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College football season kicks off again this week, and once again, it looks like teams have to contend with the pandemic as well as opposing teams.

WEBSITE WRAL.COM OR OUR WRAL MOBILE APP. IN RALEIGH WRAL NEWS. &gt;&gt;&gt; AFTER A SEASON WITH EMPTY STANDS, LOCAL UNIVERSITIES ARE TAKING A DIFFERENT APPROACH TO FOOTBALL AND FANS THIS YEAR AND RELAXING ANY CAPACITY LIMITS. WRAL'S KEELY ARTHUR IS LIVE THERE AT CARTER FINLEY STADIUM THIS YEAR. HOW WILL THE FAN EXPERIENCE LOOK DIFFERENT THIS YEAR, KEELY? &gt;&gt; Reporter: DEBRA, TO EXPLAIN JUST HOW DIFFERENT LAST YEAR AT THE SEASON OPENER HERE AT CARTER FINLEY STADIUM, NC STATE FANS, ONLY 350 OF THEM WERE ALLOWED IN. THIS YEAR NO CAPACITY LIMITS MEANING 57,000 FANS CAN FILL THE STANDS HERE. DUKE AND UNC ALSO TAKING THE SAME APPROACH. ARE YOU GOING TO GO TO THE GAME? &gt;&gt; OH ABSOLUTELY, DEFINITELY. &gt;&gt; Reporter: WHILE SOME STUDENTS ARE READY TO PACK THE STANDS. &gt;&gt; WE'RE PROBABLY FINE THE WAY IT LOOKS LIKE THINGS ARE SET UP. &gt;&gt; Reporter: OTHERS PLAN TO STAY FAR AWAY. &gt;&gt; THERE ARE SOME STUDENTS THAT ARE REALLY SCARED OF IT AND DON'T WANT TO GO ANYWHERE. &gt;&gt; Reporter: MEANWHILE NC STATE FOOTBALL COACH DAVE DOEREN IS FOCUSED ON THE IMPACT FANS WILL HAVE ON PLAYERS. &gt;&gt; YOU KNOW SOME CASES IT MAY BE HALF OF A TEAM THAT HASN'T PLAYED IN FRONT OF A LOUD STADIUM BEFORE. SO HOW TEAMS CAN HANDLE THAT IS GOING TO BE A PART OF THE CHALLENGE THIS YEAR. &gt;&gt; Reporter: A SPOKESPERSON WITH NC STATE ATHLETICS ACKNOWLEDGED THE FINANCIAL BENEFITS OF HAVING FANS BACK. AND DUKE AND UNC CHAPEL HILL ALSO HAVE ZERO RESTRICTIONS WHEN IT COMES TO CAPACITY LIMITS. WHEN ASKED IF THIS STATE WOULD REINTRODUCE CAPACITY LIMITS BECAUSE OF COVID TODAY, GOVERNOR ROY COOPER SAID NO. POINTING OUT THAT WE HAVE SOMETHING WE DIDN'T HAVE LAST FOOTBALL SEASON, THE VACCINE. &gt;&gt; BUT THE GOOD THING ABOUT IT IS IF YOU ARE INFECTED AND YOU ARE VACCINATED, YOUR CHANCES OF GETTING SERIOUSLY ILL AND YOUR CHANCES OF DYING GO WAY, WAY DOWN. SO YEAH WE'RE CONCERNED ABOUT CASES AND THE MORE PEOPLE WE GET VACCINATED THE FEWER CASES WE'RE GOING TO HAVE. &gt;&gt; Reporter: ARE YOU VACCINATED? &gt;&gt; YES, I AM. &gt;&gt; Reporter: DOES THAT GIVE YOU A PEACE OF MIND? &gt;&gt; YES, DEFINITELY. IT MAKES ME FEEL A LITTLE BIT MORE COMFORTABLE. &gt;&gt; Reporter: AND AT THESE THREE UNIVERSITIES YOU DON'T NEED TO HAVE A VACCINE CARD TO ENTER THE STADIUM. THE ONLY BIG DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE THREE REALLY COMES WHEN IT COMES DOWN TO MASKS. AT CARTER FINLEY AS WELL AS IN CHAPEL HILL, YOU DO NOT NEED TO WEAR A MASK OUTDOORS WHEREAS IN DUKE YOU DO NEED TO. DEBRA? &gt;&gt; WE'LL SEE HOW IT WORKS ESPECIALLY THURSDAY NIGHT RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE AT CARTER FINLEY STADIUM WHEN NC STATE PLAYS THE

