Canes unable to stop NYers from storming their arena
Red-hot Korda hits Metro area for two weeks, set to put a spotlight on win streak
Knicks fans took over Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia and the Hurricanes are in danger of succumbing to the same swarm of New Yorkers when the Rangers come to Raleigh for Games 3 and 4 of the second round starting Thursday night.
The Hurricanes are not so terrified that owner Tom Dundon is purchasing tickets himself a la Sixers ownership. But they are geographically restricting ticket sales to residents of North Carolina, South Carolina and parts of Virginia in an effort to make sure PNC Arena is clad in red. That is not new — the Hurricanes and other teams, including the Rangers, have used similar measures — but Carolina has a unique problem on its hands.
There are so many transplanted New Yorkers in the area that geoblocking is, at best, a half-measure.
“I will go out on a limb for anybody with a New York area code or a billing address who is looking to buy away tickets in Raleigh at the PNC Arena,” Ryan Somerville, a native Long Islander who moved to Charlotte in 2019, told The Post.
According to Julia Young of Vivid Seats, 24 percent of the seats at PNC Arena are projected to be filled by Ranger fans for Game 3.
Though no one had taken him up on the offer for this series as of Wednesday, Somerville successfully procured tickets for people for past Rangers-Hurricanes games.
“I’ve actually had quite a few people reach out to me directly,” he said. “More personal family and friends, but I’ve had people from my high school call me and say, ‘Hey, any chance we can work something out?’ I say, ‘Yeah, absolutely.’
“People travel. Don’t underestimate the cost of Spirit or Frontier [budget airlines]. People will go down to Raleigh because it is so cheap and I think that was the initial draw for a lot of New Yorkers to move to the Carolinas.
But the fandom follows, right?”
Especially compared to the exorbitant prices at Madison Square Garden, it is relatively affordable to go to a game at PNC Arena.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the lowest ticket price on VividSeats for Game 3 of the series was $127. To get into Game 5 in New York, the bare minimum was $322, with most tickets listed at over $400, even in the upper bowl.
Two years ago when the Rangers and Hurricanes went seven games in the playoffs, there was a notable away fan presence in Raleigh throughout the series despite the same geoblocking measures being in place, particularly in Game 7, which the Rangers dominated 6-2.
The home team won each of the first six games in that series. This time, the Rangers are going on the road with a 2-0 lead after Vincent Trocheck won Tuesday night’s Game 2 in double overtime.
Carolina is known as one of the loudest atmospheres in the NHL, but there is worry in the fan community about keeping the building red. A thread on the Hurricanes’ Reddit page leading into the series with over 100 comments slammed those who were reselling tickets. “Really appreciate them doing their best to get rid of our home crowd advantage for a couple extra bucks,” the original poster wrote.
While the tickets sold directly by Carolina are geoblocked, the same does not apply to those on the secondary market. For those looking to buy at face value, however, there are always middlemen such as Somerville, who will be at Game 4.
“When they see Ranger fans walking through the grass [parking] lots in jerseys and hats and everything, you’re gonna get a lot of boos, but you ask for it,” Somerville said. “That’s pretty much what a rivalry is. You expect that kind of warm welcome.”
GREAT athletes don’t choose when they deliver their most remarkable feats. They just deliver them. That’s what Nelly Korda has been doing the past couple of months.
The 25-year-old No. 1 ranked women’s golfer in the world has been delivering on a record-setting level, winning her last five tourna- ments — a feat only Nancy
Lopez and Annika Sorenstam have accomplished.
Korda is on a heater reminiscent to what Tiger Woods was on in his prime when he won five consecutive starts in 2007-08, six in a row in 1999-2000 and seven straight in 2006-07.
Her recent accomplishments have even superseded what men’s world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler has been doing, winning four of his past five tournaments, including a second Masters title.
We are fortunate to have Korda’s greatness in our midst on the New York sports landscape for the next two weeks — with this week’s Cognizant Founders Cup at Upper Montclair Country Club in Clifton, N.J., and the Mizuho Americas Open being played next week at Liberty National in Jersey City.
The unfortunate element to this is that the timing is bad for Korda’s visit here because of the current bender that New York sports is on. With the Knicks and Rangers playoff runs and the Yankees and Mets in the throes of their respective seasons, there’s not a lot of oxygen left for women’s golf in our area. The shame is that sports fans should be lining up at Upper Montclair this week and Liberty next week to witness one of the finest runs not just a women’s golfer has ever been on, but any golfer.
Korda’s greatness warrants more attention than it’s getting, and you wonder why she hasn’t been the recipient of the kind of adulation that Caitlin Clark has received for her remarkable achievements.
With all due respect to what Clark did in her incredible NCAA Tournament run and drawing attention to her sport, Korda has been doing things that the best to ever play the game never did.
Had she not been photographed on the red carpet at the Met Gala on Monday, few might have even known Korda was in town.
If she wins the Founders Cup this week, maybe that changes.
Korda won her second major title and fifth consecutive victory in the Chevron Champi
onship last month, equaling the record set by Lopez in 1978 and Sorenstam in 2004-05. A win this week would separate Korda from the tie with those two women, who happened to be two of the all-time greats in the sport.
“I’m just out here doing what I love and hopefully that’s what grows the game naturally,” Korda said Wednesday. “I’m not trying to push anything. I hope that people see me for who I am and I love this game and doing it naturally. At the end of the day, I think if you perform well in your sport that’s what grabs people’s attention. I hope that I just do it naturally and that catches people’s attention.”
After Korda coasted to the third of her fiveconsecutive victories at the Ford Championship last month, her swing coach, Jamie Mulligan, told reporters: “That’s what it looked like when [Woods] won. She’s an athlete making a hard game look easy.”
Korda’s prowess has drawn the attention of some of the best players in the men’s game, not the least of whom is Scheffler.
“One of the people here asked me, ‘Is this turning into a competition between you and Nelly?’ And I was like, ‘I don’t know, man, I think if it’s a competition, she’s got me pretty beat right now,’ ’’ Scheffler said after winning the RBC Heritage last month the week after capturing the Masters.
Korda insisted she hasn’t been fixated on winning her sixth in a row to set the record.
“If I’m being honest, I have not thought about it at all because I’ve had so much going on these two weeks,’’ she said, referring to the Met Gala.
Pat Bradley and Beth Daniel, two of the LPGA greats in town this week for the Founders Cup, spoke Wednesday about the pressure on Korda.
“I watched when she won the fifth in a row and she said that was the most nervous she’s been down the stretch, [so] I can only imagine how nerve-wracking this week is going to be,’’ Daniel said.
“Nelly is not coming in here when you least expect it,’’ Bradley said. “It is going to be a challenge for Nelly. All eyes are going to be on Nelly.’’
More eyes should be on Korda. Her accomplishments warrant more attention than she’s getting.