A Look at the Turnaround of the Florida Panthers, On and Off the Ice
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- čas přidán 27. 05. 2023
- Hey all. Yesterday's video on all 32 teams seemed to bother some fans for the mention of attendance figures in Florida, so I wanted to discuss this with a look at the team's history.
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The Panthers are having the revival the NHL has been hoping for the Coyotes to have for years now, and they did it in just a few weeks.
I'm a Yotes fan and i think I’ll be a Panthers fan now. My poor team was riddled with poor business decisions. This season we were doing so well and the rug was pulled out from under us.
Good video, left a few key things out;
I know you mention ownership but you fail to mention when Viola/Cifu took over, the previous owners had completely devalued the tickets. Those attendance numbers from the previous owners were not paid tickets as the team went crazy giving away seats with any kind of possible promotion they could think of. When Viola & Cifu took over that stopped almost completely and immediately. so the attendance numbers may not look lie they climbed very much but they were actual paying customers as opposed to giveaways.
Now as the guy with 1600 videos running a Panthers channel, while I can attest to our numbers being small, our fan base is far more invested than many. We have endured lousy ownerships, multiple half assed rebuilds, being made fun of by 2/3 of the Canadian fans, and never having won a damn thing. In terms of drawing an larger audience that grows past the die hards, one thing about attendance numbers that is not talked about is South Florida is a unique sports environment. Not only do they have all 4 major sports, plus soccer, and heavily attended college sports, once you add to that the transient nature of much of the fan base down there you start to see the greater picture as to why things have not developed as quickly as they would have liked. I always tells the story of the 1986 playoff game between the Dolphins and Browns, in Miami. Dan Marino in his prime vs Bernie Kosar who was well known from his days at UM. Despite this draw, and despite it being a playoff game, the game did not sell out in time for the TV blackout to be lifted. South Florida sports fans are very fickle, with an abundance of choices, not to mention the option to just head to the beach or listen to the game on your boat instead, especially with many of the fans being from other places and not having that " born & raised as a fan" feeling. And yeah , location plays a part. Who wants a 90 minute drive ( or more) in traffic to the arena when they can just stay in South Miami or Palm Beach and watch with friends/family.
Lastly, and no real way for you to know this, but that is not the reason Gallant got fired. There is a behind the scenes story that I cannot tell in public, but it had nothing to do with his coaching ability for the most part. With the team most likely ( hopefully) winning the cup here soon, if you ever want to collab to get a wider perspective, I would love to do so. I know our fans can be hard on creators that get details wrong about us, like I said, we are small but highly invested.
While the hippy beatnik in me doesnt like it, the strict capitalist assessment is that Viola & co. deserve 100% credit for being willing to take the flak and disdain for having full on empty sections facing the camera in the interest of reasserting the value of the tickets actually purchased. People like to flog low attendance markets with an extra dig of "whoever *is* in there probably got the tickets for free, etc." But the Panthers completely countered that stereotype and are starting to see it paying dividends.
I would LOVE to see a collab between you both. Y'all both make great content! Fingers crossed you guys can collab
Hamburger Hut
Very nice video. One thing to note down here, is the growth of youth hockey. It’s grown by 10.9% since 2019. Registered players in Florida has surpassed states like NJ, Connecticut and Ohio. New rinks and organizations have popped up. With Tampas’ success the past decade, the West Coast and Central Florida has taken notice. With the Panthers run this postseason, I expect the same.
I also think Paul Maurice hit the nail in the head a couple days ago in an interview. He said, there might be one fan in a home for the Panthers but after a run like this if you have two or fans in that home, it grows the market because their kids become fans and not necessarily the Panthers but that of hockey. I’m living proof myself of that. I fell in love with hockey 96 when the Panthers made their run. My wife never watched sports. Now we have a child that plays hockey, constantly at the rink and going to games. It’s working down here but it has taken time.
Also I Matthew Tkachuk is a very marketable player. Huberdeau, Ekblad and Barkov have/had been here for years but no one locally knew who they were outside of die hard fans. Love or hate him, everyone seems to know Tkachuk. He’s not even the best player on the team but clearly the most marketable player the Florida Panthers have ever had.
And invested millions into the War Memorial, which will be the new training facility for the Panthers at some point next season.
Honestly this is what is so frustrating about the “MOVE THEM” crowd. It takes a combination of a good owner with deep pockets and some sustained success for a team to grow and see if a market will support them. People forget these teams don’t have 50+ years of history and they’re playing in markets where hockey wasn’t the sport of choice and in markets where there are a lot of transplants, who, if hockey fans, liked their own teams. But now there are kids who grew up with these teams who are adults with serious spending power and they are fans of these teams and they want to love them and support them. It takes time but now its happening and its good for hockey.
The "move them" crowd are annoying. They spend more time worrying about where the team is (as if that means anything), instead of how the team is doing. By their own logic, Ottawa and Winnipeg aren't viable hockey markets, but they'll never say that.