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Carter-Finley Stadium

College football season kicks off again this week, and once again, it looks like teams have to contend with the pandemic as well as opposing teams. 

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Hurricanes GM Don Waddell said between 10,000 and 12,000 fans will be allowed to attend playoff games at PNC Arena.

Alright everyone. We're gonna start with a quick statement from dawn and then we'll take your questions. Just please raise your hands first. Mhm. Thank you for joining us here today. I think first. I'd like to start off by thanking Governor Cooper and Dr Cohen and their teams for working so diligently and listening to some of the requests by uh professional sports organizations here in the state of north Carolina and having the opportunity to increased capacity moving forward beginning as early as next monday. With that uh turnover for questions. Go ahead. Chip. Yeah. Don well, I know this decision. I don't know how much lead time you have on it, but logistically will this cause any problems at all in terms of adding Arena staff? Any of the things that go with increasing capacity. And also, do you have a number of minor, how many fans will have in the building? Game 1? Uh Not yet. We are working with the NHL now that we're, you know what the state requirements are, which is unlimited. We have to work with the NHL. We're working with the NHL. We have a call starting very soon to talk about what they allow us to do. You know, it's all about how much the airflow in the building, You know, it's up to their health department now, but uh, you know, our, our goal is to get as many people as possible, but hopefully in the next 24 hours or so, we'll know that number as far as what was the other part of your questions muted chip. The logistical part of uh, for what needs to be done there. Yeah, well, as everybody knows, we've been short staffed since we opened the building back up, trying to get people back to work has been very, very difficult. So, you know, we're fortunate that a lot of the nonprofit groups that have worked over the past have joined us back, which, uh, gives us, uh, more capacity and the, sorry, more capacity in the concession stands area. But no, we're short help. There's no doubt we're going to do the best we can. We've got a great staff here. We're gonna try to do everything possible to make it a great experience for our fans. KB Hey, done. Thanks for taking out the time. I got a two part question for you first. It goes to the capacity and um, you said there was conversations that, You know, the governor and the secretary were able to listen to from you and the other professional sports teams. How much motivation came off of Nashville and, and their capacity being increased to 12,000 for you guys, kind of initiating those conversations with the government office? Well, I know the governor, as we know, is a big hockey fan. I know he heard about it from a lot of people, uh, through social media. Uh, so I don't think that really plays a factor in making decisions for our state, what other states are doing? Um, certainly, you know, from our end as a home ice advantage, we looked at it, but again, I think people in these uh, decision making roles for the state of north Carolina are going to do what's best for the north Carolina, not what's going on in Nashville. So I don't think it has any effect. And my second part of my question is related to Rod Brenda more just going back to when you hired him three years ago and fast forwarding to here in the present, Did you envision him being able to have the success that he's had in this short period of time and be in a position to win the NHL coach of the year award this soon? Not surprised at all. You know, we all know rods work ethic as a player, watch it as an assistant coach at the time and energy that he puts into preparing. Uh not only him and the staff, but more importantly the players uh not surprised at all runs a winner. Uh Rods a winner true and true out. And uh he's leading this march to the playoffs as uh we expected him to sarah. First of all, your ring tone is exactly what I'd expect an NHL GM ring tone to be. But second of all, as I understand it, you guys put in a request to increase the attendance and got denied at first, which is you can cut out the last part there. Oh sorry. You guys put in a request to increase the attendance that got denied. What