alan cohen just gives boat-loads of tickets away. he does this so the office depot center has the appearance of having a large paid attendance, thus fooling real customers into thinking that panther games are the in thing (and trying to get the same message across via the camera to viewers at home). plus, he is doing this to make fans feel secure and fooling them into believing that these large crowds of "paying" customers are proof that the team is healthy.
florida is losing money, even if they paid their players like juniors. hockey CAN work in south florida, but only where the team used to be located. the franchise's first owner, wayne huzienga (current owner of the nfl's dolphins) played the cats' first 5 years at the smaller miami arena (14,702 capacity). the nba's heat played in the same facility at the same time, under the ownership of mickey arison.
the panthers routinely sold out the miami arena, and if not came very close often. fans from broward county (sunrise, florida's location) will have you believe that they made up the majority of those in attendance at the miami arena those first five years. they will also have you believe that they hated the travel south-bound to dade county (home to the old miami arena). on the first account, there is no way of proving most miami arena-goers were these broward county "transplant northerners" and if they were responsible for packing the 14,702 facility, why can't they squeeze more than 3,000 into their cushy new joint in their own backyard? it may even prove that most broward fans made up a minority of the miami arena crowds back in the day. regarding the second account, broward fans hated coming down south, but they did and still would if they had to. at least there are activities in the downtown area, for before and after games (bayside, south beach 15 minutes away). in sunrise? sawgrass mall. a ****ing mall.
huzienga and arison could not stand each other. the only things they could agree on were that the miami arena was too small and outdated (true), and that the panthers and heat could not share housing. arison literally moved across the street to the american airlines arena, while the panthers moved 1 hour north to sunrise, fl next to a big mall.
if the panthers are still downtown, in an area that was fit to host the mtv video awards, where the heat already reside, where the marlins are trying to their new stadium to, where posh condos are being set up, in a prominent city that has world-wide recognition, they are healthier than they are today.
no, i do not want to hear that the miami arena and its capacity did no cut it. frankly, despite being a smaller facility, it drew a larger paid attendance than anything cohen embelishes today.
florida may be having their best year financially in years, but by their own admission it is only "stopping the bleeding." they are in bad shape, real bad shape.