Look at what happened with the Coyotes recently, they were damn near salivating at the idea of the team being moved. The stupid thing is, they act as if the team moves than they would instantly become a better team, even though there is no evidence to support that.
Your take on the generational history of a lot of teams Vs Teams that only came into existence in the 90's or later is spot on, that sustains old teams through down years. The Panthers are starting to have sustained success which was ALWAYS the missing piece of the puzzle with them, I should know I am a Panthers fan since their first season.
@Renlys Other Lover spot on, also people outside of here don’t get that the sport is taking off…we have a great youth system at the IceDen, all three of my boys play there and we have several Broward born players in the NHL….
Enough with talking about moving us, we are building something special and a culture for hockey, Charles Barkley talks about us….there is so much positive going on, we are not moving and we will grow the market here!
@@WPack911 I totally understand it because I’m from New Jersey when they moved the team here during my dads generation everyone was already a flyers, rangers or islanders fan mostly flyers and rangers so NJ had a tough time getting fans but those of us who were kids during the Brodeur era and had all that success into our early 20’s are now in our 30’s and 40’s and we have money and we spend it and I’ve seen it change with my own eyes when I go to the games
I feel Carolina should pretty much always be used as the prime example of how on ice success is more important than anything else in terms of getting people in seats. When they had that 8 year streak of missing the playoffs by the end of it they were frequently near the bottom of attendance and people would talk about them as a potential team to move. Now you'd look crazy if you suggested they need to move.
@@geoff3103they’re also the team for a big and growing state… it’s not just raleigh-durham but the triad and charlotte as well
@@geoff3103 pretty sure the AHL team is there. though i agree on the preseason, even a regular season game or two down there. and idk about ratings
@@UserName-ts3sp AHL Charlotte Checkers were affiliated with Florida Panthers this past season. Carolina Hurricanes AHL affiliate was Chicago Wolves. With talk of Chicago going independent, there will likely be changes next year.
The unfortunate thing is that those crazies are of no shortage in the NHL in the form of the "move x to Quebec" drones out there
@@UserName-ts3sp no, Canes AHL team the last few years were the Chicago wolves. It used to be the checkers and I think Canes are looking for a new affiliation… hopefully back at Charlotte
Love the commitment with the boards. Straight professionalism!🗣️🔛🔝💯🐐
Proud to be a Panthers fan. WE WANT THE CUP!!!
Tallon is sitting somewhere smiling with his moves but end of the day…. Zito built the club
Pretty sure there's only 3 players left from the Tallon era
@@rkaid4935 most important ones
Bob barkov Ekblad
As a lifelong panthers fan, thank you for taking time to make this! Hopefully this run to the cup brings consistent success and stability
Hockey fans need to start keeping that same energy for teams in Canada and in the north as they did my entire life about my Panthers attendance issues. The Winnipeg Jets play in a "Hockey Crazy Market" and can't sell out 15,321 people, lol but South Florida gets criticized to no end and we've sold that amount of tickets during some of our worst periods. Panthers fanbase is underrated and what people don't realize is that its a different crowd than the Marlins, Heat and Dolphins. They play in Broward County where people aren't as boujee and its more working class people from the area!
Your comparison is as bad faith though as the Canadian fans you're criticising.....
--- The Jets building is smaller so yes, there's times they haven't sold it out. But there's *ALSO* been times they could have exceeded what they had in the building and literally couldn't cram them in.
--- I've never advocated for moving the Panthers (see my replies on other videos) but it's downright false to say the worst attended Jets game (aside from COVID regulated ones) ever came close to the worst attended Panthers game. The Panthers had sub-10K games in their history. Find me one Jets game outside of the COVID sample size that was ever that bad.
Again, I'm an advocate for the Panthers in Florida. But I'm not an advocate for shitty argumentation.
@@brycemcneil4404 the jets this season with a playoff team averaged 14,045 in attendance. Time to move them.
@@JarradBruessel32 didn't read my comment whatsoever, eh?
I am not a huge CZcams user, but so thankful I found your channel recently. I'm a life-long Habs fan. This Panthers team has completely won me over. I'll always love my Canadiens but the Panthers have definitely gained a place in my heart with how far they have come and this incredible playoff run. Thank you for making such insightful, quality content!
Great video and extremely informational! It’s nice having someone recount the history of Florida! Been following hockey closely for almost a decade and never knew more than half of this info about the Panthers.
You're wearing the Florida Jersey with my favorite Panther logo. I think the team learned how to come from behind this year, and I'm happy for Maurice, been a fan of his since the Carolina days. Love your content, thanks for your dedication.
I love their old third jerseys too!
I hope the Panthers face Vegas in the Final. Big opportunity to purge the shame from Tallon’s Folly.
Shannon, you need your own national televised NHL series. You're awesome!
Agreed. Be great if ESPN or TNT in the US or Sportsnet and or even TSN in Canada hired him.
Why? CZcams reaches the entire planet. What benefit would he get working for any tv network?
