I don't mind the relocation plan really. It makes sense, as those teams boost our attendance numbers and sales. It definitely sets up the possibility of 2 more expansion teams in the West as well, which will probably happen in the next 2-3 years.
The more I think about it, the more I love the new conference lineup.
Aside from the annoying Habs fans in our building more often, it actually solves a TON of problems for the Cats.
- More TV Exposure: Playing Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Detroit and Boston will assure us MUCH more TV time
- Better home attendance: It sucks to have more away fans then home fans, but selling more tickets is good for the team as a whole. Also, There's already an inherent natural rivalry with the Snow birds thanks to I-95 traffic.
- There is zero crossing of time zones. Travel time will not be significantly greater. We have to fly everywhere but Tampa anyway and Detroit only adds 45 minutes (compared to Atlanta/Carolina) to the flight.
- We get to see 4 of the original 6 at home more often. Say what you will, but the storied history of these franchises do carry buzz.
- Less desperation for sponsors: With bigger names, better attendance and better TV coverage it will make the building more valuable. Love the ads or hate them, they do help ticket prices and amenities offered to fans a great deal.
- No more Southleast: With 4 of the original six in our division, no one can deride our division as a whole any more.
- Pressure to succeed: With more time in the spotlight, we will HAVE to ice a better team to be competitive. This lends itself to better roster acquisitions and a much improved chance of reaching father into the playoffs should we succeed.
Stronger rivalries: The teams in our new division would have MANY more fans in the local area. This is what creates rivalries and makes games fun to go to. think of the Dolphins/Jets for an example. That rivalry exists mostly due to the sheer number of away fans that live down here.
It will be an adjustment, but I think it's better for the team as a whole.
The more I think about it, the more I love the new conference lineup.
Aside from the annoying Habs fans in our building more often, it actually solves a TON of problems for the Cats.
- More TV Exposure: Playing Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Detroit and Boston will assure us MUCH more TV time
- Better home attendance: It sucks to have more away fans then home fans, but selling more tickets is good for the team as a whole. Also, There's already an inherent natural rivalry with the Snow birds thanks to I-95 traffic.
- There is zero crossing of time zones. Travel time will not be significantly greater. We have to fly everywhere but Tampa anyway and Detroit only adds 45 minutes (compared to Atlanta/Carolina) to the flight.
- We get to see 4 of the original 6 at home more often. Say what you will, but the storied history of these franchises do carry buzz.
- Less desperation for sponsors: With bigger names, better attendance and better TV coverage it will make the building more valuable. Love the ads or hate them, they do help ticket prices and amenities offered to fans a great deal.
- No more Southleast: With 4 of the original six in our division, no one can deride our division as a whole any more.
- Pressure to succeed: With more time in the spotlight, we will HAVE to ice a better team to be competitive. This lends itself to better roster acquisitions and a much improved chance of reaching father into the playoffs should we succeed.
Stronger rivalries: The teams in our new division would have MANY more fans in the local area. This is what creates rivalries and makes games fun to go to. think of the Dolphins/Jets for an example. That rivalry exists mostly due to the sheer number of away fans that live down here.
It will be an adjustment, but I think it's better for the team as a whole.
I agree on a lot of your points. I think you hit upon hit perfectly. I think its really exciting to me when Leafs fans for example look back 50 years from now theyll remember perhaps the epic playoff duels with the florida panthers.
I think being in a historic division and becoming a good team the way the panthers are headed will lend for us to make some history and be written into the hockey history books as well.
- Better home attendance: It sucks to have more away fans then home fans, but selling more tickets is good for the team as a whole. Also, There's already an inherent natural rivalry with the Snow birds thanks to I-95 traffic.
What would you all think of being moved to a division in the West with Tampa? (Now this would be after expansion in Quebec City and Markham/2nd Toronto team)
Division 1: Anaheim, Calgary, Colorado, Edmonton, LA, San Jose, Phoenix/Seattle, Vancouver
Division 2: Chicago, Dallas, Florida, Minnesota, Nashville, St. Louis, Tampa Bay, Winnipeg
Division 3: Carolina, Columbus, New Jersey, NY Islanders, NY Rangers, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington
Division 4: Boston, Buffalo, Detroit, Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec City, Toronto, Markham/Toronto 2
It has less snowbirds but travel-wise would probably be a little bit better and even though there is the time difference it would only be one hour since all those teams are in central time zone. Plus NHL gets to keep its old Adams and Patrick division rivalries intact.
