Fireworks go off during the national anthem before the NHL Stadium Series game between the Carolina Hurricanes and the Washington Capitals at Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh, N.C., Saturday, Feb. 18, 2023.
ehyman@newsobserver.com
Raleigh
The Stadium Series outdoor game was a financial success for the NHL, Carolina Hurricanes and N.C. State.
The Hurricanes topped the Washington Capitals 4-1 Saturday at N.C. State’s Carter-Finley Stadium. The regular-season game attracted a crowd of nearly 57,000, and the tickets to the game sold quickly.
According to the lease obtained Tuesday by the News & Observer, the NHL agreed to pay a $200,000 license fee to N.C. State for use of the stadium, as well as up to $100,000 to restore the playing field after the hockey game and the removal of the rink.
The NHL, in the contract with the university, also was to pay a $50,000 bonus if ticket sales accounted for 75% of the stadium capacity. The contract cited a capacity of 54,577.
The contract called for the NHL to set the ticket prices, decide on the date the tickets would first be sold and retain 100% of the ticket sales.
NCSU was to retain full control over the public food and beverage concessions at the stadium, with a concessions commission later paid to the league.
N.C. State was to be responsible for parking operations at the game, with NCSU and the NHL mutually agreeing on the fees for public parking. NCSU later was to return the net revenue from parking to the league.
The contract said NCSU would conduct the parking operations “in a manner (including with respect to staffing levels) consistent with the parking operations at a sold-out ACC playoff/championship game at the Venue.”
No ACC playoff or championship game has been played in the stadium, but sellouts are common for Wolfpack home football games.
Canes president and general manager Don Waddell said the NHL would pay the team for the home game but did not say the amount to be paid.
In more than 30 years at The N&O, Chip Alexander has covered the N.C. State, UNC, Duke and East Carolina beats, and now is in his 11th season on the Carolina Hurricanes beat. Alexander, who has won numerous writing awards at the state and national level, covered the Hurricanes’ move to North Carolina in 1997 and was a part of The N&O’s coverage of the Canes’ 2006 Stanley Cup run.