I kinda like the idea of a renovated Dorton Arena into a more polished and professional setting (and seeing about adding some capacity from 7,600 to closer to 10,000 if thats possible without changing the character?) as the host of a WNBA and PHF (women’s pro hockey) as well as another site for big college hockey matches.
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I would be 100% for the Hurricanes playing a game in this future renovated Dorton Arena. I very vividly remember the Ice Caps games back in the day as a kid. I’m sure the marketing folks at the 'Canes could come up with something marrying the two jerseys.
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totally! (borrowing the R again - it’s just so good!)
my biggest memory of the Ice Caps was they used to have to pause the game to have the players skate laps to get the fog to dissipate.
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Dorton would need a lot of work to be done to come close to this point and I don’t think any of the Dorton stakeholders have it in them to do so. There’s a thing that @mike said that is relevant tot his.
my biggest memory of the Ice Caps was they used to have to pause the game to have the players skate laps to get the fog to dissipate.
There was a reason for that: Dorton has never had an ice plant and when the Ice Caps were a thing they had to use a mat system to produce ice. This was passable in the salad days of the ECHL 30 years ago today but would not pass muster at all today. There’s no way any team would go for that, especially a PHF which in its inaugural season as the NWHL saw bad ice end up causing a freak accident paralyze a player (granted that incident was a pre-Winter Classic friendly at Gillette Stadium). Besides, PHF would do fine at Carolina Competition Center in Morrisville, it’d fit in with the Pride/Beauts/Whitecaps (and previously Riveters) using NHL practice rinks as their homes.
College hockey is an interesting take and I think the ACC should take strides to sponsor it but it can be quite costly. The price tags that Penn State and Arizona State spent to build a new hockey-specific facility AND to fund scholarships and equipment and all that stuff can come close to the mid-high 8 figures to start from scratch. Penn State got lucky because a very wealthy alumnus (Terry Pegula, pre-Sabres/Bills ownership) really wanted a hockey team there.
Now add in such factors as getting BC to leave Hockey East/ND to leave the B1G, pushing Cuse to go D1 for men, that if State had a team that UNC/Duke would have to follow, and that some ACC towns even lack rinks for community use (see Charlottesville) and it could be a bit of a hurdle to cross. I do think the Canes should do a weekend tournament during October/November with some non-conference games to gauge interest though.
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Yeah, no shit, prices on literally everything has gone up.
raleigh is pretty old…just not for pro sports.
Putting this here instead of the Other Cities thread because the hour post limiter will probably be useful 
Sacramento finally got their act together and got their MLS stadium financed and planned - the whole development is like a combo of Downtown South and @atl_transplant’s dream street grid expansion:
Billion Dollar Railyards Stadium Proposed for Downtown Sacramento - San Francisco YIMBY
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Interesting…as Don Garber, as of Feb. 2022, makes it sounds like it’s a matter of if rather than when for Las Vegas joining as team #30. Wonder if this is a play towards being either #31 or #32 when MLS expands some more?
How can we make a compelling Bid that Raleigh could have a team just like Charlotte. Tepper I think is on the expansion committee.
If MLS can have Columbus and Cincinnati which are 60 driving miles shorter and are similarly sized metros with smaller TV markets, they can have Raleigh and Charlotte. Instant rivarly.
Vegas looks to be a boondoggle becaude as much as it is a shiny new toy there is a ceiling to their growth.
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Agreed but garber is also on record saying after 30 that’s probably it for a while.
Build a stadium….that’s how
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Doesn’t work like that Malik ain’t no billionaire, and when he was talking to Dundon, David Tepper announced his bid and he gave up which was a bad move.
Someone inform the New England Revolution, NYCFC, and Charlotte FC as well as the Vegas team MLS covets so badly of this necessary thing.
Plop them at any of the CFB stadiums for the time being.
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Ikr I don’t know if @UncleJesse understand it’s about money. The soccer-specific stuff went out the door with David Tepper.
Thats an interesting way of spelling “Robert Kraft and the consortium of Abu Dhaba United Group and the Steinbrenner family”.
The former is the last remnant of when sharing was the rule early on, the latter was a concession they made to get into NYC proper at any cost.
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Even beige-suburbia can fast track their sports facilities……while North Carolin’s State Capital can’t make a commitment to a Putt-Putt……much less a real sports facility….
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It is definitely sad that the commissioners don’t give a damn about Raleigh but the rest of Wake County so what we need to do is rally the city to get aggressive about investing and paying for sports venues, stadiums, and arenas.
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This is Cary…not Wake County
How is that fast-tracked? They have been talking about it for many years. As the article says, it was approved at Cary Towne Center back in 2020 (which was after years of discussion), and now they are looking in a new location.
Also, i think the majority of the funding source source sends $$ to PNC Arena and the Raleigh Convention Center.
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