Today's weird news: A telephone survey of 500 North Carolinians found that only 10 percent would pick a Hurricanes game if given the chance to get tickets to a variety of sporting events.
Perhaps more surprising, only 82 percent of those surveyed even knew that North Carolina has an NHL team in the survey by Public Policy Polling.
The Panthers led the way with 29 percent, with the Tar Heels right behind at 28 percent. NASCAR (16 percent), Duke (13 percent) and the Bobcats (5 percent) rounded out the choices.
The Canes did better in the 919 area code, where 94 percent were aware the team exists (at this point, seriously, where's the 6 percent that doesn't?!) and the Canes finished second to North Carolina, with 23 percent of the vote. (The Heels got 27 percent.)
Luke has worked for The N&O since 2000. He covered the Carolina Hurricanes and the NHL before becoming a sports columnist in August 2008. A native of Evanston, Ill., he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. He can be reached at (919) 829-8947, @LukeDeCock on Twitter or
Comments
NC is big
Sun, 07/20/2008 - 04:04 — Anonymous (not verified)Would you be surprised if someone from Philadelphia didn't select a New York team as their first choice for free tickets? Or if someone from New York didn't choose a team from Boston? The distance from Raleigh to Charlotte is comparable. For someone living in western NC, why are Hurricanes tickets better than Thrashers or Predators tickets? Expansion teams like to name themselves after a state, on the theory that they'll have a broader fan base--but fans can figure out what city they're in. Raleigh people don't go to very many "Carolina" Panthers games, either.
82% is pretty good
Fri, 07/18/2008 - 21:49 — Justin Guillory (not verified)82% on any poll question is A LOT. Anybody who thinks this poll is doom and gloom for hockey in North Carolina is dead wrong.
If you look deeper inside the numbers you can see that the 82% is even more depressed by a "poorer" showing in the mountain region, out east and by respondents over 65 (the group least likely to be southern hockey converts). That means that the Hurricanes exposure is approaching 90% everywhere else. WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT? You know there are people out there living under rocks.
Justin Guillory
former Public Policy Polling Communications Director and
Hurricanes Season Ticket Holder
Not really surprising
Fri, 07/18/2008 - 16:37 — Anonymous (not verified)If you've lived anywhere in the state outside of the triangle, the results of this poll shouldn't surprise you. Many areas don't have TV coverage of the games (Versus or Fox Sports) unless you have extended cable or satellite. Even with satellite, games can still be hard to find. In Greensboro, where the Canes played their first two seasons, local media coverage of them was almost nonexistent. (We lived there, barely heard about them at the time.) Family members who live in other areas of the state tell me you can't even find hockey scores in the newspaper.
Comparing pro sports with college is a bit unfair, especially when you consider consider that there were NO professional sport teams in NC until the early 1990's. College sports are very embedded here, there are families with a tradition of cheering for a particular college, whether alumni or not.
I think people just haven't
Fri, 07/18/2008 - 14:39 — Anonymous (not verified)I think people just haven't been exposed to a game so they don't want to have tickets. Once you go to a Canes game you really enjoy it. They have done a great job of making it family friendly and entertaining (even though hockey purist hate it). I have always been a hockey fan so having a city with a team is a great thing. It's all about exposure if the NHL will be surviving in the South and ultimately being 'know' by NC residents.
Polls can be made to refect
Fri, 07/18/2008 - 13:24 — Anonymous (not verified)Polls can be made to refect what every the pollsters want to outcome to be - i.e. "creating public opinion"
Also, no serious poll is conducted will less than a 1000 participants.
As has already been
Fri, 07/18/2008 - 09:57 — Jonathan Hawkins (not verified)As has already been mentioned, the addition of a question surveying awareness of the existence of the Hurricanes throws the entire poll off for me since a question does not exist for the other teams. There is no basis of comparison. It reveals a pre-existing anti-hockey bias in the mind of the poll creator. I was living in the 704 area code, where awareness was low in the survey, during the 2006 championship run. I can say without hesitation that you would have to be absolutely living under a rock to not be aware of what was going on, even in the Charlotte area where a definite anti-Raleigh bias exists. Every game covered the front page of the sports section, and often the front page of the paper itself in the Charlotte Observer. The local television and radio news stations covered it extensively. It was on in every bar. It would seem to me that the people who do not know about the team probably don't know anything about sports, period; they don't even watch it.
It's probably also notable that 69% of respondents were 46 and older, with 31% being over 65. Hockey seems to do well with younger demographics.