changed? Oh, I don't know if it got denied it was being looked at and as as late as yesterday uh I sent another letter to the governor explaining um, you know, our position of where we're at and what we would like to see happening. And uh, I know yesterday was a busy day for everybody. Uh, lots of calls with uh, the government, the governor's team, the health department's team. And you know, I think it's been ongoing, but I, you know, certainly were not the only one in the space that's been trying to increase attendance. Obviously our partners over in charlotte with the hornets and the speedway speedway has got a big race coming up. Um, We've all worked together and kept everybody informed of what's going on. So I think it was a good, pretty good push from all the different sports organizations, Aaron, Hey Don, when you mentioned airflow, is that something that you, when you're talking about things you're looking at with options, you're looking at maybe bringing in equipment to, you know, how does that part of it work? Can you elaborate a little bit? Yeah, it works off CFM s, I'm not an engineer, but uh, I, I know the legal wants to have 25 CfM is coming in the building, uh, per fan. So they do this testing, uh, in the building. And if you look at all the cities that have this issue are the warm climate cities, because it's not just about pumping air and, you know, we could pump a lot of air into our building, but pumping warm air as warm as it is. And here in florida cities in Dallas, um, you're going to create a lot more issues from uh, humidity standpoint then it affects the ice. The main goal here certainly is keeping the air flow for our players and our customers. But you also got to keep in mind, you gotta keep the ice at a certain temperature, humidity and a lot of humidity in the building is bad for the ice. And then you create uh, ruts in the ice so that, that plays a huge part in this, but so it's not just pumping the air in the building. It's pumping cool air in the building, which takes uh, different equipment. We've actually been working on this for some months now about what kind of equipment we would need. And, you know, it's all stuff that you rent, you've seen in other teams have used it near his past. So we're continuing to work out, we obviously, uh, didn't think it was going to happen this quickly. So, um, you know, with the state taken in the limits, the capacity limits up. Uh, you know, we were shooting for June one as everybody's talked about, that is going to be a better opportunity. So we're going to fast forward our talks about about bringing equipment in, which could help increasing tendency even more to follow up real quick. Is there a max number with the current setup or configuration without more equipment that you conceivably could have? I mean, obviously with discussions still pending Some, the number is probably someplace between 10 and 12,000. I know it's a big range, but it's also when you talk about, you've got to include uh, everybody that's in the building, not only uh, customers, but people that are working in the building players. Uh, You know, it's everybody's possibly in the building. So those are things that hopefully will have a clear answer on in the next 24-36 hours. Corey don, will you still have a mask mandate for the arena and also given what's gone on with like the new york Yankees, I'm assuming you're mostly vaccinated with the players. Are you, are there still concerns about what can happen even when people are vaccinated? Well, I'm not a doctor, but sure followed everything that's happened in new york and listen to our experts. And I think, you know, just because you're vaccinated doesn't mean you can't get Covid what the hope is. And I think what you're hearing is people that are back then, that due to Covid don't become ill from it, which is obviously, uh, number one concern for anybody that gets it as far as the mask, the NHL, the state, uh, maybe lifting as we know, the mass mandate. Uh I think they're highly recommended it. But the NHL still has a protocol in place that anybody entering the building has to wear a mask. So, you know, it's gonna be, it's gonna be something to challenge for our staff. Uh everybody's reading C. D. C. And state guidelines, but we have NHL guidelines because we're a member of the National Hockey League that we need to follow and we will follow luke. Don. You mentioned the additional equipment that would be needed. And that was something you said, you started looking into, what would be the time frame on getting that in and installed. Um going forward, It's about a 10-14 day process uh to get in. Now. Uh we've gotten three bids once a local bits that may uh speed it up a little bit, but uh that we've been told any place from 10 to 14 days. Gibby. Yeah, Donna. As far as the fans go, it will be a free for all. Or will the season ticket holders from the past maybe get preferential treatment as far as trying to get tickets for the upcoming games. 