Why doesn’t it work in Miami?

[Beezeral]

Good to see we’ve devolved into essentially coded racism ITT

 

[ProspectsSTC]

Good to see we’ve devolved into essentially coded racism ITT

When in doubt cry racism? Plenty of good points have been made in this thread, the fact is that the turnout for these games are pathetic and people are looking for the root causes and potential solutions. Would new ownership fix it? Maybe. Would a move somewhere else in Florida fix it? Quite possibly. Are there other places where it would do better? Absolutely

 

[Beezeral]

When in doubt cry racism? Plenty of good points have been made in this thread, the fact is that the turnout for these games are pathetic and people are looking for the root causes and potential solutions. Would new ownership fix it? Maybe. Would a move somewhere else in Florida fix it? Quite possibly. Are there other places where it would do better? Absolutely

You got one poster calling miami a foreign country and another calling parts of it a 3rd world country largely based on the presence of the Hispanic community. If you can’t see how those posts are problematic, you’ve got more problems then your obvious biases about the panthers franchise.

 

[sexydonut]

LOL @ people citing ethnicity as a reason for the Panthers' lack of success.

If we applied the same logic to minority majority Canadian cities, would the large ethnic Chinese, Indian, SE Asian, Caribbean populations of Vancouver and Toronto mean that the Canucks and Maple Leafs are less popular?

As an example, do we expect the Indian ethnoburbs of Surrey and Brampton to hold onto cricket? Every time I've been to those areas, hockey gear is common.

 

[sexydonut]

South Florida has bad urban sprawl, overwhelmed roads and piss poor public transit. All this in addition to a perennially lousy Panthers team. You really can't blame the fans for avoiding traffic jams AND mediocre results.

 

[Beezeral]

LOL @ people citing ethnicity as a reason for the Panthers' lack of success.

If we applied the same logic to minority majority Canadian cities, would the large ethnic Chinese, Indian, SE Asian, Caribbean populations of Vancouver and Toronto mean that the Canucks and Maple Leafs are less popular?

As an example, do we expect the Indian ethnoburbs of Surrey and Brampton to hold onto cricket? Every time I've been to those areas, hockey gear is common.

Also. Tampa is the second biggest Cuban community in the US after miami.

 

[AndreRoy]

You got one poster calling miami a foreign country and another calling parts of it a 3rd world country largely based on the presence of the Hispanic community. If you can’t see how those posts are problematic, you’ve got more problems then your obvious biases about the panthers franchise.

Boo-freaking-hoo. Try living there sometime and tell me he’s wrong.

 

[ProspectsSTC]

You got one poster calling miami a foreign country and another calling parts of it a 3rd world country largely based on the presence of the Hispanic community. If you can’t see how those posts are problematic, you’ve got more problems then your obvious biases about the panthers franchise.

"Obvious biases"
Like wanting to see my favourite sport in the top league in the world do well?

Yeah there's a lot of Hispanic people there, and most Hispanic people don't care about hockey. Should the Panthers be trying to market themselves better to the Hispanic population which makes up a huge portion of their area? Of course, but they're competing against a sport that's massive in the Hispanic community - baseball.

As it stands right now, their attendance is positively pathetic and it has been for a long time. How do you propose they fix that? Because my solution is to move it somewhere it has a fighting chance.

 

[Beezeral]

Boo-freaking-hoo. Try living there sometime and tell me he’s wrong.

Born and raised as a Cuban-American in SFL.

"Obvious biases"
Like wanting to see my favourite sport in the top league in the world do well?

Yeah there's a lot of Hispanic people there, and most Hispanic people don't care about hockey. Should the Panthers be trying to market themselves better to the Hispanic population which makes up a huge portion of their area? Of course, but they're competing against a sport that's massive in the Hispanic community - baseball.

As it stands right now, their attendance is positively pathetic and it has been for a long time. How do you propose they fix that? Because my solution is to move it somewhere it has a fighting chance.

How about do better the miss the playoffs 20/25 years?