I’m Floridian and I see plenty of Canadian license plates on the I-95, whether they’re vacationing or who knows, maybe some are moving. Either way, I think the team is sustainable and in a market that will only grow. The population and finances are there and I was hooked on the first Stanley Cup run.
First and foremost Shannon, thanks so much for your attention to detail and going this far in depth as to what has plagued this team. I do believe that those dark days are over, I have faith that hopefully that in the next following years that this current stability will extend into being a very respectable franchise like my neighbors over in Tampa Bay.
Hi Shannon... Florida fan here since 1995. Okay a few things about the numbers. The attendance figures from about 03-06ish are fake. The Panthers would give away tickets if you paid for the parking and people would line up outside the stadium for the free tickets. I went to a lot of "free" games during that period of time. Yes, the stadium is WAAAAAY out west for people in Miami and most of south Florida. There are passionate fans who love hockey down here and things are getting better - the winning is certainly helping. This Finals run will do wonders for the Panthers. Also, I've noticed capacity is sometimes listed as 17,250 and 19,600. For most dates this year it was the 17,250 and we had a few sellouts. Love the vids!
As a Panthers fan since 1999, we deserve a championship!
I would go to games in Sunrise and the games were practically empty and season after season it was a disappointment. Let’s go Cats!
Let's Go Panthers !!!!! You're doing a great job Shannon.
I really hope Florida can keep going with this momentum. If they win the cup this year, I can see them going for 1 or 2 more in the next 5-8 years.
Bill Zito has done a fantastic job finding players from the NHL/AHL scrap heap and turning their careers around in Florida. Why doesn’t the NHL media machine talk more about Carter Verhaeghe? Every NHL GM missed the boat on Verhaeghe but not Zito. Then there’s Ryan Lomberg who like Verhaeghe had to prove himself in the ECHL before getting an opportunity in the AHL and still couldn’t find his way to the NHL. Julien BriseBois let Verhaeghe walk and Brad Treliving let Lomberg walk.
Zito also signed Anthony Duclair and Mason Marchment. Both made contributions to the Panthers.
Throw in the Matthew Tkachuk trade and Bill Zito is now looking like a genius.
Great points on Zito finding hidden gems or rather turning players into hidden gems.
I love Hockey Guy. What I'm about to say is totally from a place of love. I have never seen a guy look like an old man and a toddler at the same time. Until I saw him.
Panther fans that live in Miami just need to be honest with themselves that the traffic in the Miami area is completely horrendous. I bet the bulk of your travel time is in Miami. Fans that live in Miami please stop being selfish. I also love how the Miami based Panther fans say "THEY BUILT IT IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE!". Yes, it's on the edge of Everglades and I guess that goes for the Sawgrass Mills Mall that's across the street right? It's centrally located for the tri-county area. I'm in East Fort Lauderdale and I'm to the rink in 20 minutes from home. I work in Delray and that takes 40 minutes. Take I-75 from the south, or I-595 from the east and Sawgrass Expressway/Turnpike from the north, the FLA Live Arena is totally easy to get to. I remember trying to find parking at the Miami Arena never mind trying to leave after a game, total freaking nightmare! The FLA Live Arena is placed on the best highway arteries to easily get to and from the game with little to no hassle. Again, Downtown Miami traffic is HORRENDUS and should be avoided at all costs! This is why I don't go to Miami!
One thing you missed was in 2017/2018 they stopped giving away free tickets which is why their attendance dropped again.
I respect that you saw the criticism and decided to take a deep dive and see now that the Panthers are a more stable team then your previously outdated notions about them led you you to believe. As a Panthers fan since day one of the franchise, I have seen it all with them. HOWEVER, they are in a much better place now then they were for many years.
Compare them to the Miami Marlins MLB baseball team here, who did not move from the Football stadium that the Miami Dolphins play at (Hard Rock Stadium) into their own ballpark until 2012 & they came into existence in the same year (93') as the Panthers AND have won two World Series Championships! Their problem is still similar though, as around those Titles they have hardly ever made the playoffs, so a lack of sutained success for them also. They now play in a 37,000 seat Stadium in the Heart of Miami, and yet they consistently draw less fans then the Panthers who have a maximum attendance of 19,250 for hockey.
I think that puts the Panthers not being in that bad of a place attendance wise in perspective and in a good place as an organization as a whole with an Owner, GM & Coach that all seem more poised for success then any combination previously.
As someone who has grown up in Dade County and currently lives in Broward County, the biggest issue for all sports down here is that its Miami. There is a million things to do down here on any given day so the majority of fans in seats for any team down here is based upon how good the team is doing more so than other places. It sucks because its a bandwagon town and for people like me that have had season tickets to numerous teams for years, we just want out team to feel the support they deserve.
you put so much effort for these videos, you love to see it
Important to note that the Prudential Center’s capacity in Jersey is 16,755
That is an annoying thing for fans of Florida actually, because there are years where they have or have almost averaged the literal capacities of a couple other teams but still get attendance jokes thrown their way. Florida's arena seats over 19,000, making it 7th largest in terms of capacity for the league. So even if they sold 17,500, which is a sellout in eight other NHL arenas (this is excluding Mullet), it wouldn't be a sellout at FLA LIve Arena. People will pick out those empty seats without realizing their arenas might have those empty seats too if it was a similar size.
