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Most Caniacs will tell you, watching a Carolina Hurricanes game at the RBC Center is a great experience, but how does that experience stack up against other venues around the league?
Stadium Journey.com is a unique website that grades and compares specific criteria within various venues throughout the sports world. One of their writers visited the RBC Center on April 6, 2011 when the Hurricanes hosted the Detroit Red Wings and the RBC, as well as attending fans, scored very well.
The following quote is taken from the "fans" category:
Loud enough to drown out every attempt at "Let's Go Red Wings!" with "Let's Go Hurricanes!" during play, yet polite in the best "Pardon me" Southern manner in the hallways, these fans proved canny enough to hang with some of the NHL's best-traveling supporters as their team put a 3-0 whooping on the pride of Detroit.
The grades given for all of their categories were as follows:
Food and Beverage: 5/5
Atmosphere: 4/5
Neighborhood: 5/5
Fans: 4/5
Access: 5/5
Return on Investment: 3/5
Extras: 3/5
Overall: Fanfare Score 4.1
The following link will have the RBC report in full detail:
After the jump, we'll see how other rinks fared.
| Team | Fanfare |
| Score | |
| Anaheim | 3.1 |
| Atlanta | 2.9 |
| Boston | 3.3 |
| Buffalo | 4.1 |
| Calgary | 4.0 |
| Carolina | 4.1 |
| Chicago | 4.3 |
| Colorado | 4.0 |
| Columbus | 2.7 |
| Dallas | 4.0 |
| Detroit | 4.0 |
| Edmonton | 3.6 |
| Florida | 2.3 |
| Los Angeles | 4.4 |
| Minnesota | 4.7 |
| Montreal | 4.9 |
| Nashville | 4.6 |
| New Jersey | 3.9 |
| New York Isl | 3.1 |
| New York Ran | 4.1 |
| Ottawa | 3.9 |
| Philadelphia | 3.9 |
| Phoenix | 3.7 |
| Pittsburgh | 4.6 |
| San Jose | 4.1 |
| St. Louis | 4.0 |
| Tampa Bay | 4.0 |
| Toronto | 3.9 |
| Vancouver | 3.9 |
| Washington | 4.6 |
There really are not many surprises in those results. Montreal and Minnesota scored the highest. Florida, Columbus, and Atlanta, the lowest. I think Nashville scored higher than Raleigh because they have more to do around the arena and they have live music during the intermissions, (which was very good when I visited there.)
The RBC finished in the upper half of the NHL, right along with notable venues like the Shark Tank in San Jose, Madison Square Garden in New York, and the HSBC Arena in Buffalo.
What do you think? Agree or disagree with any scores?