This is a new poster being installed at the Bank Atlantic Center, outside of section 124. It's my friend Murphy's hand ringing the very first cowbell ever brought to a Florida Panthers Game! A friend of his who works for the Panthers took this photo of the poster with his iPhone and sent it to Murph! He was TOTALLY surprised by it and can't wait for he and his wife Vanessa to have their picture taken in front of it next season!
The most exciting thing about the cowbell? How it will connect the fans in the Bank Atlantic Center! Next season, Panther fans in the lower level will be ringing their cowbells as fans in the upper level do the same. It's a way of coming together, a way of getting everyone into one mindset. A rallying together.
One of the problems with the Bank Atlantic Center is that it doesn't belong to the Panther fans. Due to South Florida being a popular area for the "Snowbirds" to gather in the winter months, the BAC has fans of Montreal, Toronto, New York, Philadelphia, and Boston flocking there, often making more noise than Panther fans. After not making the playoffs in almost a decade, it's no surprise that Panther fans don't own that arena right now. However, the cowbells are a way of uniting the fans and getting them excited about the team and about being there. As the Panther fans take back their home, the players will hopefully catch on and will improve their play on the ice.
With a new coach, a new scheme, and a different roster, there are a lot of intangibles that need to be taken into account concerning the Florida Panthers. The cowbell is just one more thing to factor into the Panthers upcoming season.
1 comments:
Hey thanks for the kind words, R.T.
Vanessa and I got tired of sitting in the Bank Atlantic Center night after night being out-noised by the opposing team's fans, and watching the team we love play "road games" in their home arena. So late in December we decided to do something about it! We'd just been to a Chicago Wolves minor league hockey game at the Allstate Arena, and we really liked what the cowbells contributed to the atmosphere of the game. We decided that if no one around us at the Panthers' games was going to help us shout down the obnoxious fans from the visiting teams, we'd just start making more noise with the aid of cowbells. And so it was born! After the first night, a couple of people from the message boards said they'd heard our cowbells, and they went out and bought their own. Before we knew it, the Panthers organization had gotten behind the "movement" and began playing the Christopher Walken Saturday Night Live "More Cowbell" skit, and the rest is history. By the end of the season, I'd estimate that there were easily 3000-5000 cowbells in the arena!
I have it from a good friend of mine inside the organization that the opening night "give-away" is going to be, you guessed it, a cowbell! Now that place will be rockin' from OPENING NIGHT!
If the Panthers will just do their part and win more than they lose, we'll easily take back the arena and make it a place of which the team can be proud! You know it's got to be embarrassing to them to play in places like Toronto and Montreal and see what 20,000 screaming fans can be like... And then come home to play a NY team and have more fans from the visitors in the stands... But I can almost guarantee that if this team just starts winning, the band-wagon fans will come out in-force!
Thanks again for the kind words, and for the mention in your blog! Once Vanessa and I get some better photos of the bell-in-hand, we'll post 'em on our flickr site!
Post a Comment