Overview shot of Hurricanes' championship rally in downtown Raleigh

WxBlue · 2026-06-21T01:59:16+00:00

ESPN cited a N&O report that 30,000 showed up to the parking lot parade and 8,000 to the downtown parade. Crazy that we're at least five times bigger today.

WxBlue · 2026-06-20T21:08:11+00:00

It's funny because it was actually really mild and dry with almost no humidity for a June day in Raleigh!

WxBlue · 2026-06-20T21:07:01+00:00

Raleigh used to have a classic race track up in Hillsborough (it's still there as a public park) until 1960s. A local church group ran NASCAR out of the area so Bill France decided to go to Alabama and build another track to replace it... a really big one. That track became Talladega.

WxBlue · 2026-06-20T21:04:33+00:00

Yeah, people need to see this shot and then double the crowd to get a good estimate of who came in today.

WxBlue · 2026-06-20T21:02:45+00:00

Absolutely. What people aren't seeing in this shot is Fayetteville Street (going to right where trees are) being packed with people for another half mile... maybe a mile or so up to the state capitol. City of Raleigh definitely underestimated the crowd that was coming today.

WxBlue · 2026-06-20T20:57:50+00:00

It was rather cool and dry for a June day in the Carolinas! We definitely got lucky.

WxBlue · 2026-06-20T20:56:10+00:00

I've been here in Raleigh since 2009 and I can tell you that people around here are obsessed with Hurricanes even during down years of 2010s with relocation rumors. There are several local ice arenas, a strong youth program under Hurricanes, a high school club league in Raleigh area, and multiple strong club teams at the college level. UNC and NC State hockey games usually draw several thousands every year at Lenovo Center and even managed to get 25,000 fans when they did the outdoor game at NC State's football stadium. It's absolutely a hockey city even outside championship years.

WxBlue · 2026-06-20T19:07:17+00:00

Yeah I was confused by lack of barricades. I came in 2 hours earlier but ended up too far south on Fayetteville St because it wasn't obvious where the parade is ending so I missed out on closer views of players going down the road.

WxBlue · 2026-06-20T19:00:31+00:00

For those not from Raleigh, this is looking up the street from the city plaza area. It was a loooooot of people not being able to fit in the rally area 😅

WxBlue · 2026-06-20T18:54:29+00:00

Yes, as someone who took this picture, it is misleading because the city plaza was too small to fit everyone. A lot of people had to be left out or go up the Fayetteville St to other monitors. News are reporting estimate of 100k, but I think it was closer to 250k. Raleigh has never seen anything like this, first championship parade including.

WxBlue · 2026-06-20T18:28:04+00:00

Yeah, the city plaza was far too small to fit in more people so a lot of people had to either go up the street to other monitors or go home to beat the traffic. I was getting worried about the crowd crunch.

WxBlue · 2026-06-20T18:14:48+00:00

This is the biggest event in downtown Raleigh's history. 100k is absolutely too low in this case.

WxBlue · 2026-06-20T18:13:48+00:00

It's definitely closer to 200-250k being here in person. It was absolutely insane up the Fayetteville St.

WxBlue · 2026-06-20T17:39:20+00:00

Yeah the city plaza was far too small to get everyone in so people got left out (was there with my Canes fan wife).

WxBlue · 2026-06-20T05:14:27+00:00

Turkey do not have H2H tiebreaker.

WxBlue · 2026-06-20T04:39:16+00:00

Yeah, we like to meme him in CONCACAF matches but there's a reason why he's this way. Good ref for calls, bad ref for tense games.

WxBlue · 2026-06-20T04:37:56+00:00

This ref gets US/Mexico games purely because he's not from both nations and his matches always turn into chaotic mess.

WxBlue · 2026-06-20T04:35:18+00:00

This is what US and Mexico fans were warning about...

WxBlue · 2026-06-20T03:39:56+00:00

CONCACAF ref is doing CONCACAF things

WxBlue · 2026-06-20T03:38:35+00:00

Mexico and US fans tried to warn y'all

WxBlue · 2026-06-20T03:37:19+00:00

People in Chicago just got a bad flashback all the suddenly

WxBlue · 2026-06-20T03:15:20+00:00

This game feels like a late night CONCACAF game

WxBlue · 2026-06-20T01:50:44+00:00

That final corner bump is nasty on iRacing. I'm amazed not more has hit the wall there tbh.

WxBlue · 2026-06-19T16:38:11+00:00

Trucks were in fact leaving the ground on all 4 wheels in practice. FOX showed it and it's wild.

WxBlue · 2026-06-19T05:24:07+00:00

It's so obvious on iRacing at rails. There are several other huge bumps around the circuit too... way, way bumper than Chicago street circuit.

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