South Florida Fully Embracing Panthers

It has been almost 30 years since the Florida Panthers advanced to their first Stanley Cup Final. They lost the Cup in 1996 to the Colorado Avalanche. There have been more downs than ups since 1996, but South Florida has taken to this team recently and is representing the franchise with a tremendous source of pride.

South Florida is used to having a winning team in town. The Miami Dolphins won the Super Bowl twice in the 1970's and had a perfect, undefeated season in 1972. The Florida Marlins, now the Miami Marlins, won the World Series in 1997 and 2003. Finally, the Miami Heat have won the NBA World Championship three times since 2006.

However, many South Florida sports fans alive today do not have any knowledge of those teams as they were not born when the Dolphins or Marlins were successful. The Dolphins have not won a playoff game in 25 years. The Marlins are constantly toiling around the dregs of Major League Baseball and played an entertaining game against the Colorado Rockies last week before just under 6,000 paid fans.

The Panthers know what that is like. They used to play to an arena full of empty seats. Free agents did not