I don't totally buy it.
I think why this was written was because the Panthers are having the worst start to a season in most recent years (actually I think ever). Besides there is NO secret deal about selling teams in the NHL no matter how badly everyone in the North wants hockey to be taken away. The Phoenix situation was not under the table, there are no secret owner meetings that don't get leaked to the press and they are still (last I heard) dealing with the team ownership. Funny I mention that because the people who vacation
FROM the north are the same people who want to jump to ice rinks down here and none of that would have happened without the Panthers. What I do not understand is that if they were on said shoestring budget, why did they buy new video boards for the arena when they know it is an accessory? I do know they did cut a lot of their production staff. The tv and radio people are on shoestring situations where only 1 person is calling games via radio and 2 are calling via TV. Are they financially bad? Yes. Are they worse than Phoenix? NO!!!
Despite a terrible start to the season, they are still out drawing the people in Phoenix which has they same majority of their attendance as the opposing team fans (which I do have to say that every time the Rangers come down here, it is either a sell-out or close to it). Don't know why they would get rid of that
. Also, the Panthers re-shifted the cost of the tickets so the upper levels are less expensive than the lower levels to bring more people into the game. Of course, since we are still dealing with the financial recession, tickets like that are not commonly bought as much as before. Since the Toronto Sun said it, I would not blow it off, but I am not totally believing it. If THN (The Hockey News) said it or someone in the system I trust said it, then I would believe it.
Its easy for everyone up north to complain that hockey should not be a south sport. With the exception of the University of Alabama-Huntsville (which recently made a playoff run) there are no NCAA college hockey teams. Having said that, there are many universities who are participating in hockey leagues that are not NCAA sanctioned. Big name universities too like University of Miami, University of Florida, Georgia Tech university and more. Saying there is no following of hockey in the south is about as bad a blanket statement as there are no good guys anymore (when in truth there are many good guys who get totally offended by that statement). It may sound right at first but if you stop to think, you would realize that statements like that are not entirely true. Also for those of you who don't know that there is college hockey in the first place, there are many pre-season tournaments for the NCAA season which starts (you guessed it) in FLORIDA.
Wow, that's a shock
.
Overall, even if the team in the future gets taken away, the impact that it has had is gone too far to be reversed. There are many players who are growing up on the "farm" system from Florida and in a few years may even be started to be drafted (some of them have went to the NCAA colleges because it is more likely that NHL scouts will see them play there than here).
Personally, I think they stay. Heck, they are still pulling more people than the Marlins fans (sorry Brian
).
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