[Rumour] Panthers lay off 30 people

[Street Pharmacist]

Seems like the quintessential panic move before the inevitable chapter 11

[Jacks]

All joking aside, I know they have a great arena deal but it is a travesty that the NHL keeps a team in that market. A team in Southern Ontario would instantly sell out every game and instantly have 100's of thousands of fans.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Street Pharmacist

Seems like the quintessential panic move before the inevitable chapter 11

When you let go of most of your sales staff to save money it really does look like there are major issues. Of all departments reducing sales staff is the most counterproductive to generating more money. It's like they are throwing in the towel assuming there's no more business to be had. Maybe if they weren't such a bad hockey team annually they wouldn't be in this predicament? Since they brought Talon in all they have done is pick 1st & 2nd overall in the NHL draft. That's Oilers bad.

[getbak]

Trouble selling tickets? Fire your ticket sales staff.

[OzSome]

The way business is being run in Florida Panthers organization has been strange in the past few years. One time they started signing expensive players then a few years later they started getting rid of them.

Now the NHL season is about to end, they started getting rid of their sales people.

[Flames in 07]

Originally Posted by DoubleF

Holding signs simply with the words "Seattle Pilots" wouldn't hurt either way.

Fixed.

[Vulcan]

With Florida's money problems and their willingness to trade their 1st overall for immediate help, it looks like they are going to take one more kick at the cat, with a better team and see if the attendance doesn't improve. If it doesn't improve, then they'll be looking to move in the 15/16 season.

[Nuje]

Originally Posted by Jacks

How can you lay off a sales team that sells season tickets to fans in a different country?
http://www.cavemag.com/my-year-as-a-...ticket-holder/

I know a Calgarian who did the same thing this past year, and actually got out to a game or 2, although he's actually a Panthers fan. $7 a game...they sent him a full set of extra tickets for free, so $3.50 a seat a game.

[UKflames]

If you are losing money why would you fire the team that are needed to generate that money?? Seems a really strange business strategy to me. Sure fire the head of the sales team and bring in someone new but the whole team, not sure how that benefits them in the short term or the long term.

[nfotiu]

That team seems to make most of their money from their arena and I also heard they have a pretty fat tv deal that no doubt relies on RSN carriage fees and doesn't matter if anyone is watching the games or not. It's possible that those are enough to get by on, and the amount of money they were getting from people actually paying money for tickets is so low as to not cover the cost of the sales staff. Pretty crappy way to run a team. Maybe the owner is just using it to park some of his less than scrupulously earned money.

http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2014/...-vinnie-viola/

[ToraToraTora]

Originally Posted by getbak

Trouble selling tickets? Fire your ticket sales staff.

Similar to the Oilers strategy of "Have no defence and an abundance of undersized forwards? Trade Smid for Horak."

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[dustygoon]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

When you let go of most of your sales staff to save money it really does look like there are major issues. Of all departments reducing sales staff is the most counterproductive to generating more money. It's like they are throwing in the towel assuming there's no more business to be had. Maybe if they weren't such a bad hockey team annually they wouldn't be in this predicament? Since they brought Talon in all they have done is pick 1st & 2nd overall in the NHL draft. That's Oilers bad.

Not counterproductive if sales team isn't producing. Lots of ways to skin the sales/marketing cat.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by dustygoon

Not counterproductive if sales team isn't producing. Lots of ways to skin the sales/marketing cat.

There certainly is more than one way to skin the sales/marketing cat but that still involves having you know.....a sales staff.

[OldDutch]

Kind of a cool story bro, but I have a friend who grew up here and has lived down there for 15 years. He played hockey his whole life prior to moving to Miami area. He's never once been to the Panthers, no one would go with him, not even his girlfriend. So he is huge into College Football and NFL.

Well him and his girl were traveling and saw LA play San Jose in the first round this year. She was hooked. I got tons of texts from the game and what a blast it was.

So yes I think winning probably could help that market, however it just has fail written all over it. As discussed, south Florida is just a bad sports market. Ft. Lauderdale apart from retirees, the average joe is pretty hillbilly. They love their football, guns, Nascar, and quad in'. So even if you relocated Red Wings there I really think it would fail.

Moving the team is an option, but I wonder if just like PHX having a true pan American presence helps the league make money on TV deals? So this becomes the welfare cousin/necessary evil team. Who knows, all I know is no one really gives a hoot about that team from my travels down there.

[Erick Estrada]

They don't even support the Dolphins all that well as they only averaged 85% capacity which is the 3rd worst in the NFL. The Marlins built that beautiful little park and they couldn't even sell it out in its inaugural season. The Heat gets support because they are the best team in the NBA but the minute they are no longer a top team they will play to empty seats. It's simply a crummy sports town.