100%. Are season ticket members are going to have first choice. I know we haven't been able to take care of all our season ticket members. Trust me, my phone and email are full of people that are disappointed. I couldn't get tickets. So they will be the first choice. We want to make sure we take care of them first. And then once we know capacity, once we take care of everybody that we need to take care of. If there is b tickets available, then we would turn us to the general public. But number one concern for us is to take care of. The people have been very supportive this franchise for a long time. If it is 10 to 12,000, do you anticipate the former season ticket holders to grab them all? Possibly? Well, it's uh it's a good debate we have internally in the last hour since we've learned all this, that I think there's a been a heavy demand so far. Usually in years past, we've allowed people to buy additional strips and that and we've kind of gone, uh not as uh make it harder for people only because we want to take care of more people. We don't want to, you know, somebody to grab more seats than what they're actually uh uh able to have in a normal uh season. So we want to make sure we take care of as many of our season ticket holders. But I think at the end of the day, what happens to uh in these uh playoffs is the NHL has a lot of tickets that they have to hold for broadcasters, for the N H L. P A. Um, so a lot of times you'll see tickets may become available in the 24 hours before the game, and people say where they come from. Well, we have to hold them to uh within 24 hours, we can release them to the general public. So you might see some of those kind of tickets available in the market Andrew. I don't have a two part question about Rod, obviously, you know, you talked about the job that he's done in him, you know, being one of the contenders for coach of the year this year, looking at everything that this group has accomplished this year, and all of the unique and difficult circumstances that he's had to help navigate them through. What can you say about the coaching job he's done this year, and then with him and his um contract status, do you see extending him being a pot before the playoffs start or even as they're going on being a possibility or is that something that you anticipate being pushed to the end of the season as far as this contract? We've had numerous talks, very positive talks. Um We don't have a timetable and we're going to get it done. It's just a matter of, you know, the last while here, you know, and I'll talk about rods culture, but his focus is coaching the soccer team and preparing it and making, putting in the best position to succeed. So the contract is going to happen at some point. I don't have a timetable. I don't think there's any magic date we're waiting for. Um, and it will play out as far as him coaching. You know, again, it goes back to you, you get out what you put in and I think Rod gives everything possible to make sure everybody is prepared every last detail. Uh, you know, he looks at and you know, he creates an environment where the players want to be in the locker room and the players want to practice hard for him and most importantly, they want to play hard for him. They don't want to disappoint them. And I think it's not uh, you know, it's just his uh nature and the way he handles himself that, you know, it's, everybody looks up to him and you know, you don't want to let them down and we're gonna make mistakes, we're gonna give up, we're gonna lose games, we're gonna give up bad goals. But the one thing that, you know, anything that Rod always preaches is let's not get out work. Let's let's make sure we're the hardest working team in the league. And if we do that with the skill level we had, we're going to have more success than we are failures luke. Oh man. I'm sorry. I just had my Andres. I'm good. Mhm. All right. Thanks. Don. Thanks everyone. Thank you.

