Canes hope lost season hasn't iced fans' fervor.

• Author: Roush, Chris
• Position: SPORTS SECTION

Remember the National Hockey League? The Carolina Hurricanes hope so. The NHL starts regular-season play again this month after losing a year to labor strife, and it could be a crucial time for Raleigh's only major-league sports franchise.

When the Hurricanes last hit the ice, it was to complete a dismal 2003-04 season in which the team attracted only 12,086 fans per game, second-lowest total in the league and nearly a 23% drop from the preceding season. To rebound, they'll need to develop a lot more fans like Edith Creasy.

Creasy, a Raleigh resident who is president of the Hurricanes fan club, went to 36 games during the 2003 season and would have bought season tickets last year had the team played. Instead, she took the money she would have spent and went to Lowell, Mass., to watch the Hurricanes' minor-league team. She also took a trip to Calgary, Alberta, to see one of the team's top prospects play in Canada's junior leagues.

Meanwhile, the league and its players association slowly moved toward an agreement. In the end, management won a salary cap of $39 million per team, revenue sharing among teams and an immediate 24% reduction in salaries for players under contract. To teams such as Carolina, which says it has lost $140 million since moving here in 1996, it was a breath of fresh air. In July, the sides announced a settlement, which meant there would be an NHL season in 2005-06.

Fans such as Creasy are ecstatic. She can't wait to go back to the RBC Center, where the team plays its home games, even though her finances have changed. Creasy, who had written IBM technical manuals for 23 years, took early retirement, but she still plunked down $1,591 for a season ticket.

But Creasy isn't the typical fan. And some predict that the NHL may have slipped in a market where the sport is not most fans' first choice. The Hurricanes need to "emphasize the fact that new NHL rules changes will make it a faster, higher-scoring game," UNC Chapel Hill advertising professor John Sweeney says. "Hockey is not a native sport to this area, and ACC basketball rightly grabs most of the emotion."

History suggests that the Hurricanes will suffer at the gate this year. Nearly every time a professional sports league had a strike or a lockout in the past 20 years, average attendance dropped when play resumed. Major League Baseball's plummeted nearly 24% in 1995 after a strike ended the 1994 season. And National Football League attendance fell by more than 10% in...