Tumbleweed

Not much really going on these days in Canes' country. Cason made a lot of good points concerning the sports editor at the N&O and the Canes coverage in the off-season. I won't rehash anything he said (just read his blog - it's that damned good) but really just lament the lack of anything. I get more Canes news from the search feed in my right nav than I do from the local paper.

Between the whole Nolan/border thing (which is just ridiculous) and Staal's "legal issues", there just hasn't been a lot of buzz lately about the 'Canes. Speaking of Cason (to go back to that), he brings up some marketing questions that I'm going to rephrase for my own uses. "Where's the buzz?"

The most I see at any time, other than at games or scheduled player appearances, is water cooler talk. When I worked for IBM (and then, shortly for the People's Republic of Computers), we would talk about it at work all the time. At my current company it's the same - we talk about the Canes when we pass each other in the hall or we're hanging around chatting. You see local businesses with Hurricanes posters and pictures of players, but it could still be more.

Long term I think the Youth Hockey initiative is the right way to go. Get them playing and they'll be fans of the game. I have yet to meet someone who gets out on the ice and plays around who then, afterward, says "Man, this sucks."

Still, a lot of the times when the organization has the players do something, it comes off as clumsy. The appearances at the Wolfpack home football games are cool in theory, but end up being a bit clunky in practice. Have the Canes subsidize hockey programs at the local schools, for example.

As for marketing, it's kind of a catch 22. The guys need to improve their profile and be seen around town. They need to get into the paper not just for what they're doing on the ice, but for what they're doing around town (not involving peeing in parking lots). I'm rambling at this point and it's getting late, but those are my thoughts on the issue.