They can draw a sizable crowd, but they have to have more consistent success every once in a while. Not every year has to see them in a deep playoff run, but they have to not let what happened for 20 years happen again.
The issue with florida is that they draw… but if you watch when certain teams come, its the opposing fans. Evident with whenever the leafs, bruins, rags, etc. and you can say that for many southern markets.
Plus as a devils fan, we have the same issue being smack between the rags & philly. The reason we kept saying moving the panthers was because they had NO success minus 1996 and a couple playoff apperances here and there. But like Carolina & Tampa, you need the right mix of ownership & players and the fans will come.
@@a_coleman11 Move them because they didn't achieve on-ice success is kind of silly logic, though, isn't? Regardless, the NHL doesn't like to leave markets whether they make money or not because it helps keep attention on hockey in the long run.
Those away fans you talk about, without the Panthers those transplants and snowbirds wouldn't be able to see their teams live when they move down to South Florida (or any live NHL, for that matter). Many would otherwise lose interest after a while. Tampa is over 4 1/2 hours away, so it's not a convenient drive. Being able to see them live helps keep those fans interested. They'll buy merch and streaming packages. It is a benefit people don't consider, but the NHL does.
Finally, the Panthers have revitalized their fanbase these last couple of years, so while there are games where opposing fans come into the arena in sizable numbers, Panthers fans still make up the majority. It's still in progress.
well they moved the atlanta franchise twice due to lack of success and garbage management. granted I know the NHL is wanted to play the long range game with certain markets especially in the south and its been a success minus arizona and atlanta.
in terms of snowbirds, i see the logic and the NHL is like "any money is good money" but important to note that the panthers restricted tickets to people with canadian information thus telling you they still have an issue drawing.
yes making the playoffs and now a cup final is a huge boost and will definitely bring fans but lets not forget this team did have massive struggles. so now im intrigued what will happen in the next 5 years with this franchise. will they follow the tampa template and have an insane sell-out streak or be like columbus and fall out of it
@@a_coleman11 Actually the ticket thing is falsely misrepresented in the media. The Panthers restricted sales for Canadians the first day to allow fans in America the chance to buy tickets first without having to compete. Ticket sales were opened to Canadians 24 hours later, as was planned in the first place.
It actually *does not* indicate an issue with drawing, but rather, just the reality of Toronto being an extremely large fanbase with many willing to fly to SoFlo for a small vacation to watch their team. If you look online, you will see that *many* teams have actually done the same in the past. It's merely a measure to make sure local fans don't get screwed out of going. Whether it is the correct course of action or not can be debated, but it was not an issue with the ability to draw fans.
This reminds me of Bart writing on the chalkboard
Having lived in Florida after living in Midwest America, I can confirm that they are extremely fair weather in their fan base. Stats reflect low attendance when teams are not winning to big attendance when they are. Very frustrating for a die hard fan to watch the pendulum.
I like learning about other teams besides my local from your content. The algorithm found you right before round one this year in the playoffs. Well done sir
Honestly the feeling during the presidents cup year was "We're not gonna fall for the same old shit again" and it was reinforced by that war crime that Tampa committed in the second round. This year was so frustrating because this team was better than an 8th seed. Look at the 5v5 numbers, we DOMINATED teams all year long. Our special teams are still ass tbh. This run is still unbelievable. We thought it was a throwaway year and next year we have $10 mil in cap space. This team looks like we could contend for cups for the next 10 years. As a lifelong Cats fan that was born after the original cup run, this is the best I've ever felt about one of my teams.
"Car breaks down, move it to Quebec" lol
Great job on this Shannon!
That jersey your wearing is their best one imo. Its like a metaphor for how they broke hockey during these playoffs.
In 2010-2012 most of the tickets were heavily discounted or free. I remember in grade school, my class was constantly gifted free tickets to see the panthers then in 2013 new ownership came in and they stopped doing that completely
Lastly, we have a great Panthers/NHL youth program, my boys play in it at the IceDen and as you know we have several Broward born NHL players in the league now and the numbers will increase as we continue to foster the sport here. I think if there’s only appalling issue is how Bettman deals with the league and TV, he makes us have no marketing perspective for the entire league, watch what Charles Barkley said this week about why NHL is a fourth banana in North America sports, fox that and our southern markets will continue to grow and worry about how many players don’t want to play north of the border. We are not pre-68 with original 6 with 90% Canadian born players composition anymore, I believe that number is closer to 45% now, Toronto and the NHL/Commissioner need to look at how to address where the bulk of the players are coming from, USA/Europe and start marketing our sport better here in the US so the sport continues to grow. Still appreciate most of your videos 👍
They invested millions in the War Memorial, which will be a home to youth hockey and official training facility for the Panthers. The Cats aren't going anywhere.
