Huge3. Panthers pay Broward County $51 million to clear off any remaining debt from construction.
II. Florida Panthers Commitment
A. Florida Panthers agree to pay County $51.5 million within 30 days of an executed final agreement.
• If the County does not exercise its first option to extend the agreement, County to repay $34.4M of the amount paid by the Panthers.
• If the County does not exercise its second option to extend the agreement, County to repay $17.2M of the amount paid by Panthers.
• These repayment terms apply to current ownership group and will not apply if there is a change of control.
Very interesting. Thanks for the link.
So basically - Panthers pay $17 mil for a five year extension. At the option of Broward County, the Panthers can be extended for two five year periods, at a cost of $17 mil from the Panthers to Broward for each extension. Then as mentioned, the Panthers have development rights to the parking lot for the next five years (subject to Broward County's approval).
So this is where I think I got the situation all wrong. I would've thought that the Panthers had all the leverage here - they could move in four years, so they'd try to extract as many concessions from Broward County as they could. I've heard numerous times that the Panthers arena is not in a desirable location. Instead it seems like the Panthers are quite eager to stay, to the tune of up to $51 million.
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Actually - I take that back. Under the agreement Broward County is paying $25 mil per year to the Panthers (reduced to $20 mil per year in the second extension). That is obviously very favourable to the Panthers! That seems to just be a continuation of the existing lease terms though. So that adds up to much more than the $51 mil the Panthers are paying back. So I can now understand why the Panthers are more eager to stay.
It was massive up until this year. Each year on (from now), it got less and less - in huge chunks. This was earmarked as the "Season-to-Watch" in regard to invoking their out clause - if it was ever coming to that.Didn't the current lease have a massive breakup price??? Best I can remember from past threads it was something like $22-25 million for an early exit.
Not like they have anything else to doQuebec will be keeping a very close eye on this.
That's not really massive in the context of NHL team values these days. They basically had to pay back what the county gave the panthers in the last lease redo.Didn't the current lease have a massive breakup price??? Best I can remember from past threads it was something like $22-25 million for an early exit.