For now just keep Columbus or Detroit in the Midwest division, with the promise that when expansion to Quebec City and Markham/Toronto 2 happens they will be moved to East to keep the conferences equal.
NHL could even get creative with its scheduling so all central time zone teams play Division 1 an extra time each year or just rotate between the other three divisions who has to play Division 1 an extra game each year.
The realignment plan looks good as long as the schedule keeps the team in Canada on road trips. No travel from Toronto to Buffalo and then back to Montreal. Those types of trips are a pain as the team has to pass through customs each time adding at least an hour to the trip.
I like the teams in our division, but I hate the playoff format and the unbalanced odds of making the playoffs.
The NHL moved away from divisional playoffs because people got tired of seeing the same matches over and over again. Now the NHL wants to move back to divisional playoffs for...why exactly? Makes no sense.
I also dislike the fact that the Eastern conference will have 2 more teams than the Western conference. That makes a big difference to a team's playoff odds. I'm surprised that this isn't a bigger concern especially when considering the financial benefits from making the playoffs. If I were an Eastern conference team owner, no way I let this pass.
The more I think about it, the more I love the new conference lineup.
Aside from the annoying Habs fans in our building more often, it actually solves a TON of problems for the Cats.
- More TV Exposure: Playing Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Detroit and Boston will assure us MUCH more TV time
- Better home attendance: It sucks to have more away fans then home fans, but selling more tickets is good for the team as a whole. Also, There's already an inherent natural rivalry with the Snow birds thanks to I-95 traffic.
- There is zero crossing of time zones. Travel time will not be significantly greater. We have to fly everywhere but Tampa anyway and Detroit only adds 45 minutes (compared to Atlanta/Carolina) to the flight.
- We get to see 4 of the original 6 at home more often. Say what you will, but the storied history of these franchises do carry buzz.
- Less desperation for sponsors: With bigger names, better attendance and better TV coverage it will make the building more valuable. Love the ads or hate them, they do help ticket prices and amenities offered to fans a great deal.
- No more Southleast: With 4 of the original six in our division, no one can deride our division as a whole any more.
- Pressure to succeed: With more time in the spotlight, we will HAVE to ice a better team to be competitive. This lends itself to better roster acquisitions and a much improved chance of reaching father into the playoffs should we succeed.
Stronger rivalries: The teams in our new division would have MANY more fans in the local area. This is what creates rivalries and makes games fun to go to. think of the Dolphins/Jets for an example. That rivalry exists mostly due to the sheer number of away fans that live down here.
It will be an adjustment, but I think it's better for the team as a whole.
I agree with much of this also. Its a great move for the Franchise as a whole.
Nah... they'll just uncover the seats that are covered and stop lying about their ticket sales..
Impossible for us to be over 100% if club Dead is only 70% sold.
They're basing attendance on ESPN.com with the tarps on capping it at 17,000. For Opening Night and a couple of other games, we had standing room only. With those games having possibly over 2,000 fans more than the cap, if you add in those games with 15,000-16,000, and that's how we're averaging over the 17,000 per game.
That's terrible. Panthers would never agree to that.
No box office draw in the division besides Boston.
People need to stop being so hung up on distances. There isn't much difference between a 1.5 hour flight and a 3 hour flight (in terms of player fatigue) as long as you aren't crossing time zones.
Distances matter for creating rivalries, which invokes passion in fans and creates games they want to see. Sure, the Panthers will have a bigger draw from Montreal and Toronto...but what's the draw for those teams? Even as a Panthers fan I can understand it's not the team everyone wants to see their team play...except in Tampa.
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"...and ultimately it doesn't matter."
Distances matter for creating rivalries, which invokes passion in fans and creates games they want to see. Sure, the Panthers will have a bigger draw from Montreal and Toronto...but what's the draw for those teams? Even as a Panthers fan I can understand it's not the team everyone wants to see their team play...except in Tampa.
The Panthers have no rivalries because they have sucked for so long that noone hates them. You have to be good enough to be hated.
Distance will not play a role in who their rivals become.
