The Carolina Hurricanes are a mid-market team, but they are selling outdoor game tickets like one of the big boys.
Carolina Hurricanes’ GM Don Waddell revealed that the team has already sold 30,000 tickets — which appears to be over half of the capacity — for its Stadium Series game against the Washington Capitals. The game will be held at a football venue, NC State’s Carter-Finlay Stadium, on February 18, 2023.
Waddell said that it’s “the most tickets sold to any season-ticket base of any franchise” for any previous outdoor game. The team sold out of its original allotment in three hours.
Canes fans are clamoring for even more tix, too.
“Initially, we get as many seats as we have in the building which is usually 18,660 and we went through those really quick,” Waddell said to WRAL. “They’ve been gracious in giving us as many as they can. They still have to hold back for their partners, for other NHL teams. Every time you get a Stadium Series or one of these (outdoor) games, every team gets an opportunity to buy tickets so they have to go through those processes also.”
Waddell said that the capacity “seat-wise” at the stadium is around 51,500 people, which includes suites. What that number doesn’t count is the new standing-room-only ticket opportunities that the NHL is introducing this year on the field. ESPN reported that the overflow seating will be located in one of the field’s endzones.
“There’s going to be a lot of standing-room opportunities,” Waddell said.
The game will be the Hurricanes’ first foray outdoors while it’ll be the fourth time the Capitals have played in the elements, appearing in two Winter Classics (2011 and 2015) and one prior Stadium Series Game (2018).
Several Caps season ticket holders tell RMNB that the team gave them a first crack at Stadium Series tickets in late September during a pre-sale that stretched into early October. The ticket selection appeared limited to one quadrant of the stadium.
Waddell alluded to a public sale of Stadium Series tix coming in the future, but it’s unknown when that will happen or how many tickets will be available then. What does seem certain though is that Carter-Finlay Stadium will be full and the atmosphere will be electric.
“Eventually, whatever is not sold I’m very confident we can sell,” Waddell said.
