In the span of every week, South Florida has discovered that Jimmy Butler not needs to play for the Miami Heat and that Tyreek Hill additionally needs out from the Miami Dolphins.
Amid all of this chaos lies the soundness of the Florida Panthers.
Superstars aren’t attempting to flee the Panthers. They’re getting traded and signing contract extensions, which was the case with Matthew Tkachuk. Fans aren’t complaining about how the Panthers are struggling to get into the Stanley Cup playoffs. They’re the defending Stanley Cup champions, attempting to win a consecutive title. Sitting inside Amerant Bank Arena not looks like an empty and sterile surroundings, as a result of the Panthers are promoting out each house recreation for the primary time of their historical past.
This is the golden age of the Florida Panthers.
It’s additionally why the NHL lastly determined to not solely have the Panthers play in an outside recreation, however host the game’s signature occasion, the Winter Classic, on Jan. 2, 2026 in opposition to the New York Rangers at LoanDepot Park in Miami.
“We are at all times attempting to lift that bar and do one thing distinctive,” NHL president of enterprise Keith Wachtel stated. “The legacy that it leaves behind within the native market, I believe is essential. It has nice nationwide enchantment and fairly frankly you hear it on a regular basis. Even although they received a Stanley Cup, until you get a type of marquee occasions like an All-Star Game, actually, however one in every of these Winter Classic or Stadium Series, it is like one other validation for them as a company.”
The Winter Classic is coming to South Florida 😼 pic.twitter.com/Cbo0O33Ltu
— Florida Panthers (@FlaPanthers) January 8, 2025
The Panthers and South Florida taking part in host to the Winter Classic is a part of the NHL’s plan to make the state of Florida a precedence. On Feb. 1, 2026, the Tampa Bay Lightning will host the Stadium Series in opposition to the Boston Bruins at Raymond James Stadium.
Having each video games inside a month of one another was a choice by the league that Wachtel stated permits the state of Florida “to be the middle of the hockey universe.”
South Florida has hosted quite a few Super Bowls, the NBA Finals, the World Series, nationwide championship video games, College Football Playoff video games, an annual Formula 1 race, the Copa América Final and can add the World Cup to that record in 2026.
The Panthers alone have hosted three Stanley Cup Final video games, two All-Star Games and two NHL drafts.
Yet the Panthers entered this season as one in every of three NHL groups that had by no means performed in an outside recreation. Now that record is down to 1 (the Utah Hockey Club), because the Columbus Blue Jackets will host and play on this season’s Stadium Series on March 1 at Ohio Stadium in opposition to the Detroit Red Wings.
Why now? What has immediately made the Panthers and South Florida a horny selection regardless of a workforce being out there for 30 years? What might one thing like this imply for the franchise? And might one other marquee occasion doubtlessly assist the Panthers plant much more seeds of their bid to develop generational fandom?
“Even when the Panthers have been a more recent franchise taking part in in downtown Miami, there was some [interest] down right here,” stated Laura Courtley-Todd, an assistant sports activities administration professor at St. Thomas University in Miami Gardens. “It was a little bit little bit of a hockey city however not as a lot as it’s now. It’s turn into thrilling to see. You simply speak to people who find themselves going to video games. I’ve pals who’re season-ticket holders. It’s a lot totally different than it was.”
ALTHOUGH THE NHL held an outside exhibition recreation at Caesars Palace again in 1991, there was nonetheless a perception these video games have been meant for extra conventional hockey hotbeds. That dynamic modified as soon as the league launched the Stadium Series. The Stadium Series noticed “nontraditional markets” get to host an outside recreation in venues resembling Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Cotton Bowl Stadium in Dallas, Nissan Stadium in Nashville and Carter-Finley Stadium at North Carolina State.
But what about Florida? Those in favor cited the really distinctive expertise {that a} venue within the state would deliver. Those opposed questioned how the league might keep away from an unplayable floor, given the humidity.
The court docket of public opinion acquired its long-awaited verdict in December 2024 when NHL commissioner Gary Bettman stated on the Board of Governors assembly that the league was finalizing its plans for the Panthers to host an outside recreation.
“Wow? He stated it?” Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad informed ESPN on the day Bettman made the announcement. “It’s clearly actually thrilling, and I’d love that chance. I hope it’ll all work out and we’ll get that chance.”
