I just hate to see these huge myths that exist about FL in general. Its so funny how Canadians all say that FL has no hockey fans, yet every f'n winter all I see is damn Canadians down here. If you love your country and hockey so damn much, stay up there during the winter. My favorite T-shirt in the winter says "Why do they call it tourist season if we can't shoot the Canadians??" :lol
But really, the people that say there shouldn't be 2 teams in FL don't understand that there really is a significant difference between Tampa and south FL where the Panthers are located. Not to mention that the 2 cities are 183 miles apart on 2 different sides of the state (farther apart than Edmonton & Calgary). But the south FL area really is a melting pot of people from all over the world. And there's quite a bit of people that move from the Northeast (specifically from New York and Massachusetts) and Michigan down to FL. There's even a decent amount of Russians in the area as well. My family is from the Long Island area, my best friends are all from Boston, and my boss is from Michigan. The reason I bring this up is because all these transplanted people still support their old teams...the Red Wings or Bruins or Rangers or whoever else but the Panthers. There are hockey fans in the area but they only go to games when their team in playing. Its just a fallacy that the south FL area lacks hockey fans and that broad statement is being used as justification to contract them.
And FL's attendance hasn't really decreased that much since its inception. Their first building was small in capacity (less than 15,000) but had such an unbelievable atmosphere. Their new building is a monstrocity that has crappy atmosphere inside and the reasoning to move to it is because of the luxury box money the team was losing in the old place. I can't tell you how many times I've heard Panther fans wish they could've picked up the Miami Arena and move it to the location (in Sunrise) of the new building instead. Still, the average attendance has pretty consistently been in the 15,000 area every yr (with a few better yrs with Pavel & a few lesser yrs after he left). If they were in their old building, they would've sold out a lot of games the last few yrs.
All that said, I have suggested that FL be a possibility for relocation (not contraction) to Panther fans on this board. But so could about 5 teams in the league could be possibilities for relocation too. But just remember what happened when baseball tried to contract a FL team (the Marlins)...the next season they won the World Series. So every team you can name here as a potential team to contract, could be the next team to win the Stanley Cup. Contraction doesn't solve any problems...just shifts the problems to the remaining teams.