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Potential sale: Florida Panthers won’t comment. W4E say: Pahooooof.

This thing working?

What a ridiculously dead period for teams out of the dance. Can’t even dredge up a post mortem. Well, that’s not entirely true…I do indeed have a season review almost polished up. But it’s been slow the past few days.

The potential sale of the club, or a portion anyway, by Sports Properties Acquisition Corp. has been the topic of the week since Monday. Sarah Talalay of the Sun-Sentinel had a bit more on the subject this morning:

Sunrise Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Panthers, is an attractive option because it owns the pro hockey team, operates the publicly financed BankAtlantic Center and wants to build a mixed-use entertainment district around the arena in Sunrise.

From a Joe Six-Pack position this stuff is akin to a Jacques Martin press conference: mind-numbingly boring, painful to the soul, and less than a step up the ladder from taking in an NBA “game” (quotes courtesy of the basketball officials’ union).

I’ll obviously approach this from an amateur’s standpoint, but I don’t believe there is an honest chance in hell the organization is in danger of leaving within the next decade, and probably far longer. Why? Simply put, you can’t relocate a building, nor it’s subsidiary properties. If they’re successful? All the more solid the foundation becomes. This appears to be an effort aimed at regional growth, not contraction.

Sounds as if there are some grand plans on paper for the area surrounding the BAC, and luckily for hockey fans, the anchor tenant is the hockey club (thank goodness the Heat are ensconced in Miami). Of course, this all has to go through the typical local governmental channels, not to mention ironing out the inevitable court battles given potenital environmental concerns for the surrounding area.

Still…nothing is impossible. Once a fan has been through the relocation of his/her team, the world is never the same. This merger may have some merit, and perhaps will pave the way for a long future in South Florida.

As the comments will undoubtedly point out, I’m typically wrong.

Talking Points