While I can admit upfront that I'm not a hockey fan, I would like to think I can grasp some basic concepts about the sport. For example, even if I do not understand the nuances inherent in putting together a winning team, I do know that at a bare minimum getting people to show up for your games is a necessity. As a result, I can see that the Florida Panthers are in dire straits, because the NHL team is struggling to get anyone to show up at the arena. Just over seven thousand people showed up for a recent game against the Ottawa Senators. For reference, more fans turn out for the WHL's Calgary Hitmen, and that's not an NHL team.
The trick is you have to give people a reason to attend your games even if you're awful. The Toronto Maple Leafs, for example, were recently named the worst professional sports team in North America, and yet they still pull numbers that are significantly better than the Panthers can manage. Whatever you think of the idea of the Maple Leafs being the worst, they're still in a good place for hockey, because Toronto cares about the sport in general and the team in their city in particular. It has a loyal fanbase that turns out for games, whether or not the team is winning, and that's what a team needs to maintain a franchise, a foundation of fans who care about it.
The Panthers are going to have difficulty filling stadiums because it's just not situated well for sport. One can always put the blame on it being a sunshine state trying to host a cold weather game, but even sports that are generally well suited for the sun - baseball and football, for example - struggle to put people in seats in the southern part of the state, though football is doing okay this year. The Panthers are going up not against a weather disconnect, but a part of the world where pro sports are just not a priority for any of the people who actually live there.
Which is not to say all sports teams in Florida are doomed. After all, the Tampa Bay Lightning get respectable attendance for their games, and they're also in Florida. But that's the real problem with the Panthers, if you're going to support a team in Florida, why wouldn't you go to the one that actually wins games? It might be less convenient for some people to support Tampa Bay, but for the small section of Florida that watches hockey, it promises a better representation of the sport.
So what should be done about the Panthers? Well the obvious solution is to relocate them somewhere, though the NHL does traditionally try to avoid that. Plenty of places have been floated as potential relocation sites, including Saskatoon. While I don't know if Saskatoon has the patience to stick with a team that has not done well in a long time - the Blades have always had highly variable attendance - it's at least a place that has more potential support than south Florida. At the very least, Canadian cities are a more compelling choice than Miami.
The ideal location for the team is one that wants hockey, but is not currently well served for it. There are plenty of places in the more northern part of the continent that would be happy to have a team, and give it a loyal foundation until they can get on their feet and start building a franchise. If Canada can keep the "worst team in professional sports" alive, we can be a Panther sanctuary too.
