Franchise Down: Florida Panthers

[VodkaFish]

Can the Panthers be successful in Florida if changes are made to the franchise?

[Humpzilla]

Not a fuking chance.

[Gtrain15]

Florida only needs 1 team, no offense.

[Humpzilla]

Pretty much everyone in South Florida is a transplant or retiree from somewhere else (NY). Kind of like the Tampa situation for baseball or hockey. So, ultimately, the only way things would change is if the Panthers become the dominate force in all of sports in the southern part of FLA.

That means...the Dolphins suck a gigantic dong. And they give away free tickets, vagina & beer at games. Oh wait, they already do that.

The Charlestown Chiefs went to St. Pete (Tampa), not Miami/Ft. Lauderdale. Get it right, panthers

[NJDevils17]

I never understood why Florida has two teams. If you give a non hockey state such as Florida one team, everyone in the state can rally around that one team and become a fan of it, making that team have a strong fanbase.

Having the Lightning in Florida should be sufficient for the state of Florida. I never hear how Florida is a hockey crazy state or anything so why give them another team?

I think hockey can work in the state of Florida. However, there should only be one team there and that should be the Lightning. They have the longer history, a Stanley Cup, and have shown that they can draw crowds when they put a playoff team on the ice. The Panthers not making the playoffs since 2000 (and not winning a playoff game since 1997) certainly doesn't help their cause.

[gnomodom]

The Panthers are my local NHL team and I'm a big fan of them still (Not sure why at this point)

Either way, South Florida fans are very fickle, and will attend if the team is winning or has a good product.

In the mid to late 90's the Panthers we one of the roughest teams in the league and had Pavel Bure lighting the lamp every game. Needless to say, it was hard to get a good seat in the rather large arena they play in.

I know first hand if there is a good product on display, South Florida fans will come and watch. Especially with all the northern transplants.

[ghjkfdhgfd]

move em more closer to miami, at least there will be more fans.

[VodkaFish]

Originally Posted by Humpzilla

Pretty much everyone in South Florida is a transplant or retiree from somewhere else (NY).

I think if that was really the case in the sports market, hockey would be big. It's not, and neither is anything not called football. The entire state is football-mad and very college-centric and that's fine. If Miami fans didn't warm up to championship teams in baseball and basketball, I don't think it bodes well for hockey. That, and they play so far away from the city of Miami.

[NJDevils17]

Originally Posted by VodkaFish

I think if that was really the case in the sports market, hockey would be big. It's not, and neither is anything not called football. The entire state is football-mad and very college-centric and that's fine. If Miami fans didn't warm up to championship teams in baseball and basketball, I don't think it bodes well for hockey. That, and they play so far away from the city of Miami.

I agree completely.

The fact that the Florida Marlins get so few people going to their games even though they've won 2 World Series in their short time in the MLB really shows that hockey doesn't have a chance in Miami.

[gnomodom]

Originally Posted by NJDevils17

I never understood why Florida has two teams. If you give a non hockey state such as Florida one team, everyone in the state can rally around that one team and become a fan of it, making that team have a strong fanbase.

Having the Lightning in Florida should be sufficient for the state of Florida. I never hear how Florida is a hockey crazy state or anything so why give them another team?

I think hockey can work in the state of Florida. However, there should only be one team there and that should be the Lightning. They have the longer history, a Stanley Cup, and have shown that they can draw crowds when they put a playoff team on the ice. The Panthers not making the playoffs since 2000 (and not winning a playoff game since 1997) certainly doesn't help their cause.

You're attributing this solely on the fact that Tampa has more recent success.

Florida is a deceptively big state. For example. it is a 4.5 hour drive (pure highway driving) from where the panthers play to where the lightning play. There is no way that south florida fans would rally behind a Tampa team.

By that logic we should abolish either the Penguins or the Flyers. Simply put nither team has great sales numbers because they have been awful for quite some time.

[NJDevils17]

Originally Posted by gnomodom

You're attributing this solely on the fact that Tampa has more recent success.

Florida is a deceptively big state. For example. it is a 4.5 hour drive (pure highway driving) from where the panthers play to where the lightning play. There is no way that south florida fans would rally behind a Tampa team.

By that logic we should abolish either the Penguins or the Flyers. Simply put nither team has great sales numbers because they have been awful for quite some time.

But then why doesn't the state of Texas have more than one team? Why not teams in Houston, San Antonio, Austin, and El Paso?

I know Florida is a big state, but having more than one team in a place that's not crazy for hockey just doesn't make much sense to me.

[Humpzilla]

Most 'real' Panther fans aren't real hockey fans at all. Not that that should be surprising. But as someone who lived very close to that arena for more than 5 years, most aren't "Panthers fans"....

Just far too many free tickets....far too many corporate influences....far too many cheap deals...too many transplants. This is the same organization which promotes Canadian fans coming in, half price.

I got to get the fuk out of this state.

[gnomodom]

Originally Posted by NJDevils17

But then why doesn't the state of Texas have more than one team? Why not teams in Houston, San Antonio, Austin, and El Paso?

I know Florida is a big state, but having more than one team in a place that's not crazy for hockey just doesn't make much sense to me.

Those would all be smaller markets than south florida, kind of why there are very few professional sports there aside from Houston. My whole point is that in terms of supportability the Panthers are better off than the lightning geographically. There isn't the same amount of money in Tampa as there is in south florida. The reason why attendance is terrible is because the team has been bad. Honestly, the only markets I can think of that would still sell well with bad teams are the current Canadien teams. Quebec city lost the Nordiques because of economy.


All in all the real bit about south florida is simply put, if the team is bad, no one will show up. If the team is good, then people will show. That's the case with almost every US hockey location except for Phoenix, where people don't go even though they have a good team.

[Redtown]

Having a team in this non-traditional market is probably the worst of the worst in locations Bettman has come up with

[Ciccarelli]

It's enough to look at their secondary logo to understand that something is wrong with the location.