Hurricanes will allow more fans at playoff games

Hurricanes President and GM Don Wadell 

The Carolina Hurricanes will allow for increased capacity at PNC Arena for the Stanley Cup Playoffs, generally the time where the team's fans have been at their most passionate.

Hurricanes hope for '10,000 to 12,000' fans for playoff games at PNC Arena

Hurricanes GM Don Waddell announces more fans can attend playoff games

With the Stanley Cup Playoffs starting Monday, the Carolina Hurricanes may be able to let more fans in for games in light of Gov. Roy Cooper lifting the state's capacity limits for indoor venues. 

Yeah. Alright everyone. We're going to start with a quick statement from dawn and then we'll take your questions. Just please raise your hands first. Thank you for uh, joining us here today. I think first, I'd like to start off by thanking Governor Cooper and Dr Cohen and their teams for working so diligently and listening to some of the requests by uh, professional sports organizations here in the state of north Carolina and having the opportunity to increased capacity moving forward beginning as early as next monday with that, uh, turnover for questions. Go ahead. Chip. Yeah. Don well, I know this decision. I don't know how much lead time you have on it, but logistically will this cause any problems at all in terms of adding Arena staff? Any of the things that go with increasing capacity. And also, do you have a number of minor, how many fans will have in the building? Game 1? Uh, not yet. We are working with the NHL now that we're, you know what the state requirements are, which is unlimited. We have to work with the NHL. We're working with the NHL. We have a call starting very soon to talk about what they allow us to do. You know, it's all about how much the airflow in the building, you know, it's up to their health department now. But, uh, you know, our, our goal is to get as many people as possible, but hopefully in the next 24 hours or so, we'll know that number as far as, uh, always the other part of your questions. Chip muted chip. The logistical part of, uh, what needs to be done there. Yeah. Well, as everybody knows, we've been short staffed since we opened the building back up trying to get people back to work has been very, very difficult. So, you know, we're fortunate that a lot of the nonprofit groups that have worked over the past have joined us back, which uh gives us uh more capacity in the, sorry, more capacity in the concession stands area. But no, we're short help. There's no doubt we're going to do the best we can. We've got a great staff here. We're gonna try to do everything possible to make it a great experience for our fans. J. B. Hey dan, thanks for taking out the time. I got a two part question for you. First. It goes to the capacity and um, you said there was conversations that, you know, the governor and the secretary were able to listen to from you and the other professional sports teams, how much motivation came off of Nashville and and their capacity being increased to 12,000 for you guys, kind of initiating those conversations with the government office. Well, I know the governor, as we know is a big hockey fan. I know he heard about it from a lot of people, uh, through social media. So I don't think that really plays a factor in making decisions for our state, what other states are doing? Um, certainly, you know, from Iran as a home ice advantage, we looked at it, but again, I think people in this uh, uh, decision making roles for the state of north Carolina are going to do what's best for the north Carolina, not what's going on in Nashville. So I don't think it has any effect. And my second part of my question is related to Rod Brenda more, just going back to when you hired him three years ago and fast forwarding to here in the present, did you envision him being able to have his success that he's had in this short period of time and be in a position to win the NHL coach of the year award this soon? Not surprised at all. You know, we all know rods work ethic as a player, watch it as an assistant coach at the time and energy that he puts into preparing. Uh not only him and the staff, but more importantly the players uh not surprised at all. Ron is a winner. Uh Rods a winner true and true out. And uh he's leading this march to the playoffs as uh we expected him to sarah. First of all, your ring tone is exactly what I'd expect an NHL GM ring tone to be. But second of all, as I understand it, you guys put in a request to increase the