STANLEY CUP FINALS BOUND!!! THESE ARE MY FLORIDA PANTHEEEEEEEERRRRSSSS!!!! GO CATS GO!!!

Even more so considering its age as it opened in 1998! Granted, I may be biased as a Panthers fan, but what I really love is we don't have to share our den with any other team, which allows for some nice Panther-themed touches. They did decent upgrades to the jumbotron and audio system (finally!) lately, there's no really bad seats and Inside the Boards (our game-used/team-issued merch store) is a nice thing that not all NHL teams have. While I enjoy hanging out at Sawgrass before game time and being able to walk to the arena from there while shouting a friendly "Let's Go Panthers!" to every fan I encounter, I'd still say the location is one of the very negative things of the arena. Sure, there's two hotels and the mall in walking distance, but that's it. It gives people no incentive to hang out in the immediate vicinity of the arena. Other cities have built entire entertainment districts around their sports arenas. Public transit out there is a complete joke, while at least freeway access is decent. And with no one there except on event days, our Pantherland store only open on game days and closed for the entire off-season, which is a lot of lost revenue. Yes, I know, the Panthers may not be popular enough anyway (that's about to change!), but still, I think the location hurts us more than we admit right now. I know the current arena lease expires in 2028 and the Panthers have signaled vague interest of moving closer to Downtown Fort Lauderdale, which is where they just opened a brand-new practice facility at the FTI War Memorial but I think at the end of the day (lease!) they may very well stay for a few more years in Sunrise. I'm just glad we have a winning team and decent attendance numbers right now after having gone through decades of relocation rumors and burning millions and millions of cash! GO CATS GO!

@@KitwanaLionI mean for being a non hockey market the cats rank 11th out of 32 teams in attendance, pretty darn good. Attendance got a lot better after they stopped putting incompetent people in charge for 26 years. Hard to expect people to come see a team when they were treated like they were for so long

@@NicEeEe843Exactly! It's impressive how so many things turned around as soon as our current owners and management took over! Put a winning team together, be very active out in the community and the fans will come - even though ticket prices have increased by 40% lately. Yet it is still pretty affordable to attend a Panthers game compared to traditional markets. I always pick lower level and often get fantastic seats for less than $100! As a huge mascot fan, I've noticed another positive change compared to decades before: Stanley C. Panther is allowed to do much more, he's traveling around the league to other mascot's events and he's has increased his presence at community events throughout Broward County. And they just fixed something I've been mentioning further above: As of today, we finally got a Pantherland merch store that's open year-round, even on non-game days! Located at the FTL War Memorial as part of their brand-new practice facility, which also just opened for the public after the Cats have been practicing there for a few months already. That was so long overdue! My wallet won't like it, though;)

@@KitwanaLion watching practice is gonna be epic. I might go to the memorial store today since I live not far from it 😂

@@NicEeEe843Of course, seeing them practice will be the main attraction besides the store, glad they'll open the sessions for the public again, except during playoffs. I'm just watching a store tour video and man, it looks so good! I'd never thought we'd see the day of having a standalone Florida Panthers fan shop! And guess what - lots of Stanley C. Panther items and what looks like even a full-body Florida Panther (the animal!) plush that I had never seen anywhere before! Although I wish they'd change these ugly-looking Stanley C. plushies to the ones they sold during the All-Star Weekend in Toronto, which looked much more accurate. But hey, WE FINALLY HAVE A REAL PANTHERLAND STORE! GO CATS GO!!!

Everybody's attending Panthers games now that we've got competent ownership, management and a winning team on the ice! Some of the footage was recorded before and right at door opening, but I can assure you all 3 games I have visited had an attendance close to a sellout. The Panthers finished the 2023-24 regular season ranked 9th across the NHL in attendance.

@@KitwanaLion Happy to hear 👍