Lived in South Florida since 2002. Been a season ticket holder on and off. There are PLENTY of fans within an hours drive. The problem is that they've been mostly terrible most years and there's NOTHING to do around the arena other than a shopping mall. It's unfortunate because the arena itself is actually fantastic to this day. It does not show it's age at all and has plenty of amenities. It's just you basically drive to the arena and then drive home. It's never a case of being able to couple a game with dinner or anything. I'll be curious to see how attendance changes next year if at all. I hope it does in a positive way.
One thing worth noting, is that when Viola took ownership of this team one of the first things he did was stopping the devaluation of the tickets. Prior to that, people could literally get into the games for free. That’s why there was a huge dip in attendance. The team was at the bottom of the standings and now people actually had to pay full price for seats.
Who was the previous owner?
Part of the issue with FLs attendance I think is location. Ive been a fan since the team came into the league and honestly getting to games at the old Miami arena wasnt that bad. Sports bars would have buses running from them to the game, theres the metro rails people could take etc etc. Once they moved to FLA Live way back then it just became kind of a pain, it was about an hour each way driving to get to and from games. For weekend games it wasn't that bad, but it was still out in the middle of nowhere and honestly you can really only go to Sawgrass Mall so many times before it just becomes a hassle of walking through crowds of people on a weekend just to kill some time before a game. There is absolutely nothing appealing about going to their arena, unless you live in the immediate area, and for a team whos original purpose of moving there was to pull from palm beach, broward, and miami counties.. thats not a good thing.
People in Miami have options, and realistically driving an hour each way to see a mediocre hockey team (historically) is not at the top of the list when they look at their options. Especially with Miami (most of south Fl really) probably being one of the biggest bandwagon cities for sports. If a team is bad they will let them know, if a team is good they will let everyone know they were there.
Moving the cats way out there does hurt a lot
I see your point, but the Panthers took what they could get and Broward gave them an arena they definitely were not going to get in Miami-Dade, especially with the HEAT getting a new arena in Miami the year after FLA Live opened.
Just look at the Marlins, it took them almost 20 years to finally move into their own ballpark in Miami-Dade, the Panthers didn't have that time to wait and see when Hockey in Florida was a new thing period.
Sunrise has the diehard fanbase this team needed & and I am not sure Miami would have long-term with so much sports and entertainment competition. When they are winning fans from Miami still make the drive and I honestly feel like they are in a good spot as a franchise right now.
@@Rellx305 kind of like me and the indy fuel (minor team) they play at the IN state fairground and you couldn't give me tickets cause the fairgrounds is in a very bad area (pretty much all of Indianapolis is a crime filled shithole) but once they move to fishers in 24, ill start going to games again, used to go to a lot of Indianapolis ice games back in the day when the fairground was much much safer of an area.
I travel around up and down the ICW on my boat and Ft Lauderdale is the worst place to anchor and go to a game. The bus will take you their and back easy enough, but Ft Lauderdale itself is very hard to get shore access. Tampa Bay is too but that team embraces the boating community much better. I'm in Jacksonville, they have a public dock you can use to go to the hockey, baseball, and football games. Fans of all the teams love it. It would be cool if the Panthers moved to Miami Beach and set up something cool like the Lightning do and have season ticket holder slips and just slips to enjoy the game and pregame at.
@@269productions not Miami Beach but they could be near downtown Ft. Lauderdale
Madness boards, wall of text boards.. youre going to spoil us. Nothing beats a long THG video with my morning coffee & joint
The best
This is the way
Even in their lowest addendance year, '14-'15 should still keep them around in the league. I'm surprised we question Florida's attendance if they're drawing an average of 15k each year. That's a healthy market.
They lost 36 million that season...
@@TheHockeyGuy
Big loss of money, no matter how it’s spun. Not making a profit year after year is a problem and businesses go out of business when they don’t make a profit.
So when you’re losing money year after year is a healthy thing for a sports franchise. That’s recipe for franchise relocation.
A lot of franchises actually lose money, Florida is not really a unique example. Leagues rely on the major teams to support the rest and expand their respective sports. The NHL is not the only league to practice revenue sharing. In addition, owners often don't buy sports teams to make money, they buy them because they want to own a team. Sports teams are actually terrible investments if you're not an owner of one of the top 5 most popular teams in a league or something.
@TheHockeyGuy I'm curious (and I'm almost 100% certain this information isn't public) how many years *the entire Panthers operation including arena rights and revenues for concerts* lost money.
My understanding of the Panthers situation has always been (perhaps mistakenly) that it's profitable to own them *because* the losses are outweighed by the profits of the overall arena operation, and the lease doesn't allow for them to operate without keeping the team.
That's one of the things people continually forget re: the Thrashers. The city built that arena with much more concern about bonding the Hawks to the lease than the Thrashers. It wasn't until a few months before the Thrashers moved, ironically, that the Hawks were even untied from being used as collateral if owners defaulted. The Thrashers were never bonded so it was way easier for an owner to look at their standalone losses and say "they're portable, let's get rid of them."