Ekblad, who has performed his total 11-year profession for the Panthers, was immediately met with one other query: Why does he assume it took the league this lengthy for the Panthers to be included?
“I believe it is extra simply the logistics of it, proper? It’s Florida. It’s onerous to get ice in Florida,” Ekblad defined. “I believe that may be the one cause. I think about that if we have been in one other metropolis, then, we would get it. It is what it’s. I do not see it as a slight. The logistics of it are actually troublesome.”
NHL president of content material & occasions Steve Mayer stated LoanDepot Park having a retractable roof makes it like T-Mobile Park in Seattle, the place the NHL held its 2024 Winter Classic. The roof will permit the league to cowl the ice floor and management the local weather circumstances whereas the ice is being constructed. Mayer stated they’ll open the roof simply earlier than the sport for a dramatic entrance.
It’s a distinction from Raymond James Stadium. Mayer stated the humidity — together with Raymond James Stadium being a totally outside venue with no roof — led to the NHL working with a Dallas-based firm that may create a mini-warehouse the place they’re going to construct the ice floor in a managed local weather.
Bettman was requested if the NHL thought-about an alternate venue resembling Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, however stated the venue wasn’t an choice as a result of the Orange Bowl might be performed across the similar time.
With the 2026 Classic plans in place, some have been left to marvel: Why hadn’t the Panthers been invited to play within the recreation in prior years because the customer? After all, the Lightning obtained that probability in 2022. And franchises youthful than the Panthers, such because the Seattle Kraken and Vegas Golden Knights, had performed in video games earlier than Florida.
Bettman reiterated that the state as a complete is in a golden age of hockey. He stated objects resembling fan engagement together with each franchises internet hosting occasions such because the All-Star Games and Stanley Cup Final have been pivotal to creating the decision.
As it particularly pertains to the Panthers, they’re eighth in common attendance and are fifth in common attendance amongst American markets. A workforce spokesperson informed ESPN that the Panthers offered out of season tickets for the primary time of their 31-year historical past.
“The Violas and Viniks have performed a tremendous job of constructing Florida a real hockey vacation spot,” Bettman stated of the respective Panthers and Lightning homeowners. “Florida has been very supportive and superb to us. We assume it is time to deliver two of our tentpole occasions to the state.”
One of the emblems of the Stadium Series and Winter Classic is the themes the NHL makes use of as a part of the game-day surroundings. Mayer, who oversees the outside occasions, has a workforce that has provide you with concepts resembling getting an precise fighter jet on a pretend touchdown space subsequent to the ice floor for the 2020 Stadium Series on the Air Force Academy.
Mayer stated being in Florida goes to permit his workforce to get inventive in methods which can be distinctive to the state. When the NHL held the All-Star Game in 2023 in Sunrise, the league got here up with South Florida-specific concepts for the abilities competitors resembling utilizing a dunk tank on the beach.
“Instead of snow or pretend snow, how about sand?” Mayer stated. “Like we did at All-Star, we’ll lean into the surroundings creatively.”
THE PANTHERS’ RUN of success comes on the good time, given the standing of the realm’s different professional sports activities groups.
Franchises which have existed for greater than 50 years are constructed up as being one thing greater than a workforce. The wins, the losses, the championships and the troublesome instances all get romanticized in a method that lives on for many years, if not longer, very like a traditional novel.
Unless that franchise is in South Florida.
It’s not that fandom does not exist in South Florida. It’s simply totally different from different markets, in that almost all of groups have not been round lengthy sufficient to develop generational fandom. The Dolphins are the market’s oldest skilled franchise at 59 years outdated — and so they’re nonetheless the twenty fourth youngest within the NFL.
The Heat began in 1988 whereas the Panthers and Miami Marlins each began taking part in video games in 1993. And whereas the University of Miami first began taking part in soccer in 1926, they did not win a nationwide title till 1983, whereas largely taking part in as an unbiased program earlier than becoming a member of the Big East in 1991.
“As a lot as it is a Dolphins city, there hasn’t been plenty of success for the Dolphins since Dan Marino was drafted, and that was the final time they went to the Super Bowl,” stated Roy Bellamy, a senior producer for “The Dan Le Batard Show” who grew up in South Florida. “The final time they went to the AFC Championship was 1992. Hope is a hell of a drug, however for those who’re a winner they’ll get behind you and with the Panthers, they’re the one constant winner on this area.”
