[Rumour] Panthers to be sold in the next few weeks

[sureLoss]

http://nypost.com/2013/09/17/buyer-s...rida-panthers/

Maybe interesting to watch. Panthers would be one of the more likelier of the NHL teams to get relocated.

[Anduril]

Here we go again?

[Poe969]

I guess they didn't sell enough of those $100 season tickets

[valo403]

Originally Posted by sureLoss

http://nypost.com/2013/09/17/buyer-s...rida-panthers/

Maybe interesting to watch. Panthers would be one of the more likelier of the NHL teams to get relocated.

Nope. They have a 30 year lease with Broward county. On top of that, reports suggest that while the hockey team loses money the greater entity is a money maker due to the ability to operate the venue for concerts and other events. We saw hints of that when some of their financials leaked during the lockout.

[Pontine]

Originally Posted by valo403

Nope. They have a 30 year lease with Broward county. On top of that, reports suggest that while the hockey team loses money the greater entity is a money maker due to the ability to operate the venue for concerts and other events. We saw hints of that when some of their financials leaked during the lockout.

I was going to mention this, but wasn't 100% sure about the details of it.

[_Q_]

Originally Posted by valo403

Nope. They have a 30 year lease with Broward county. On top of that, reports suggest that while the hockey team loses money the greater entity is a money maker due to the ability to operate the venue for concerts and other events. We saw hints of that when some of their financials leaked during the lockout.

I'm not sure how these things work, but wouldn't that mean the entity can make more money if they didn't operate a hockey team?

[valo403]

Originally Posted by _Q_

I'm not sure how these things work, but wouldn't that mean the entity can make more money if they didn't operate a hockey team?

Lease is likely based around the entity owning and operating a hockey team in the building. That's why they'd have to buy the Panthers to obtain the benefits of owning the right to operate the arena.

[Goodlad]

Andy Slater, a host on 640-AM Sports in Miami, reports that former Nets minority owner Vincent Viola is set to buy the Florida Panthers

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-pu...0086--nhl.html

[BeltlineFan]

Vincent Viola? I hope he looks like Vincent Vega.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by BeltlineFan

Vincent Viola?

Forgettaboutit

[polak]

If they did move some city would be inheriting a potentially great team in the next few years.

It'd be pretty funny if they moved to Quebec considering they lost the Nordiques right as they were starting to develop into one of the best and most exciting teams in the league. Full circle.

[troutman]

The panthers have 4,000 households watching regional broadcasts (and that is up one-third from the year before). That is crickets chirping. But they survive because of the lease valo described.

http://www.sportingnews.com/nhl/stor...o-red-sox-nesn

Revenue for last year was $87 million (how did they do that?).

http://www.forbes.com/nhl-valuations/list/

Attendance reported at 16,991 (that seems inflated if you have watched a game from there);

http://espn.go.com/nhl/attendance/_/year/2013

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by valo403

Lease is likely based around the entity owning and operating a hockey team in the building. That's why they'd have to buy the Panthers to obtain the benefits of owning the right to operate the arena.

Not to mention that no events = no revenue. The Panthers lose money, but their existence helps the arena make money.

[Saqe]

Can´t see that team moving anywhere, been there 20 years with pretty damn awful success and never moved. No where to go but up really.

Good for them, maybe the new ownership will have more hockey sense than the current one.

[troutman]

NHL’s Florida Panthers take on Broward County over $4.2 million scoreboard for BB&T Center

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/05/1...s-take-on.html

BB&T, Florida Panthers extend arena deal

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/J...BT-Center.aspx

The initial term with Winston-Salem, N.C.-based BB&T runs 10 years, said Michael Yormark, president of Sunrise Sports & Entertainment, the parent company of the team and the arena, whose name officially switches from BankAtlantic Center to BB&T Center today. The agreement also includes two five-year options.