Broward County govt has always worked hard to make the retention of the Panthers a favourable proposition to owners regardless of year to year attendance.
I didn't trust Maurice at all during the regular season (and still don't just yet), but holy moly is he a good playoff coach or what!
Hopefully they get into the playoffs next year aswell.
Yet another good analysis by the one and only THG.
We live about an hour and a half away from the arena and go to most of the home games. Sucks with the recent success that they can’t sell out. Hope the following season is better
FYI: If the numbers on Wiki are accurate, Miami Arena's capacity was 14,703. So the Panthers were between 96.5-100% capacity for four of their first five seasons.
After this season if the Panthers aren't sold out at home I don't think anything can make them sell out a crowd for an entire season. I've been following the Panthers for years but not directly watching until last year. Much of my family has been fans of the Panthers since the inaugural season going to at least a game each season. Even purchasing season tickets a few times going to every game. This team really is proof that people don't want to see a bad team play, especially in a market where it doesn't even snow it's hard to make people care. Talon did help the franchise start to move into the right direction but if it wasn't for Bill Zito this team wouldn't be where it is. He has made moves that show that he wants to compete in the present, and it's shown as the panthers have been competitive every year Zito has been the GM. While yes, he was given a team that was finally able to compete, his choices to build up depth with former high draft pick players who seemed to be on a slump has worked very well. The way that the team scouts out professional talent is by far some of the best professional scouting in the league but because its the Florida Panthers nobody seems to really care. After years and years of "move the team" chants people are finally seeing through the sellout crowds for these playoff games that there is a reason this team is in the bright and beautiful Sunrise Florida.
I really hope come the SCF that Florida sells out every game & the building is Rockin!
Joel Quenneville deserves a lot of credit on being part of Florida Panthers rebuilt and transformation.
Is this a joke?
@@FINsoininen You tell me?
@@dabrotherman6140 taking over a team for one season and slightly improving the play. Then getting fired over a sexual abuse scandal in the start of his second season. The only way to give him credit is by the butterfly effect.
@@FINsoininen Quinnville was hardly ever at fault over it the allegations. Overall, Joel deserves much more credit to put the Florida Panthers back to focus to win mindset. I do believe he had no knowledge of those allegations because he was focusing on the team and not the players more. Bettman is piece of garbage so as the Chicago Blackhawks organization too.
@@dabrotherman6140 dont be hypocritical. How can you blame Gary B and show a blind eye to Q? There is a 99.999% chance that Q knew but chose to ignore what happened.
(side note: it would be very cool to see a video of you setting one of these up)
The tough aspect of using attendance figures is they are subject to ‘abuse’ - the gate being padded by giveaways, massive discounted blocks sold to corporate buyers using them as a marketing plan (the nosebleeds in the saddledome are an excellent example)
So the numbers on this panthers list really need to be taken with this in mind - the relatively mild swings and surprisingly higher than expected numbers overall are likely very different from the reality in the building.
In those lean years that is factual but since this new ownership group came in they stopped the giveaways that the panthers did for years to get those numbers up which is part of the reason you see the big dips at the end and the growth is real in the last few years.
@@renlysotherlover294 sounds similar to what Toronto blues jays did about ten years ago. In their case they were getting called out by media and fans who were in attendance at games seeing 10000 fans with posted attendance in the 30s…
Nice job on the white board. That’s a lot of detail
As a 96 panthers fan living 30 mins from Prudential Center and MSG for past 20 years, if push goes to shoves, id have no problem buying season tickets to panthers game even if i cant go to a single game. Do i want to do this? Ofc not, why the hell would i bhy tickets to something i cant go to? But lets say if this is to save the franchise, Panthers got my +1 commitment in a heart beat.
Like you said, you gotta win consistently to put asses in seats. There’s too many entertainment options in South Florida. That said, the Panthers have surged in popularity down here in the last several seasons, especially in Fort Lauderdale and Miami. They’ll probably move closer to downtown Fort Lauderdale next once their new state of the art practice facility is completed.
And the low attendance in season 3 caused mgmt to offered season ticket holders 2 extra playoff tickets for each seat. So I had 6 tickets for every game during that crazy spring.
Lol the panthers are not in trouble Period we love hockey . I mean what's not to love Its a special sport we dont have ice down here but I grew up in miami playing roller hockey every other day in the early 90s. when I heard we're getting a team guess what I asked for on xmas not a sega Genesis not a bibi gun nor a fishing rod No I wanted a scot mellanby jersey and some tickets .. Finally after years of pain and not giving up on them Its paying off 👏
Kudos to Miami sports fans for having the Heat, Panthers qualify for NBA, NHL title rounds this season! Not a fan of either teams but will observe the title rounds!
Devils fan here, our arena also only holds like 16,500
I’m not a Florida fan but I’m very happy they’re doing well. I don’t get the negativity towards non traditional teams. These teams doing well is good for the game.
