George Richards, FHN Publisher
The Florida Panthers will be moving to the east side of town in the near future after breaking ground on a new training facility at War Memorial Auditorium in Fort Lauderdale.
The team is targeting to have the state-of-the-art facility, one that will feature two ice sheets and stadium seating for team workouts, open before training camp starts in 2022.
The Panthers may even have their development and rookie camps at the complex if it opens, as planned, in June.
”That’s the month Vinnie is holding me to,” team president Matt Caldwell said.
Tuesday’s ceremony brought out the team’s biggest names (Vinnie and Teresa Viola, Caldwell, Joel Quenneville, Bill Zito, Roberto Luongo, Brett Peterson, Peter Worrell and Shawn Thornton) as well as elected city and county officials.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, who has a home in Palm Beach County, was also on hand.
The group broke ground using Florida Panthers game-used hockey sticks with engraved gold-plated shovel tips bolted on.
Owner Vinnie Viola got captain Sasha Barkov’s stick.
”The job is not done, the mission is not complete and will not be until we’re standing up here with the Stanley Cup,” Viola told the large group of invited dignitaries who attended the event at Holiday Park.
“Champion cities deserve champions and this is a champion city. … This is a magnificent place and we will win the Stanley Cup. That is our commitment to you. I’m going to end by thanking everyone. And from the bottom of my heart and my wife’s heart, we very honored and humbled to be given the opportunity to serve this community.”
The ceremony was not just to celebrate the opening of a new training facility.
No, it was more to commemorate the Panthers’ continued eastward push through Broward County — and a burgeoning relationship with Fort Lauderdale.
Caldwell, the team president, had a slip of the tongue while on stage about a new arena.
It is no secret the team is looking east and would like to build a new arena in downtown Fort Lauderdale.
But that is years away.
The training facility and renovation of the historic, yet aging, War Memorial is the first step in the Panthers likely eventual move east.
Many of the team’s players and coaches live on the east side, a shift from the early days of the team’s move to Sunrise where many took up residence in western Broward or Palm Beach counties.
When the Panthers plans were first revealed in 2019, Aaron Ekblad said players were very excited about having practices, and perhaps morning skates on day of games, much closer to where they live.
The east-west traffic in Broward County is not fun to navigate.
Players, at least the ones who do not live on the western side of town, cannot wait for the shorter commute to work.
Fort Lauderdale awaits their arrival.
”This is just another example how private-public partnerships work,’’ Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis said.
“We’re able to bring sports to families, bring them close to home in our city. We’re not just going to have a practice rink for the team, but also one for the community to use exclusively: Mom and pop, this is a great place and it would not have happened if not for the generosity of the Panthers organization.”
Opposing teams which stay in Fort Lauderdale and usually skip morning skates because of the long drive to Sunrise would likely use the new facility as well.
Tuesday’s groundbreaking has been years in the making.
In 2019, the Fort Lauderdale city commission approved the Panthers’ plan to build a complex around a War Memorial Auditorium it would renovate.
The Panthers were given a 50-year lease for $1 per year in return for the team’s investment on the western side of Holiday Park.
Not only did the Covid-19 pandemic slow things down — Ekblad said the Panthers hoped to be in the new digs by Christmas 2020 — but so did a lawsuit filed by Gary J. Olsen.
Per BrowardBulldog.com, Olsen’s suit was dismissed twice, the first time ”with predjudice” and the final time without it meaning the suit could not be refiled.
That gave the Panthers the green light to begin work on the complex.
While Tuesday was the groundbreaking, it is obvious work has already been started and the grounds around the Auditorium, where the new ice rinks will go, have been cleared.
The Panthers will continue to own and operate the IceDen in Coral Springs. The team will remain there for at least the upcoming season as training camp and most practices are expected to return after everything was held at the Sunrise arena in 2021.
After that, the plan is for the team to move east to what will be named the Baptist Health Iceplex.
”All of our players are living in Fort Lauderdale,” Caldwell said, although we should note Barkov lives in Boca Raton which means he would be closer to the new facilities as well.
“The core of our fanbase is here. It’s the biggest city in Broward County so we felt it was important to have a presence here. We really love what we built in Sunrise, but to have a smaller version of it — a 4,000 capacity music venue, the practice facility — right in downtown Fort Lauderdale.”
The Panthers’ youth hockey programs will likely take over the team’s current space at the IceDen, one that continues to undergo renovations and updates of its own.
Former team owner Alan Cohen spent $10 million to add a third sheet of ice and create a state-of-the-art training facility at the Coral Springs site (then named Incredible Ice) that the team still uses.
That addition, completed in 2009, added close to 50,000 square-feet of space including 16,365 for the Panthers’ locker room, weight room and offices.
”When I came down here to Fort Lauderdale, one of the things I wanted to do was impact the game of hockey both on and off the ice,” said Peterson, the team’s assistant general manager.
“Today we take a step in that direction with this great facility. War Memorial will be a place that creates memories for so many. We’re excited to be part of it. It’s an exciting time for hockey in South Florida. We’re growing the game and will do it together.”
THE AMENITIES
For Fort Lauderdale, getting the aging Auditorium back to its former glory is the highlight of the deal with the Panthers as it has mostly been used for gun and computer shows before being closed up with an eye toward renovation.
The Parker Playhouse, which shares the entrance to Holiday Park, is being fixed up as well. It is getting a $30-million makeover with plans for a January reopening.
The Auditorium, built in 1950, will be the centerpiece of the development as it will be repurposed as a ballroom style concert & performance venue.
The team is partnering with Live Nation to provide acts which would not be up to filling a venue the size of BB&T Center or AmericanAirlines Arena.
In 2018, following the mass shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School, the city of Fort Lauderdale did not renew the annual contract with operators of the popular gun show at the Auditorium.
Looking to make better use of the space, the city first approached the Panthers — who have a longstanding relationship and commitment to the military — about renovating the Auditorium which was built and remains as a tribute to military heroes.
”Vinnie said from Day 1 that he doesn’t view himself as the owner; the community owns the team,” Caldwell said. “We are just stewards of that public trust and we take honor in that. This project is a great symbol of that.
“We’re bringing youth hockey and figure skating and entertainment here while honoring our veterans. We are veteran owned, hire veterans throughout the organization. So this project hits every pillar we stand for.”
Over the years, plans moved forward to include a public ice rink.
Then, the team came up with the idea to build a new training facility at the site.
The ice facilities are going to be built around the Auditorium from the ground up. The team plans on building three new buildings with a large indoor/outdoor restaurant as well as inline hockey rinks and pickleball courts in a courtyard style setting.
One building will hold a community ice skating/hockey rink; the second building will have stadium seating and primarily be used by the team. A third building will be for the Panthers’ offices, locker room, workout and medical facilities.
The Panthers have spent years researching other new facilities around the NHL including the ones used in Las Vegas, Chicago, St. Louis, Boston and Toronto.
The team wants their new facilities to be the best in the league.
Based on the renderings, it may just be.
“It has taken us the better part of two years because we wanted to get the vision right,” Caldwell said. “We checked out the War Memorial because Vinnie cares about vets and maybe we can revitalize it. Then we got on the ground, saw we were right in the heart of Fort Lauderdale and thought it would be great to bring hockey here. It started with one sheet of ice and then it became the training facility. It will become a community hub and not just a training facility.”