attendance and got denied at first. What changed? You can cut out the last part there. Oh sorry. You guys put in a request to increase the attendance that got denied. What changed? Oh I don't know if it got denied it was being looked at and as as late as yesterday uh I sent another letter to the governor explaining um you know, our position of where we're at and what we would like to see happening. And uh, I know yesterday was a busy day for everybody. Uh lots of calls with the government, the governor's team, the health Department's team and you know, I think it's been ongoing but you know, certainly were not the only one in the space that's been trying to increase attendance. You know, obviously our partners over in charlotte with the hornets and the speedway speedway has got a big race coming up. Um We've all worked together and kept everybody informed of what's going on. So I think it was a good, pretty good push from all the different sports organizations, Aaron, Hey Don, when you mentioned airflow, is that something that you, when you're talking about things you're looking at with options, you're looking at maybe bringing in equipment to, you know, how does that part of it work? Can you elaborate a little bit? Yeah, it works off CFm s. I'm not an engineer, but uh, I, I know the league wants to have 25 CFM is coming in the building, uh, per fan. So they do this testing, uh, in the building. And if you look at all the cities that have this issue are the warm climate cities, because it's not just about pumping air and, you know, we could pump a lot of air into our building, but pumping warm air as warm as it is. And here in florida cities in Dallas, um, you're going to create a lot more issues from uh, humidity standpoint then it affects the ice. The main goal here, certainly keeping the air flow for our players and our customers. But you also gotta keep in mind, you got to keep the ice at a certain temperature, humidity. And a lot of humidity in the building is bad for the ice. And then you create uh, ruts in the ice so that, that plays a huge part in this. But so it's not just pumping the air in the building. It's pumping cool air in the building, which takes uh, different equipment. We've actually been working on this for some months now about what kind of equipment we would need. And, you know, it's all stuff that you rent you've seen in other teams have used that nearest past. So we'll continue to work out. We obviously, uh, didn't think it was going to happen this quickly. So, uh, you know, with the state taken in the limits, the capacity limits up. Uh, you know, we were shooting for June one as everybody's talked about that is going to be a better opportunity. So we're gonna fast forward our talks about, about bringing equipment in, which could help increasing tendency even more to follow up real quick. Is there a max number with the current setup or configuration without more equipment that you conceivably could have? I mean, obviously with discussions still pending Some, the number is probably someplace between 10 and 12,000. I know it's a big range, but it's also when you talk about, you've got to include, uh, everybody that's in the building, not only uh, customers, but people that are working in the building players. Uh, You know, it's everybody's possibly in the building. So those are things that hopefully will have a clear answer on in the next uh, 24-36 hours. Corey don, will you still have a mask mandate for the arena and also given what's gone on with like the new york Yankees, I'm assuming you're mostly vaccinated with the players. Are are there still concerns about what can happen even when people are vaccinated? Well, I'm not a doctor, but sure followed everything that's happened in new york and listen to our experts. And I think, you know, just because you're vaccinated doesn't mean you can't get Covid what the hope is. And I think what you're hearing is people that are vaccinated that do get covid don't become ill from it. Which is obviously # one concern for anybody that gets it as far as the mask, the NHL, the state, uh, maybe lifting as we know, the mass mandate. Uh I think they're highly recommended it. But the NHL still has a protocol in place that anybody entering the building has to wear a mask. So you know it's gonna be it's gonna be something to challenge for our staff. Uh Everybody's reading C. D. C. And state guidelines. But we have NHL guidelines because we're a member of the National Hockey League that we need to follow and we will follow luke. Don. You mentioned the additional equipment that would be needed and that was something you said you started looking into, what would be the time frame on getting that in and installed. Um Going forward, It's about a 10-14 day process uh to get in now. Uh we've gotten three bids once a local bits that may uh speed it up a little bit but uh that we've been told any place from 10 to 14 days, Gibby. Yeah, Donna. As far as the fans go, it will be a free for all. Or with the, you know, season ticket holders from the past maybe get preferential treatment as far as trying to get tickets for the upcoming games. 