I would like it, being a season ticket holder, and die hard fan. But Canes fans in the playoffs at PNC Arena create arguably one of the best playoff atmospheres in the NHL, it gets louddddd.
Two seasons ago they were shutting down part of Glenwood South and having a watch party. As the playoffs went along they had a pretty nice crowd going.
To add, it didn’t help that the Canes went on a 9 season playoff drought. I also feel bad as the Canes were really starting to build up momentum in the fan base and ticket sales pre-covid as the team has turned it around, and are one of the best teams in the league. Hopefully they can start building up the fanbase again, they should remain being a pretty good team over the next few years.
Compared to U.S. markets where hockey has much deeper roots, the fan base in Raleigh isn’t very widespread. And when you combine that with Raleigh being a comparatively small market, the overall size of the fan base isn’t very big.
That said, things really do seem to be getting better. Some of this is surely a bandwagon effect (the team was terrible for a long time, but they’re playing really well right now), but it seems like they really are having some success growing the fan base.
One thing the team had struggled with has been converting transplanted hockey fans. I know so many people who moved here from other places and remain diehard fans of the teams they grew up supporting. That’s a challenge for any team in a rapidly growing city, but it’s seemed especially acute here. But the team has now finally been around long enough that there are now some adults who have been following the team since they were kids, and that seems to be really helping.
Even though Atlanta is huge, people hanging on to their home town teams was a huge problem there too.
I’ve honestly never watched more than a few minutes of hockey but I’m going to hop on the wagon. It’s all we got!
Your gonna get hooked on it ATL
During the 9 year playoff drought, the Canes were not that bad. They were in the playoff hunt a number of those seasons, but always fell a little short. For a non hockey town, people get pretty amped when the Canes are in the playoffs.
@atl_transplant, were you in Atlanta in the early 90’s? I didn’t live in the city but wasn’t too far away and I had family in the area. The whole place really hopped on the Braves in the early to mid 90’s, when they kept getting to the World Series and the games were all on TBS. It felt like every business had Braves stuff on display and lots of downtown buildings had huge signs.
Unlike some other places, it felt like the fanbsse eventually somewhat fizzled out through the years instead of getting stronger.