Panthers Improve Gameday Experience, Net 8-Figures Annually Operating Ancillary Businesses

Panthers Improve Gameday Experience, Net 8-Figures Annually Operating Ancillary Businesses

The Florida Panthers are playing in the Stanley Cup Finals for the third season in a row. So, it’s no surprise that the franchise finished fifth in league attendance this year. 

Winning always helps a team’s business performance. 

But the Panthers’ decision to take control over ancillary gameday services a decade ago should not be ignored. It’s led to an enhanced experience at Amerant Bank Arena and helped the club to build an emotionally engaged fan base ‘one fan at a time’.

For context, Florida’s average overall Net Promoter Score (or NPS) was 33 in 2018-2019. It’s since increased to 71.

“That’s a huge jump,” Michael Kesaris (Vice President of Strategy & Insights, Florida Panthers) said.  “Doubling [means we’re operating] in the category of excellent to world-class.”

The stat, used to measure and improve customer loyalty, gauges the fans’ perceptions on food and beverage (F&B), merchandising, ingress, egress, ticketing, security and their overall experience.   

Bringing gameday ancillaries in-house has also spurred an eight-figure lift to the top line.

Florida Panthers Hockey Club, the club’s parent co., has the organization amongst the league leaders in merchandising, F&B, and parking revenues (top 10 in each category). And the organization now retains all the profits associated with those business lines.

The Panthers being near the top of any business category would have been unthinkable a decade ago.

“There were 30 teams at the time, and it was us and the Coyotes at the bottom of every league metric,” Matthew Caldwell (president and CEO, Florida Panthers) said. “Our financials were nowhere near the rest of the [NHL’s clubs in the mid-2010s].”

While the former has since changed hands and relocated to Utah, the Panthers have become a model NHL franchise.

“When our owner [Vincent Viola] first bought the team, he was very serious and [direct in his] messaging to the market; we're here to stay, we're here to turn this team around,” Caldwell said.

The club couldn’t guarantee fans wins. It could, however, promise to deliver a ‘great customer experience’ from the time fans arrived at the venue through their departure.

To do that though required the team to operate more touchpoints.

“So, we took full control of everything from food and beverage to merchandise and parking,” Caldwell said.

Including the ~1,000 part-time event staffers that keep those operations running (they are all now team employees).

Most NHL teams outsource gameday-related services. They’re focused on the on-ice product and selling seats and sponsorships and lack the bandwidth and/or desire to take on less integral parts of the business.

“A lot of venue operators also give big signing bonuses or make CapEx investments in venues,” Caldwell said.

That makes their offering appealing, particularly if the team is losing a lot of money.

But a third party is never going to be as invested in the fans’ experience as the club. 

“We're trying to sell season tickets. We're planning for two, three years down the road. So, [it’s important to us that] people to have a good time and come back,” Caldwell said. By contrast, “venue operators are ultimately trying to raise revenues and reduce costs as much as possible.

And that can present a conflict of interest.

For an F&B provider to serve higher quality food offerings, they must spend more money on ingredients and cut into their margins. They may not want to make a change–even if the fans in premium seats are clamoring for it.

The team, on the other hand, may wish to address the request to ensure high spending fans leave the venue satisfied. They can recapture lost profits elsewhere.

Of course, the fan doesn’t care who is responsible for F&B. He or she is going to blame the club if it fails to meet expectations.

And “if you're going to be blamed anyway, you might as well [take control over] it,” Caldwell said.

Which explains why the Panthers also operate Amerant Bank arena, despite not owning it.

“If someone's complaining about the scoreboard, HVACs, or general maintenance within suites, they’re going to [bring that to] the team,” Caldwell said.

And at least if the Panthers are in control of the building, they can address the issue in a timely manner.

Viola and Co. knew from the start that the organization would have to outperform expectations to build longstanding hockey fandom in South Florida. But the club likely would not have taken everything in-house if the only benefits were experience related.

That’s because there are tangible upfront costs associated with standing up a trio of new business lines (think: $1mm for F&B, $500K for merchandising, $250K for parking)–and that’s before any necessary investments in infrastructure or equipment.

However, the Panthers owner recognized that capturing the entirety of the margins on ancillaries could help the club meaningfully eat into its losses.

“Vinnie is an entrepreneur at his core,” Caldwell said.  “He prefers launching his own businesses to going through a middleman.” 

By taking over gameday operations from Centerplate, Game Day, and Park One the Panthers have recouped between $12mm and $15mm in annual profits (think: 30% on F&B, 30% on merchandise, and 50% on parking).

“It’s [been] material,” Caldwell said. “It’s like having another local media rights deal.”

And the approach has enabled Florida to collect more data than the average NHL franchise. The team is constructing an app that will leverage the insights gathered to dynamically serve fans as they enter the venue in the future.

The Panthers had some early on-ice success under Viola and slowly started building trust amongst existing fans and the broader community (see: launch of Panthers Patrol foundation, hurricane relief efforts). Those efforts helped Florida grow its season ticket base from 2,700 in 2014-2015 to 9,000 by 2019-2020.

Once the club began challenging for Stanley Cup titles, its investments in the gameday experience and local market started to pay off as imagined. The team now has 15,000 season ticket holders, 3,000 more names on a waiting list, and ranks 5th in the league in paid ticket sales.

While fair to point out that Florida’s average ticket price was only $80 this past season, cheap for a club is in the midst of a generational run, the Panthers recently sent out season ticket renewals for the 2025-2026 season with a ~40% price increase–and still renewed more than 90% of plan holders for next year.

“It was time for a pricing reset given we had kept ticket prices relatively low while we filled the building,” Caldwell said. But “we were very transparent with our season ticket members, [we held] townhalls and [made] phone calls [and that helped them to prepare].”

It’s worth pointing out that the Panthers are floating in uncharted territory. No NHL team has increased pricing more than 30% YoY within the last decade. The average club will increase the cost of season tickets 5-10% annually. 

The Panthers efforts in South Florida have paid dividends with the local government too.

The club now receives “$25 million a year to operate and program the [arena], where in the past [it] only got about $6 million for the [venue’s] upkeep,” Caldwell said. 

Nine Broward County officials voted unanimously in favor of the increase last October.

Caldwell said the overwhelming support speaks to “trust built, how ownership has been good stewards of the franchise, and treated the fans well.”

The team also received the exclusive rights to build on 90 acres around the building as part of its extended lease deal.

“Now, we're going to explore a multi-use district,” Caldwell said. 

Naturally, the organization is planning to operate it.

Top 5 Sports Business Headlines
Click here to subscribe to Sport & Story Daily and never miss a story.

• Analysis: What Final Approval of House Settlement Means for College Sports

• Athletes Express Concern Over NCAA Settlement’s Impact on Non-Revenue Sports

• Pacers-Thunder Thriller Posts Worst Game 1 Numbers Since League's COVID-19 Downturn

• ESPN is Finalizing Sublicense Package Agreement With TNT Sports

• Southern Hockey Surge: NHL Teams Thrive in Non-Traditional Markets, From Texas to Florida