100%. Are season ticket members are going to have first choice. I know we haven't been able to take care of all our season ticket members. Trust me, my phone and email are full of people that are disappointed. Couldn't get tickets. So they will be the first choice. We want to make sure we take care of them first and then once we know capacity, once we take care of everybody that we need to take care of. If there is b tickets available, then we would turn us to the general public. But number one concern for us is to take care of The people have been very supportive this franchise for a long time. If it is 10 to 12,000, do you anticipate the former season ticket holders to grab them all? Possibly? Well, it's uh it's a good debate. We have internally in the last hour since we've learned all this, that I think there's a been a heavy demand so far. Usually in years past, we've allowed people to buy additional strips and that, and we've kind of gone, uh, not as uh, make it harder for people only because we want to take care of more people. We don't want somebody to grab more seats than what they're actually, uh uh able to have in a normal uh, season. So we want to make sure we take care of as many of our season ticket holders. But I think at the end of the day, what happens to uh in these uh playoffs is the NHL has a lot of tickets that they have to hold for broadcasters, for the NHL pa Um so a lot of times you'll see, tickets may become available in the 24 hours before the game, and people say where they come from. Well, we have to hold them to uh within 24 hours we can release them to the general public. So you might see some of those kind of tickets available in the market Andrew. I don't have a two part question about Rod, obviously, you know, you talked about the job that he's done in him, you know, being one of the contenders for coach of the year this year, looking at everything that this group has accomplished this year, and all of the unique and difficult circumstances that he's had to help navigate them through. What can you say about the coaching job he's done this year and then with him and his um contract status, do you see extending him being a pot before the playoffs start or even as they're going on being a possibility or is that something that you anticipate being pushed to the end of the season As far as this contract? We've had numerous talks, very positive talks. Um, we don't have a timetable and we're going to get it done. It's just a matter of, you know, the last while here, you know, and I'll talk about rods culture, but his focus is coaching the soccer team and preparing it and making putting in the best position to succeed. So the contract is going to happen at some point. I don't have a timetable. I don't think there's any magic date we're waiting for. Um, and it will play out as far as him coaching. You know, again, it goes back to you, you get out what you put in and I think Rod gives everything possible to make sure everybody is prepared every last detail. Uh you know, he looks at and you know, he creates an environment where the players want to be in the locker room and the players want to practice hard for him and most importantly, they want to play hard for him. They don't want to disappoint them. And I think it's not uh you know, it's just his uh nature and the way he handles himself that, you know, it's everybody looks up to him and you know, you don't want to let them down and we're gonna make mistakes, we're gonna give up, we're gonna lose games, we're gonna give up bad goals. But the one thing that, you know, anything that Rod always preaches is let's not get out work. Let's let's make sure we're the hardest working team in the league. And if we do that with the skill level we had, we're gonna have more success than we are failures luke. Oh, man. I'm sorry. I just had my Andres. Mhm. All right. Thanks, Don. Thanks everyone. Thank you.

