SUNRISE, Fla. — The on-ice success story for the Florida Panthers is easy to see: They are one win away from a second consecutive trip to the Stanley Cup Final.
The off-ice success isn’t hard to figure out either.
With an 18th sellout of the season expected for Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals Saturday night, when the Panthers host the New York Rangers, Florida has already lured more fans to its rink this year than in any other in the team’s 30-season history. And the team’s ticket revenue has climbed 50% from where it was just two years ago, according to data shared with The Associated Press.
“If you win and you build a good program, you create an expanded fan base that isn’t necessarily then going to fluctuate with wins and losses all the time,” Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. “You have to, over time, play an exciting game of hockey. But I’d like to feel that we’re part of something with deep enough roots that we would be considered a model franchise.”
That phrase — “model franchise” — was not one that anyone in hockey would tag the Panthers with a few years ago. Relocation rumors, despite the team steadfastly saying they were totally untrue, were constant. The home rink was half-empty, at best, much of the time.
Those days are long gone.
Florida will play its 50th home game of the season Saturday night, tying last year’s team for the second most in club history. If Florida makes the Stanley Cup Final, there is a chance that the Panthers’ total home attendance could top 1 million for the first time; it will be somewhere around 940,000 for the season when all the tickets for Game 6 against the Rangers are counted.
“They’ve been great for us all season,” Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov said.
No NHL team saw a bigger jump in regular-season average home attendance this year than the Panthers, whose numbers in that department went up nearly 12% over last season. Over a two-year span, that number is up 25% — and corporate partnership revenue is up by more than 120% from where it was in 2022, the team said.
Add it all up — the wins, the deep playoff runs, the sellouts, the opening earlier this year of a new practice facility with fan-friendly amenities such as a store and restaurant in downtown Fort Lauderdale, more and more sponsor deals — and it becomes obvious that Florida is enjoying a run from the business standpoint like never before.
“You have to play a style of game that if you’re going to spend your money and you’re going to go to the rink in February, you’ve got a real good chance of being entertained,” Maurice said. “And I think these men do that.”
The Texas Rangers‘ pitching staff took another hit Friday, when right-hander Jon Gray suffered a right wrist fracture.
Gray was struck by a line drive from Colorado Rockies first baseman Michael Toglia to lead off the fourth inning that knocked him out of the game.
“Not good news, not good news,” manager Bruce Bochy told reporters. “It’s terrible. I feel awful for him, to be this close to getting the season going. It’s just not good news. I’ll get back in there and find out more, but right now, there is a fracture.”
Gray’s injury is the third setback for the Rangers rotation this week. The team said Thursday that left-hander Cody Bradford would start the season on the injured list because of soreness in his throwing elbow. Tyler Mahle had been scratched from a start with forearm soreness, but the right-hander returned to pitch in a minor league game Thursday.
Gray went 5-6 with a 4.47 ERA in 23 appearances (19 starts) for the Rangers last season, when he was shut down in September for a foot injury that required surgery. He is in the final year of a four-year, $56 million deal.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
TOKYO — Japanese star Shohei Ohtani showed off some prodigious power in his return to the Tokyo Dome on Saturday night.
In an exhibition game against the Yomiuri Giants, the three-time Most Valuable Player belted a long two-run homer to right field in the third inning to give the Dodgers a 4-0 lead, setting off a roar from the roughly 42,000 fans in attendance.
The Dodgers put on quite a power display in the third with Michael Conforto, Ohtani and Teoscar Hernández all going deep to give Los Angeles a 5-0 advantage.
The Dodgers are playing in Japan as part of the Tokyo Series. The team is playing two exhibition games against Japanese teams before starting the regular season with two games against the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Ohtani became the first player in MLB history to have at least 50 homers and 50 stolen bases in one season in 2024. He played several seasons for the Nippon Ham Fighters in Japan before coming to the U.S. in 2018 with the Los Angeles Angels.
TOKYO — Shortstop Mookie Betts will miss the Los Angeles Dodgers‘ two exhibition games in Japan because of an illness, manager Dave Roberts said Saturday.
Roberts said he’s still hopeful that the eight-time All-Star will be available for the team’s first regular season game against the Chicago Cubs on Tuesday at the Tokyo Dome. The Dodgers are playing the Yomiuri Giants and Hanshin Tigers — two teams from Japan — in exhibition games on Saturday and Sunday.
Roberts said the 32-year-old Betts started to feel flu-like symptoms during the team’s final day in Arizona, but team doctors said he was OK to make the long trip to Japan.
“Mookie is here today, but he’s been really sick,” Roberts said. “Lost some weight, so we’re trying to get him hydrated. He’s going to work out a little today, but he won’t be playing either tonight or tomorrow.
“Then when we have our off day, our workout day, we’ll see how he is.”
Betts is making the full-time transition to shortstop this season after playing most of his career in right field and second base. The 2018 AL MVP hit .289 with 19 homers and 75 RBI last season, helping the Dodgers win the World Series.