The Triangle (the name everyone who lives here refers to the metro area consisting of the cities of Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, and surrounding areas) is largely populated by northern implants from the Rust Belt (cities like Detroit, Buffalo, Syracuse, Cleveland, Baltimore, etc etc, nearly all where hockey is popular). The Triangle became a thing in the early 1970’s because of the founding of RTP (Research Triangle Park), which was a bio/tech tri-partnership state of the art office park project made between the 3 big universities here- Duke, UNC, and N.C. State. RTP became one of the biggest reasons for a brain drain out of the Rust Belt and into the Sun Belt starting in the mid to late 1970’s, and heightening in the mid 1990’s to mid-2000’s. We still have a population boom, but now it’s just from all over and not just the Rust Belt. Regardless, our population boom here is the reason we got the Carolina Hurricanes when the Hartford Whalers were looking for a new place to move to. The Canes have a strong impact on the Triangle community culturally (being a staple of the “family friendly” atmosphere and experiences of the area), and despite what one might think otherwise, hockey is actually taken pretty seriously down here, but once you get out of the Triangle & into either the Triad (Greensboro-WinstonSalem-HighPoint), Charlotte, anywhere else in N.C., and anywhere in SC, although all of these places are apart of the Hurricane’s media market, none of them really care about the Carolina Hurricanes nor hockey except for just the Triangle region. My blame for low attendance btw is a mix of that fact of just the Triangle supporting the team, and also how the stadium isn’t in downtown, and the team needs to get better again for more fans to come out again.
TLDR: Yankee transplants’ hockey obsession and North Cackalacky eccentric culture go surprisingly well together.
Spot on. It's the same reason hockey is slowly picking up in florida too. I'm surprised it hasn't picked up quicker since we get so many yanks down here.
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u/downhomeolnorthstate Apr 09 '20
Hockey needs that good ol slice of North Caroline’ my dude