The Stanley Cup parade is set to kick off in downtown Raleigh on Saturday with 100,000 people expected to attend. Ahead of the big event, WRAL News sat down with Mayor Janet Cowell who said it will be the event of the year.

WRAL’s Ashley Rowe: It took what, about a week to plan?

Mayor Janet Cowell: I think, biggest event since 1792 when we were founded, and yeah, I was saying, we, nobody wanted to jinx anything, so this planning really started around sort of game four of the final.

WRAL’s Ashley Rowe: So, how does that work? Give us a sense of this. I mean, this is huge, and you, you’re dealing with such a small amount of time. How do you, how do you make adjustments from from what you know to to accommodate for this huge crowd?

Mayor Janet Cowell: Well, of course, the National Hockey League has done this before, and they are, you know, they have a lot of experience. And then, of course, we have handled a lot of big events, being the capital city. We handled the monks earlier this year, we’re like, we can do this, and, of course, we’ve got a lot of partners, so Raleigh police working with state troopers, highway patrol, Capitol police, I was just talking to some of the police officers earlier today. They’re like, “we’re going to be good, traffic’s going to be hectic, but we got it.”

WRAL’s Ashley Rowe: We’ve been talking to people about how you’ve got to get there early, and, you know, [the] parking situation. Is there one thing that you want to make sure people know about?

Mayor Janet Cowell: I will say, you know, there is an app that you can text. If you go to Raleighnc.gov, there’s a whole yellow banner at the top, and you can click on that. I’ve already got my app downloaded, so that I’m getting text [and] alerts from the parade. So I think there’s going to be plenty of tools.

WRAL’s Ashley Rowe: Okay, now you’re going to be in the parade. We’ll see you on a fire truck tomorrow.

Mayor Janet Cowell: I think that is correct.

WRAL’s Ashley Rowe: How about this Stanley Cup? It’s been making its rounds. Do you have a date with the Stanley Cup upcoming?

Mayor Janet Cowell: You know, I think that cup is going to get to a lot of places, so I know it’s going to be high profile in the parade tomorrow, and everybody’s going to get a good look at it.

WRAL’s Ashley Rowe: If you could pick one beverage, alcoholic or non-alcoholic, you choose, what would be in the cup?

Mayor Janet Cowell: Somebody told me they had an ice cream sundae out of that. I was like, you know, that could be pretty good.

WRAL’s Ashley Rowe: There was quite a bit of discussion about Major League Baseball at the state legislature. So, I’ve got to ask you, because, of course, there’s all this buzz about potentially MLB coming to Raleigh, and Raleigh really wanting to have that, and certainly a bit of a debate about that. State Senate Leader Phil Berger has said that he would support raising the occupancy tax to help finance that. Is that something that you want to see go up as well?

Mayor Janet Cowell: I am a big fan of professional sports. I mean the Canes, and what that has meant to this community has just blown me away. And, of course, the Carolina Courage — we need to keep them here. But yeah, baseball, I mean, that would be amazing, nd having the support of Senator Berger on that initiative, and the General Assembly, because we need their help; we would need some state financing.

WRAL’s Ashley Rowe: So yes, you would like to see that go up. You mentioned the NC Courage. They have said that they need public financing to relocate their stadium; they need to grow. So we’ve got that. We’ve got Lenovo Center here with the Canes, and then potentially MLB. I mean, is there enough money to go around to all of these, and if so, how do you prioritize?

Mayor Janet Cowell: Yeah, I mean, private money is going to be critical. And I think we’ve seen, even with Mark Lazry stepping up recently, another billionaire, Tom Dundon, right, who owns the Canes– there is money in this market, and we are getting more and more attention as we have this success. So that private investment will be critical.

WRAL’s Ashley Rowe: Is there any conversation at this stage as to where the city could place an MLB team?

Mayor Janet Cowell: You know, there’s been conversations that, you know, Wake County, I would hope it would be in Raleigh. We have not gotten to any point where we’ve talked about exactly where that would be. I would think by next year we would have to have a full package to be competitive for that 2029 expansion.

WRAL’s Ashley Rowe: There has been some reporting that Lenovo might be eyeing moving its headquarters to the new sports and entertainment complex near and around the Lenovo Center. Have you been a part of any of those conversations? How much is your job part of enticing the company to relocate?

Mayor Janet Cowell: The Raleigh Chamber takes a lead on a lot of these kind of conversations. We love having Lenovo Center out there, and obviously would welcome more, you know, office park. As we know, that’s been the slowest part of the real estate here in Raleigh and Wake County. So, having more office and having it in a mixed-use center out at Lenovo Center would be amazing.

WRAL’s Ashley Rowe:  Let’s get back to tomorrow and the Stanley Cup, and just the ride that you have been on over the course of the past couple of weeks, flying out to Vegas, you got a new sequin jersey. Just reflect on the last couple of weeks.

Mayor Janet Cowell: Well, as you can imagine, being mayor, sometimes you have heavy topics you’re dealing with, and other times it’s just like pure joy and fun. I will say some nail-biting moments, but this has just been fantastic to interact with the fans, interact with the players. Even out in Vegas, those fans were lovely as well. So, you know, it’s just been a really fun couple of weeks.

WRAL’s Ashley Rowe:  Any safety concerns ahead of tomorrow?

Mayor Janet Cowell: I think everybody just needs to know this is going to be the biggest event ever, [and] to be patient [and] to be kind to each other. Bring, you know, your water [and] your sunscreen. If you’ve got kids, bring the sidewalk chalk and some toys. If everybody can work together, I think we’re going to have a fantastic time tomorrow.