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FLORIDA PANTHERS 2011-12 SOUTHEAST DIVISION CHAMPIONS 2012-13 BASEMENT DWELLERS
What would you all think of being moved to a division in the West with Tampa? (Now this would be after expansion in Quebec City and Markham/2nd Toronto team)
Division 1: Anaheim, Calgary, Colorado, Edmonton, LA, San Jose, Phoenix/Seattle, Vancouver
Division 2: Chicago, Dallas, Florida, Minnesota, Nashville, St. Louis, Tampa Bay, Winnipeg
Division 3: Carolina, Columbus, New Jersey, NY Islanders, NY Rangers, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington
Division 4: Boston, Buffalo, Detroit, Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec City, Toronto, Markham/Toronto 2
It has less snowbirds but travel-wise would probably be a little bit better and even though there is the time difference it would only be one hour since all those teams are in central time zone. Plus NHL gets to keep its old Adams and Patrick division rivalries intact.
For now just keep Columbus or Detroit in the Midwest division, with the promise that when expansion to Quebec City and Markham/Toronto 2 happens they will be moved to East to keep the conferences equal.
NHL could even get creative with its scheduling so all central time zone teams play Division 1 an extra time each year or just rotate between the other three divisions who has to play Division 1 an extra game each year.
No offense, but that makes no sense.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pantherbot
I like the teams in our division, but I hate the playoff format and the unbalanced odds of making the playoffs.
The NHL moved away from divisional playoffs because people got tired of seeing the same matches over and over again. Now the NHL wants to move back to divisional playoffs for...why exactly? Makes no sense.
I also dislike the fact that the Eastern conference will have 2 more teams than the Western conference. That makes a big difference to a team's playoff odds. I'm surprised that this isn't a bigger concern especially when considering the financial benefits from making the playoffs. If I were an Eastern conference team owner, no way I let this pass.
The Panthers have no rivalries because they have sucked for so long that noone hates them. You have to be good enough to be hated.
Distance will not play a role in who their rivals become.
The Panthers DO have a rival in Tampa Bay...no matter how much the Panthers have sucked, more seasons than not they've had the Bolts' ticket. In fact, I can only remember a couple where the Lightning dominated. And being cross-state, there's a natural tendency to hate the other team.
The Panthers DO have a rival in Tampa Bay...no matter how much the Panthers have sucked, more seasons than not they've had the Bolts' ticket. In fact, I can only remember a couple where the Lightning dominated. And being cross-state, there's a natural tendency to hate the other team.
There is no real rivalry between the Lightning & Panthers.
Outside of this forum, I don't think you'll find a lot of Lightning haters among Panther fans.
The closest the Panthers have come to a real rivalry was against Carolina in the Laviolette's divers / Eddy the Eagle era.
Using your logic the Dolphins biggest rivals should be the Jaguars and the Bucs... and no Dolphins fan really cares about those teams. They hate the Jets / Patriots / Bills.
Being in the same division creates rivalries, regardless of geography.
The Panthers DO have a rival in Tampa Bay...no matter how much the Panthers have sucked, more seasons than not they've had the Bolts' ticket. In fact, I can only remember a couple where the Lightning dominated. And being cross-state, there's a natural tendency to hate the other team.
As much as I personally hate the absolute hell out of them, most Panthers fans don't have anything against them. At least from my perception, many Lightning fans I met don't like us too much though. However, I think once the two teams meet in the playoffs down the line, the hatred will really open up. Both fanbases would probably love for it to happen because neither team really has any true rivals due to the fact of only having a handful of good seasons under their belts.
What makes no sense? The quarter and semi finals will be played within the divisions. The wildcards add some variability, but not as much as you would have now. It will be similar matchups from year to year and it has been cited as one of the reasons to move to this format so rivalries can be created.
Distances matter for creating rivalries, which invokes passion in fans and creates games they want to see. Sure, the Panthers will have a bigger draw from Montreal and Toronto...but what's the draw for those teams? Even as a Panthers fan I can understand it's not the team everyone wants to see their team play...except in Tampa.
Vancouver and Boston are pretty far apart and they hate each other just fine. The Panthers will have rivals when they get good enough to have some heated playoff series. I long for the day the Panthers are hated because they are good instead of because they are in south Florida.
Anyone else think that the unbalanced conferences is an obvious precursor to re-location/ expansion? (Not for the Panthers, just in general.)
Seattle, Kansas City, Toronto, Quebec are the front runner I suppose. The weird thing is that if the Yotes move, to stay balanced you need (in total) three new cities in the West or you end up unbalanced once again.