It's a silly poll, and should obviously be taken with a grain of salt, but I'm sure if it gets out to certain people it will be used as fodder for the noisy group of Canadians who live to hate the thought of their game being played down here.
With that said, if 1 in 10 people in the state and 1 in 4 people in the Triangle would rather go to a Canes game over the Panthers, UNC, Duke, Bobcats, and NASCAR, I don't have a problem with that.
full disclaimer
Fri, 07/18/2008 - 09:49 — ldecock (author)I'd like to point out that I had nothing to do with this survey in any way, other than I thought it was interesting to share the results after they were provided to me.
Any anger this has somehow generated should probably be pointed in the direction of the pollsters.
they forgot to mention only
Fri, 07/18/2008 - 08:53 — Anonymous (not verified)they forgot to mention only 48% of those polled had a high school diploma.
Meaningless Poll
Fri, 07/18/2008 - 08:46 — Richie7without knowing more about the 500 responders demographics this seems like useless information. I agree with the comments on the polling site, too broad in some cases and too narrow in others. What is the point of asking if you know that there is an NHL team in North Carolina? If you ask that should you not ask if there is an NBA team or an NFL team or for that matter that the defacto all star Race for NASCAR is held in NC every year? I also agree that the first question should have quanitified the respondents intrest in sports. Then the reslults of other questions could then have been segregated on that basis. This would have provided a better understanding of the responders sports knowledge in general.
Who'd they call?
Fri, 07/18/2008 - 07:49 — janeybell...The 500 residents of Hyde County?
Ignorance
Fri, 07/18/2008 - 05:46 — lewpuls (not verified)Given that, when surveyed, many Americans don't know where Canada and Mexico are, it's not surprising that 18% don't know we have an NHL team. I wonder if they asked about the Panthers as well, how many would not know they're in Carolina.
gaa stupid Nascar...I'm
Thu, 07/17/2008 - 23:56 — James_gaa stupid Nascar...I'm willing to bet if this survey was conducted in any other hockey state/province, the people wouldn't rather go to a stupid nascar race than a hockey game. I've always hated those stupid 'redneck hockey' shirts that the canes sell. whats wrong with north carolinians, who are the idiots in the 18%? do they live under rocks?
Luke, Seriously, in a world
Thu, 07/17/2008 - 23:14 — Anonymous (not verified)Luke,
Seriously, in a world where about 25% even know the Governors name, and even less can name both our senators is this a real surprise?
Maybe President Gore can straighten this out.
10% sounds about
Thu, 07/17/2008 - 23:02 — Anonymous (not verified)10% sounds about right.....
I have kids in travel hockey, I ref and I play... About 90% of the adults who play or the youth parents are from the Northeast or upper Midwest. There is only one person on our adult team that was raised in the south.
Survey
Thu, 07/17/2008 - 21:30 — Mike (not verified)Let's do a survey and see how many people know Luke DeCock exists.
Very odd survey... 1) The
Thu, 07/17/2008 - 21:20 — canesice (not verified)Very odd survey...
1) The questioning is all over the place..
2) 82% knew that the state had a pro hockey team. this is fantastic!!!!! I don't find this surprising at all..
3) they should have stuck to pro sports for the survey for it to be a good comparison across the sports teams.
4) given 3, I would have liked to have seen them ask a similar question to Q4 about the carolina panthers, I bet the results would be similar.
5) Q1 is screwy. There are other schools in the state. Wake Forest, ECU, etc. The results on this question are not very meaningful. They should have stuck to pro sports. NASCAR in Charlotte, Panthers, Bobcats, or Hurricanes. They should of had a different question for college teams and asked about all of the major teams
6) 25% of the people that they surveyed were from the triad, yet no wake forest as stated above.
I find the survey to be poorly organized with the mix of pro and college.
I would have liked to have seen an initial question of 1) do you follow sports.. - 1 for yes, 2 for no. At this point drop any no folks out. Then for the yes folks layer in similar questions for each pro team. I think this method would prove to get a better understanding.. Then follow this up with a similar constructed poll for college.
I'm posting this same write up on that site.
These polls don't really
Thu, 07/17/2008 - 20:07 — Anonymous (not verified)These polls don't really reflect, well, anything relevant. It's a random sample. Means nothing. 500 NCians? Could have been 500 NCians from Cary, Fuquay, Asheville, Raleigh, Durham, Butner, Tick Bite, Bahama, etc. Irrelevant sampling, just like the Nielesen ratings.