Optimism was excessive throughout the 1995-96 season when the Panthers reached the Stanley Cup Final in simply their third season. From there, they might have solely 4 playoff appearances from 1996 by means of 2019. In that point, the Panthers went by means of a lot of rebuilds whereas trying to figure out how they might enhance attendance numbers. They believed they might nonetheless draw followers from Miami regardless of transferring from the town to Broward County in 1998.
Panthers CEO and president Matt Caldwell stated the franchise began gaining stability when Vincent and Teresa Viola bought the workforce in 2013. Caldwell stated the group went by means of a shift when it got here to how it might engrain itself locally.
“We embraced that we needed to begin constructing this one fan at a time,” Caldwell stated. “That was our inside rally cry and we have gotten our workers to be motivated behind it in a method the place we felt this could possibly be the best turnaround in sports activities historical past.”
Caldwell stated the workforce knew they needed to win. But additionally they needed to do extra than simply profitable video games in an effort to construct one thing sustainable.
It began with neighborhood outreach. The Panthers made an impression on the realm’s youth by having applications resembling Learn To Play whereas additionally sending their gamers out into the faculties so they might create a connection level that hadn’t beforehand existed. They have been additionally energetic when it got here to hurricane aid. Caldwell stated the Panthers have made their enviornment accessible so it might home hundreds of emergency response staff that got here to the realm to help.
They even utilized that method to how they deal with parking at their enviornment. Amerant Bank Arena has sizable parking tons and the Panthers have attendants who drive round on golf carts to supply rides to followers that want them. Caldwell stated the Panthers determined to not outsource their parking zone operations to a 3rd get together so if a fan had a difficulty, they might go on to the workforce fairly than a faceless entity.
Another philosophical shift got here when the membership determined that it was going to cease fixating on attempting to get extra followers from Miami. One of the challenges the Panthers confronted after they left was how they might get followers to journey to Broward County understanding it might take about an hour to get there on a very good day.
Caldwell stated the workforce checked out its inside numbers and noticed that 60% of their followers have been in Broward County. That’s after they determined as a company that whereas they wished followers from Miami, Palm Beach County and at the same time as far-off as Naples, they wished to focus on strengthening their presence in Broward.
“There’s not that stress to win Miami as a result of I believe we received them over with our efficiency and the way we deal with them after they come to video games,” Caldwell stated.
At the identical time, the franchise was additionally engaged on attempting to be accessible. Caldwell stated the pandemic created a inhabitants surge in South Florida that noticed younger households transfer to the realm. That led to the Panthers rethinking how they might discover methods to draw these households and the preexisting ones out there.
One of the methods they did that was by having the workforce play on native tv whereas additionally having a streaming app that makes it accessible for anybody with an antenna or a cellphone to look at the video games.
“As we began profitable and packing the sector, all our income objects have been hitting report ranges, however cable scores have been about flat,” Caldwell stated. “That was eye-opening to us as a result of if every part else goes up, we’re simply coming off a Stanley Cup, how is it that the parents that are not coming to the sector, the informal followers who’re staying at house, how is that not rising?”
Caldwell stated switching their TV distribution mannequin has led to the Panthers tripling their scores from the place they have been final season, whereas their streaming numbers have seen a 40% improve.
All the background work that was being performed to vary the Panthers’ public notion was coming because the workforce employed basic supervisor Bill Zito in 2020. Zito and his entrance workplace workers revitalized the roster in a method that noticed them construct an immediate winner with how they operated in free company, used the waiver wire and have been keen to make massive trades such because the one which landed Tkachuk. That was additional fortified after they employed a confirmed winner in Paul Maurice to take over as head coach.
It resulted within the Panthers reaching 5 straight playoffs, with two Stanley Cup Final appearances and the franchise profitable its first championship in 2024. As Caldwell identified, as an alternative of the gamers leaving to go have a good time in Las Vegas, they celebrated in South Florida at different bars and restaurants (and within the Atlantic Ocean) whereas additionally having a parade in Broward County.
Bellamy stated that is the kind of work that lets followers know that the Panthers are secure in a method that feels as if they are not going away any time quickly.
“The NHL has now seen that it is a marquee franchise,” Bellamy stated. “This will not be a spot the place you come to play golf, play a recreation and go away. They have gamers now. The gamers really need to keep, receives a commission and play hockey.”