 

[Haatley]

I urge you to visit Toronto and tell me the white population dominates hockey interest than look at the teams poluarity. Please don’t point to history just look at the Scotiabank arena it is filled every night and it has a HUGE percent of minority. I am very happy it has grown to be diverse and in Aurora (suburb of Toronto part of the greater Toronto area) where I live the minor program immensely grown in minority. I won’t say it’s the majority yet but a lot of my friends and I always joke that whites are now the minority around Toronto and the GTA. When I grew up we had 1 black super whitewashed kid playing hockey and that was as diverse as it got now it’s comeptly changed

You grew up in the whitest suburb in the GTA. I grew up in Rexdale and most people (I was white and a minority) didn't care about hockey at all.

Then I moved to Aurora.

Big difference.

 

[AndreRoy]

Born and raised as a Cuban-American in SFL.

Then you should know from experience that the reason Miami seems like a foreign or third world country is not because the population is predominantly Hispanic but because a large percentage of the population indeed came here from third world countries (or in the case of Cubans, second world if you go by the original meaning of the terms.)

Look at the levels of poverty, crime, illiteracy, etc. and tell me that Miami doesn’t resemble a third world country in many respects. Try speaking English in most restaurants or stores and tell me from the dirty looks and poor treatment you receive that it doesn’t seem like you’ve left America. Consider the large portion of Miami residents who don’t think of themselves as American but rather as belonging to their county of origin or that of their ancestors and tell me why we shouldn’t call it a foreign place when the residents themselves consider themselves to be foreigners. My Miami-native friends would argue the same points with you.

In short it has nothing to do with ethnicity as you claim with your kneejerk playing of the race card and everything to do with the choices and behaviors of the majority of people who live there. As was pointed out Tampa has a large Hispanic population as well, but many of them came here legally over a century ago and assimilated into the country, as opposed to the population in South Florida that has largely chosen not to assimilate into American society. And pointing that out is not racism.

 

[Eat The Rich]

I'll tell you why.

I was in Florida last winter to watch the Leafs and decided to spend the day in Miami beforehand. People on here love to point out the fact that getting to Canadian Tire Centre from Downtown Ottawa is a hassle... They've never drive from Miami to Sunrise. It is a pain in the ass with that traffic. You combine that with a fanbase that has essentially never seen success and you have a recipe for disaster.

The demographics BS in this thread is a joke.

 

[AndreRoy]

The demographics BS in this thread is a joke.

I’m not saying the demographic argument is necessarily correct (I think it might contribute to the problem - just anecdotally only one of my Miami friends is even somewhat into hockey while all of them are much more into soccer and baseball - but so do the traffic and the history of losing as you pointed out.) I’m just arguing against kneejerk cries of racism simply because somebody mentioned that demographics might play a role. It’s a perfectly reasonable case to make; if you disagree then argue against it, but don’t try to shut it down by playing the race card.

 

[Beezeral]

I’m not saying the demographic argument is necessarily correct (I think it might contribute to the problem - just anecdotally only one of my Miami friends is even somewhat into hockey while all of them are much more into soccer and baseball - but so do the traffic and the history of losing as you pointed out.) I’m just arguing against kneejerk cries of racism simply because somebody mentioned that demographics might play a role. It’s a perfectly reasonable case to make; if you disagree then argue against it, but don’t try to shut it down by playing the race card.

I said using terms like foreign country and 3rd world country shouldn’t fly. If you want to talk about demographics and how they impact the panthers. That’s fine. If you want to complain about how when sometimes you go into a store and run into a clerk that doesn’t speak English, sorry. Not the time or place.

You talk about soccer and baseball, but the two most attended sports in SFLincouding by Hispanics are football and basketball, two sports acquired over time in the Hispanic community. Hockey can easily do the same if the team was good long term.

 

[AndreRoy]

I said using terms like foreign country and 3rd world country shouldn’t fly. If you want to talk about demographics and how they impact the panthers. That’s fine. If you want to complain about how when sometimes you go into a store and run into a clerk that doesn’t speak English, sorry. Not the time or place.

