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The Florida Panthers are taking on the Edmonton Oilers, in their third straight Stanley Cup final. Almost as impressive as the team’s success is the growing fanbase in the National Hockey League’s southernmost outpost. Carlton Gillespie looks at how Broward got hooked on hockey.
Christian Home is wandering around the Funky Buddha Brewery taproom in Oakland Park.
He sits down at one of the empty tables and tries to find the nearest TV. He grimaces, shakes his head and moves on. He settles down at another table and beckons his friends to join him. It is Game Three of the Stanley Cup Final. The game won’t start for another hour and a half, but Home wants to make sure he’s got a perfect view.
“ I knew this place was gonna get packed with hockey fans. I wanted to make sure I got here at least an hour early [to] make sure I had a table so I could watch the game and not be standing up or being uncomfortable,” he said.
Home is a hardcore — but not a longtime — Panthers fan. Three years ago, he saw his first ever hockey game when his company held a work event at the nearby Amerant Bank Arena, in Sunrise, where the team plays its home games.
For the last few weeks, he has been one of the thousands of hockey fans packing into watch parties across Broward County for Florida Panthers playoff games. The team is playing in its third consecutive Stanley Cup Final — an unprecedented run of success which has brought scores of new fans to the once stuttering organization.
It has also turbocharged interest in hockey in the National Hockey League’s southernmost market.
Things weren’t always so rosy for the Panthers. Their debut season was in 1993 and 3 years later the team made a run all the way to the Stanley Cup Final, where they came up short against the Colorado Avalanche. But after that, they didn’t win a playoff series until 2022.
“Oh, they were the laughing stock of the league. For a quarter century, it was a wasteland,“ said Dave Hyde, a sports columnist for the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
“They used to give tickets away for free. They’d put them in some coffee shop or restaurant near the arena, and fans knew they could just go get them,” he said.
In 2025, tickets for the Stanley Cup Final games are nearly $500 a piece.
It’s all about winning
Hockey’s fast pace and intense physicality has won over new fans in South Florida, but Hyde thinks the answer for the Panthers’ newfound popularity is simple: It’s all about winning.
“ I think it’s about 97% of it. South Florida fans… They’re discerning, we could put it that way. They’re gonna make teams win before they come out,” he said. “ Things are going really well for the Panthers right now, and people are showing up.”
Some longtime fans disagree. Marco Savage has been a hockey fan his whole life. He brought a handful of friends and family to the watch party held at Amerant Bank Arena for Game 2.
“ I had to explain to them they have to wear something red, but you know,” he said as gestured to one of his friends wearing a navy blue sweater. “We’re working on it.”
Savage had his young daughter in tow, she was decked out in Panthers gear and gave a hearty “Go Cats, Go!” as they walked away.
It’s that community that the NHL wants to tap into. They’ve announced that next January, the Panthers will host a Winter Classic game outdoors at Marlins Park. It’s an attempt to capitalize on what NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman called “the golden age of hockey in Florida.”
The Tampa Bay Lightning have also played their part. They had their own run of three consecutive Stanley Cup finals — winning two — from 2020-2022. A Florida-based team has won the NHL Eastern Conference for six consecutive years.
“Stanley Cups, strings of sellouts and the exponential growth of youth and high school hockey throughout the state have demonstrated that Florida is a hockey hotbed,” Bettman said. “Outdoor NHL games in the Sunshine State? Never let it be said that our league isn’t willing to accept a challenge.”
Whether or not that strategy will be successful remains to be seen, but Home is already seeing the influence this Panthers winning run has had on his friends.
“ My friends, ever since I started getting into it and going to the arena and watching the games, I’ve started getting them into it. Now they’re all buying Panther gear,” he said.
Home, Savage and panthers fans across South Florida celebrated as the Panthers beat the Edmonton Oilers in Game 3 by a score of 6-1. The Panthers lead the series 2-1. Game 4 will take place in Sunrise on June 12.
This story was originally produced by WLRN, South Florida’s only public radio station at 91.3 FM, as part of a content sharing partnership with Miami’s Community News. Read more at WLRN.org.
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