Holy crap hockey guy, u love and are really good at writing on ur board 😆
"Car breaks down, move it to Quebec."
South Florida supports winning teams that’s how it always is and how it will always be
And, being a season ticket holder for the first 8 years of franchise history allows me to say there will never be a place like the MA to watch a hockey game.
Just a year ago, all of us were talking about the Panthers possibly leaving South Florida for Quebec City or another northern market. Guess they'll stay with the way Tkachuk has carried these guys to the Finals.
Alex this Panthers run reminds me of 1995 when the NJ Devils was very close to leaving the NYC/New Jersey area for Nashville. Instead the Devils won the cup and got a then new arena a little over 10 years later. While Nashville got an expansion team instead.
I'd like to see the Panthers go to downtown Ft. Lauderdale. FLA Live is a good area, but it takes you 45mins going straight down Sunrise Blvd from the beech front to get to the arena.
We're lucky to still have a team and they're lucky to have us. Missed the playoffs 17 out of 19 seasons. Who supports that? We do. Current owners have spent the money, investing in the community and a new practice facility, not to mention spending to the cap. Fyi, it's pronounced F-L-A Live Arena.
@THG I respect what you do and say but I think how you spoke on issues to do with management and attendance did you no favors in understanding our market. Zito and Luongo under him have done a phenomenal job of building not just a team with spare parts often but also developing that culture here in SFL. And then with the 4th largest arena in the NHL, 97% full is a lot more than say 100% capacity with the Jets and other small markets with small arenas, let’s exclude the Coyotes as that’s not a fair comparison…..
To think I got a 41 season ticket plan for $300 dollars and free parking and a free jersey some years back.
What a deal.
Our problem/issue is consistency! You see all those coaches! It’s been HARD!! Very very very hard!
idk how your wrist hasnt fallen off holy text!
We have the same opinion of Bruno, think he should have another run at head coach somewhere else
In the future all away games will be available to watch at home arenas via advanced holograms streaming to another stadium. Revenue.
15:41 The Forbes list mentions what the operating income of teams is. That's a decent enough indication of profit.
ive been to fla live arena (when it was bank atlantic center) once. its about a 30-40 min drive from where i live. love this team, but it just isnt worth goin to an arena in sorta the middle of no where for me. tho if they win the cup, ill def see about buying tix for the banner lift next season (if it doesnt break the bank)
Thanks for this video.
Cats win their first Cup, in 6.
Last year they looked at strong through the regular season n rd1 the looked underwhelming for rd 2.... not necessarily bad just underwhelming and opponents were clicking
This year they struggled for large portions of season , crept in......been playing probably the best most consistent hockey of anybody... 3 tough series but they were consistent, playing tough playoff hockey, keeping secondary chances down , boxing out well, and Bob has been good , many layered defence....speed consistent forecheck up and down the ice
Regardless of layoff, I still think they are the favorites to win
If playoff hockey teaches us anything, it's unpredictability
No offense taken. Florida IS a weird market. I am a die hard florida fan and have been my whole life, but that’s only because both of my parents come from states that don’t have professional teams. Many Floridians are happy to root for different teams because that is where their family came from.
It kinda annoys me when fans stop going to games when the team is struggling, then come back when they are winnning (glory supporters) Support your team all the time good or bad, or don't support them at all.
This mindset is exactly why a Canadian team hasn’t won anything in 30 years
@@zachhirschler Well not really...I mean the massive outnumbering of USA teams to Canadian teams and poor management will account for most of that haha.
@@mjk06 yeah, that management knows the fans will come no matter what so they don’t build good teams. Maybe I was wrong with saying exactly but you can’t convince me that it doesn’t play a big part
winnipeg and new jersey also have the two smallest buildings in the entire league, even if they sold out every game the attendance would still be less than florida's
Where FLA Live is a freaking barn. 6th largest in the NHL.
Weird thing…I got a flat tire the other day and out of nowhere an army of nordique fans wanted to take my car to Quebec
But how would they move it with a flat tire?
Very Solid team, reminds me of the 2012 Kings, winner of Vegas and Dallas will be a tough test tho. Great video!
Vegas /Dallas has nothing to offer to the panthers I see a sweep.
@@rickhammond2473 except being better on paper everywhere, except maybe goaltending just because Bob whos hot and cold is on a hot streak.
@@moneysharkgames better on paper doesn't matter. Look what happened to Boston when they lost to Florida
@@Penguinzero1 Boston wasn't better on Paper, I predicted Florida in 7 on my channel in my playoff preview playlist. Florida can beat Vegas but not Dallas. Styles make match ups and Florida has had great match ups for them so far but Dallas is too deep for a team like Florida and they have the right mix of young guys and vets unlike Boston.
@@moneysharkgames if Vegas beats Dallas then Dallas was the worse team
I highly believe Florida will not move being down here Broward county loves them and Fort Lauderdale to they are also investing a lot in the area with new rinks
..New Jersey plays in Newark. A very dangerous place...