You talk about soccer and baseball, but the two most attended sports in SFLincouding by Hispanics are football and basketball, two sports acquired over time in the Hispanic community. Hockey can easily do the same if the team was good long term.

You’re missing the point. Your whining about so-called “racism” just because a couple people pointed out that Miami seems like a foreign/third world country is pathetic and laughable. It has nothing to do with race and everything to do with the people that live there. I really don’t give two shits about why nobody cares about the Panthers or what sports people in Miami attend; I’m just sick of people like you throwing the race card down at every opportunity.

 

[Howboutthempanthers]

People need to understand, the Panthers are not on people's minds down here. Due to the losing that they've always done. Putting them in Miami is not going to change that apathy.
They need to start being competently run as an organization. That will lead to prolonged success. Which will lead to building a fanbase. Which will lead to decent attendance even in down times..

 

[barkovcanfinnish]

Many people didn't want to travel to the west side of Chicago when the Blackhawks were conveniently having the worst decade in franchise history not too long ago, both on and off the ice. Blame Bill Wirtz all you want (and rightfully so), but the Hawks still sold out Chicago Stadium when they were competitive.

The cost of bad traffic and a poor upper management doesn't outweigh a great experience, like watching an entertaining hockey team be competitive year after year.

However, it does affect attendance when the team has played either mediocre or downright awful hockey for 90% of their history, like the Florida Panthers have. The team currently is mediocre at best, so that doesn't help matters. They've also had ownership issues plague them throughout their history, along with the complications fans have with getting to the BB&T Center.

How can anyone expect a professional sports team to constantly have sell-outs with this kind of résumé?

 

[Harvey Birdman]

Simple answer. Win. Even O6 teams have had attendance issues when they were mediocre. My team Pittsburgh almost moved after a decade of mediocrity. Win and they shall come. The diehards will be there thick and thin, as I was for my team, but the casual fans won’t pay to watch a loser. At best they will stay at home and watch on tv or check the highlights after the fact. Put a sustained product on the ice and the seats fill themselves. Simple as that.

 

[Hooby Dooby Doo]

"Obvious biases"
Like wanting to see my favourite sport in the top league in the world do well?

Yeah there's a lot of Hispanic people there, and most Hispanic people don't care about hockey. Should the Panthers be trying to market themselves better to the Hispanic population which makes up a huge portion of their area? Of course, but they're competing against a sport that's massive in the Hispanic community - baseball.

As it stands right now, their attendance is positively pathetic and it has been for a long time. How do you propose they fix that? Because my solution is to move it somewhere it has a fighting chance.

It's fixed by consistently winning. Which they have yet to do in 25 years, minus the 96 season. 95-96 and 96-97 were the only consecutive seasons in which they made the playoffs and since then, in 22 years they've won a grand total of 6 playoff games, in a league in which I believe every team except for Columbus has won a series.

 

[Beezeral]

You’re missing the point. Your whining about so-called “racism” just because a couple people pointed out that Miami seems like a foreign/third world country is pathetic and laughable. It has nothing to do with race and everything to do with the people that live there. I really don’t give two ****s about why nobody cares about the Panthers or what sports people in Miami attend; I’m just sick of people like you throwing the race card down at every opportunity.

You know so little abou the community you belittle. Cuban Americans skew heavily conservative. I threw out the race card because the comments were absolutely unnecessary. I’m trying to stay on topic and talk about why the Panthers are struggling attendance wise. You seem hung up on the deomograpgics of sfl. Once again, not the time or place.

 

[Gizmo Tkachuk]

Well this thread has gone to shit.

 

[AtlantaWhaler]

Really don't need to go past the first page of this thread. This, right here. How the hell would a team attract new fans with a record like that?

 

[Sensfan5]

Pretty much all teams except a few exceptions would have a hard time drawing fans if they had the record the panthers have had the past 15 years.

 

[Gee Wally]

and................its done.