Sunrise Sports and BB&T officials refused to disclose the value of the deal, but industry sources valued the agreement at $3.7 million a year. That would be the most lucrative naming-rights deal for a major league arena in Florida

[troutman]

The Florida Panthers opened their 2013-14 preseason schedule on Monday with a doubleheader on home ice: two split-squad games against the Nashville Predators at 2:30 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Erin Brown, Florida Panthers correspondent for Fox Sports Florida, tweeted the following image during the national anthem of the afternoon game. And it wasn’t pretty:

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-pu...3421--nhl.html

“However, in no way does today's attendance reflect our expectation for the upcoming season. In fact we fully expect an Opening Night sellout, our new full season equivalent ticket sales are up 41-percent over last year and we also expect the 2013-14 season to be the fourth consecutive year in which we see an average home attendance increase at the BB&T Center."

[troutman]

How it all works:

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/201...rk-forbes-list

Even with the Forbes list of franchise values showing a wide gulf between NHL haves and have-nots, the 24th-ranked Panthers are far from a toothless franchise.

A diversified parent company with a favorable arena deal gives the Panthers a fighting chance even as the lockout threatens to wipe out some of their best drawing games during the upcoming holidays.

"It is a different situation than an entity that is just a team and a pure tenant in a facility, that it makes some of its money from other events," Rick Horrow, host of Sportfolio on Bloomberg television and former director of the Miami Sports Authority, said of the Panthers.

While these are dark days for hockey in North America, there is plenty of activity at the BB&T Center with the likes of Aerosmith and the new Golden Boy Boxing Series helping fill the iceless void. Lady Gaga, Bocelli and Pink are coming to pack seats, even if the Panthers don't come back soon.

"We're an entertainment company. Hockey is our bread-and-butter, it's a big part of what we do. But concerts and shows are also very, very important," said Michael Yormark, president and COO of Sunrise Sports & Entertainment, which operates the Panthers and the Broward County-owned arena.

What is open to public scrutiny is the performance of the BB&T Center, which the SSE has run since 1998 through the sort of sweet deal that sports franchises tend to wrangle from government entities.

The ebb and flow of arena finances during the first 10 years, through 2008, are available for anyone to view on the county website in the auditor's report published in 2010 (Broward.org; search under auditor's reports).

During the initial decade, the Arena Operating Company turned a profit every year, generating a total net income of $89.9 million. The AOC is the sister of the Panthers, both under the SSE.

Compare arena revenues with Forbes' annual estimates of the Panthers' finances, and most years the SSE comes out ahead. One extreme example, in 2006 the AOC had a profit of $11.7 million while the Panthers lost $1.9 million, leaving a handsome net gain of $9.8 million for the organization.

The trend has continued in the years since 2008. Earlier this year, when the Panthers sought and won a $7.7 million loan from Broward for arena renovations, the county auditor disclosed that the Panthers had netted $117.4 million from the arena since it opened.

Note that annual income hasn't reached the lofty plateau to require the SSE to share a portion of profits with the county since the building's inaugural season.

The finances of the hockey operation are unknown, but it can be an advantage for teams to show losses — certainly in the league's negotiations with the players' union.

[valo403]

The structures of these entities are crazy. I've seen the corporate 'flow chart' diagrams for a few professional sports teams (NFL) and there are lines shooting all over the place to a massive array of LLC's, Corporations and any other legal structure you can think of. Just drawing up the chart is a massive task.

[blankall]

My guess is that the Panthers are also paying money (in the form of lease payment or operating costs) to other entities under the umbrella in order to make the team appear as though it's losing money.

There are advantages to being a "have not" team in the NHL.

[Loyal and True]

I've never been to Florida but I found out a few (Cliff Claven/wikipedia) things online that I never knew before:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunrise,_Florida


Sunrise is approx 50 km driving distance from Miami but with good highway access. 6 miles from Ft. Lauderdale.

Population 84,439, yet one of Florida's top tourist draws.

Home to 4th largest outlet shopping mall in the United States. 2.3 million sq.ft. shopping and entertainment center.

612 acre business park is the largest corporate park in south Florida. The city's strong taxbase stems from all the large corporate citizens.

BB&T Center's 2011 First quarter non-hockey attendance numbers ranked No.4 in the US and No.17 in the world