The Blackhawks play in Chicago...
@@burningmime432 newark is worse. There are no really nice parts of newark. I say this as someone who was carjacked at gun point in newark
The Devils capacity acording to Wiki is 16,514
I was wondering do you think that the old panthers logo is better (the jersey you were wearing) or their current logo
They are both good to be honest
He does prefer the older logo. However, he said the new one is growing on him. I'm not fond of the new logo compared to the leaping Panther, but I like the road jerseys. I like the sleeve patches a lot. The prowling Panther and state flag.
Florida has one of the biggest arenas in the league that holds 20,000 so when you look at capacity its a bit skewed btw.
Carter Verhaege and Tkachuk could be 50 goal scorers
the arena isn't that far out. in south Florida, unless you're on the beach and never leave, EVERYTHING IS 35 MINUTES AWAY. by highway the arena is about 35 minutes from Ft Lauderdale and Coral Springs. distances isn't the problem. products has always been the problem. once that changes so will attendance.
35 minutes becomes more when you have thousands of people trying to go all in the same direction. Where as in Minnesota the arena is in st. Paul so the majority of people are near the arena. Having an arena in the heart of the city is much better than a 35 minute drive. I live 45 minutes south of st. Paul. Even with season tickets I wouldn't want to make that drive 41 times a season. And I have been around hockey all of my life.
@@JarradBruessel32 unless you actually live in the south Florida area you can't understand what I'm talking about. 35 minutes isn't bad for anywhere in south Florida. only people who live in Ft Lauderdale or Miami think its to far, because everything is already next door. for those of us either not poor or not rich understand.
@@justinmiller5660 again it becomes longer when you have more people going all to one place. If its just one person driving its 35 minutes. But then if you have 18,000 all leaving one area and going to another, it's now a one hour drive. You aren't figuring in traffic delays obviously
FLA time off will probably hurt Brosky Goalies having that much time off usually not that good
I agree with Shannon, in the past you had poor management. poor in bad choices at times, and also having that lower cap ceiling than most other teams( financial)
It seems the last few years they have stronger ownership
The stadium should have been built in Fort Lauderdale. Sunset is such a pain to get to. It’s so far west in that you’re literally walking distance to the everglades
Miami arena is a hole, in a horrible part of town, back then everyone knew don’t take a wrong turn and get lost around the arena. Also in 2013 they quit giving away tickets to everyone and their brother, so most of the tickets pre Viola were practically given away, so those numbers are skewed.
4 straight years in the playoffs, realizing after last year and President trophy and being wiped by the Bolts realizing we needed to change our game, the grittiness needed to have playoff success and then pulling the trigger on the Tkachuk trade and continuing to build on recycled and players given up for dead, Bennett, Duclair, Lomberg, Forsling and so many others, even a Mahura excelling…yes we gambled last year for all the marbles and lost but had the understanding of how to autocorrect and here we are….Canadians, and to a large extent Toronto, I know you’re in BC, but the point is you need to get a better understanding of what is going on down here…..
A lot of Panther fans are super defensive right now for some reason. I wouldn't worry about it too much, most I hope are sensible enough to understand where you're coming from.
It's when someone raises a question about the future stability of the team. Which is what happened in a previous video.
Regarding the lease for FLA Live. I was just trying to get an idea where it's actually located. Why don't we put the Panthers in Miami?? I'm sure there's an arena or they can share with the Heat If that's even possible. Would being in Downtown Miami drive the attendance even more in this new "era"
I wondered why they don't share the arena with the Heat.
I’m pretty sure the Jets arena is just really small like it’s only 15,300+ seats.
Yes, but it's not selling out.
Kk
The thing is the Jets are not reaching the capacity of that arena despite its smaller size. Florida had more people show up during the season than Winnipeg, a team that had a better overall season than them.
This board illustrates pretty well, why I say when asking about being fan of cats a bit Masochism is requirement.
And I'v been fan sincen1996.
No sound ? Edit. ...aanndd retry has sound. Sorry.
I don’t understand the complaining about your stance on the Florida Panthers’ attendance issues.
This was a massive issue before the team was good and hasn’t performed to the level most perennial contenders have. YET. Key word is yet.
I don’t get this issue at all. Keep up the good work Shannon!
Keep in mind: miami arena only held 14,000 so that was a sellout - and their current arena holds 19,000 so the arena at 85-90% capacity would be 100% in a lot of other buildings in the league. This team will NEVER sell 100% of tix unless it's a playoff game... there are just too many things to do here that are Non-sports related, like casinos, clubs, beaches, etc. Not to mention the fact that there are 3 other major league sports teams to compete with. South Florida will NEVER be like a Winnipeg or Calgary, there are just too many other things to engage in, and that's ok... the fans that ARE here are as knowledgable and diehard as any in the league.
ALSO - the "empty seats" you see on TV are because that section is called "club 954" and the cost of tix are literally more than a suite!!!