Hurricanes GM Don Waddell talks playoffs, capacity limits at PNC Arena

Mike Birling talks about the challenges brought forth by COVID-19 as Durham Bulls baseball finally returns to the DBAP.

THUNDERSTORMS &gt;&gt;&gt; IT IS A BIG DAY FOR DURHAM BULLS FANS, THIS IS A LOOK AT THE BALLPARK. YOU CAN SEE THE GROUNDS CREW GETTING READY FOR TONIGHT'S HOME OPENER REJOINED BY THE VICE PRESIDENT, MIKE BIRLING, ON CHANGES FANS WILL SEE THIS YEAR AND WHAT HE IS MOST EXCITED ABOUT. GREAT TO HAVE YOU ON THE PROGRAM. GIVE US A SENSE OF HOW YOU AND THE ENTIRE BULLS COMMUNITY ARE FEELING TODAY, HAVING BASEBALL BACK IN THE BALLPARK. &gt;&gt; IT IS HARD TO BELIEVE, HE WAS 607 DAYS SINCE THE LAST BULLS GAME. EVERY TIME I SAY THAT NUMBER, IT IS MIND BLOWING. TO THINK THAT'S HOW LONG IT SPENDS. WE ARE EXTREMELY EXCITED ABOUT TODAY AND WE CAN'T WAIT TO GET THE FANS OUT. &gt;&gt; AS A BASEBALL FAN, I'M EXCITED. NO MINOR-LEAGUE BASEBALL BECAUSE OF THE PANDEMIC LAST YEAR. WALK US THROUGH THE SAFETY MEASURES YOU HAVE IN PLACE THIS YEAR. &gt;&gt; THAT IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT AT THIS TIME. WE ARE OBVIOUSLY FOLLOWING THE GUIDELINES OF THE STATE AND ALL THE TICKETS WE ARE SELLING ARE IN PODS. EVERYTHING WILL BE DIGITAL FROM THE DIGITAL TICKETS, TWO CONCESSION LINES, WE DON'T WANT PEOPLE STANDING IN LINE SO WE ARE ABLE TO ORDER BY YOUR PHONE AND YOU GET A TEXT TO SAY YOUR FOOD IS READY. CLEAR BAG POLICY AS YOU INTERPRET EVERYONE WILL NEED TO WEAR MASKS. EXCEPT WHEN YOU'RE EATING AND DRINKING. THAT'S THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS PEOPLE COME BACK TO THE D.B.A.P. WE WANT PEOPLE TO FEEL SAFE AND COMFORTABLE. THIS IS SOMETHING TO HAVE A GOOD TIME AND FEEL LIKE YOU ARE SAFE. &gt;&gt; A GOOD FAMILY OUTING. LET'S TALK WHAT THE TEAM, AND 2019, THE BULLS LOST TO COLUMBUS IN THE INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIPS. TELL US ABOUT THIS YEAR'S TEAM AND WHAT PEOPLE CAN EXPECT. &gt;&gt; IT FEELS SO LONG AGO WHEN THE FINAL GAME OF THE SEASON. OUR TEAM IS REALLY GOOD. WE ARE 5-1 WENT TO MEMPHIS AND LOST SUNDAY BUT WON THE FIRST FIVE. WHERE THE NUMBER ONE PROSPECT IN ALL OF BASEBALL. SO WE ARE OFF TO A FANTASTIC START. WE HAVE THREE GUYS IN THE TOP 100 IN AND ALL OF BASIL FROM A PROSPECT STANDPOINT. I WAS YOU AND YOUR THAT TALENTED YOU MAYBE GOING TO THE BIG LEAGUE. IF YOU WANT TO WATCH A BASEBALL WE ARE HOME 12 OF THE NEXT 13 DAYS. SO COME OUT AND SEE THEM BEFORE THEY HEAD UP TO TAMPA. &gt;&gt; KEEPING THAT IN MIND, THE BIG QUESTION IS, ARE THERE ANY TICKETS LEFT TONIGHT? &gt;&gt; TONIGHT IS PRETTY MUCH SOLD OUT. WE HAVE SOME TICKETS THAT ARE RANDOM BUT WE ARE PRETTY MUCH SOLD OUT. IT'S WITH LIMITED CAPACITY, WE ARE ONLY AT 2800 AND IF YOU THINK OF THE PAST WE USED TO HAVE 7500 PER GAME SO THAT IS A RELATIVELY SMALL NUMBER. IF YOU WANT TO COME OUT OVER THE NEXT 12 OR 13 DAYS, I WOULD GO ONLINE AND TRY TO GET YOUR POD AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. &gt;&gt; MIKE AM I WANT TO GIVE YOU THE LAST WORD, YOUR MESSAGE TO FANS TODAY. &gt;&gt; IT HAS BEEN A HARD LAST YEAR ON ALL OF US. ESPECIALLY OUR STAFF. I'M PROUD OF OUR STAFF ON HOW THEY RALLIED TOGETHER TO GET READY FOR TODAY. WHAT I WOULD SAY IS WE ARE READY TO HAVE YOU GUYS BACK. AND CREATE THE MEMBERS WE USE TO CREATE. WE LOVE TO SEE IT. EVERYONE IS READY TO BE BACK. &gt;&gt; YOU WILL BE THERE WELCOMING EVERYBODY BACK. MIKE, THE BULLS VP OF OPERATIONS, ALL THE BEST .

Durham Bulls Vice President of Baseball Operations Mike Birling looks forward to unique season

The Carolina Hurricanes said Wednesday that they expected to welcome fans to PNC Arena as soon as next week, a little less than a year after sporting events shut down with the rest of the world as the coronavirus pandemic spread.