page_title: Research Triangle
section_title: Professional sports
hierarchical_section_title: Research Triangle / Sports / Professional sports
caption_attribution_description: Taken by myself (Bobby Schultz) on June 19th, 2006. Picture of the scene at the RBC Center after the Hurricanes won the 2006 Stanley Cup
context_page_description: The Research Triangle, commonly referred to as simply The Triangle, is a region in the Piedmont of North Carolina in the United States, anchored by three major research universities: North Carolina State University, Duke University, and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as well as the cities of Raleigh and Durham and the town of Chapel Hill. The nine-county region, officially named the Raleigh–Durham–Cary combined statistical area, comprises the Raleigh–Cary and Durham–Chapel Hill Metropolitan Statistical Areas and the Henderson Micropolitan Statistical Area.
  A 2019 Census estimate put the population at 2,079,687, making it the second largest combined statistical area in the state of North Carolina behind Charlotte CSA. The Raleigh–Durham television market includes a broader 24-county area which includes Fayetteville, North Carolina, and has a population of 2,726,000 persons.
  The "Triangle" name was cemented in the public consciousness in the 1950s with the creation of Research Triangle Park, home to numerous tech companies and enterprises.
context_section_description: The region has only one professional team of the four major sports, the Carolina Hurricanes of the NHL, based in Raleigh. Since moving to the Research Triangle region from Hartford, Connecticut, they have enjoyed great success, including winning a Stanley Cup. With only one top-level professional sports option, minor league sports are quite popular in the region. The Durham Bulls in downtown Durham are a AAA Minor League baseball affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays, and the Carolina Mudcats, based in Zebulon, 10 miles east of Raleigh, are the Advanced-A affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers. In Cary, North Carolina FC plays in the second-level United Soccer League, and the North Carolina Courage began play in the National Women's Soccer League in 2017 after the owner of North Carolina FC bought the NWSL franchise rights of the Western New York Flash and relocated the NWSL franchise to the Triangle.
  The area also had a team in the fledgling World League of American Football – however, the Raleigh–Durham Skyhawks, coached by Roman Gabriel, did not exactly cover themselves in glory; they lost all 10 games of their inaugural (and only) season in 1991. The team folded after that, being replaced in the league by the Ohio Glory, which fared little better at 1–9, ultimately suffering the same fate – along with the other six teams based in North America – when the league took a two-year hiatus, returning as a six-team all-European league in 1995.
caption: 2006 Stanley Cup ceremony at the RBC Center (now PNC Arena)
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