Florida Panthers ‘blown away’ by new Fort Lauderdale practice facility at War Memorial

The day finally arrived and just in time for the holidays.

After years of waiting and delays, the Florida Panthers on Friday held their first team practice at the new Baptist Health IcePlex at the revitalized War Memorial Auditorium in downtown Fort Lauderdale.

Their initial thoughts?

“It’s the best one I’ve ever seen,” Panthers star winger Matthew Tkachuk said after practice. “It’s not even the room or the rink, it’s everything we have here. It’s the setup. It’s the location. I’ve obviously been to a lot of practice facilities throughout the league and this one blows them all away. We’re very lucky to be the guys that are able to come here and work to get better each and every day. They’re giving us every single tool to succeed.”

Added Panthers captain Aleksander Barkov: “It makes you want to work even harder. The gym is really nice here. There’s no excuses for you not to end up at the gym or work hard in practice. Everything is here for you to be a better player and better athlete.”

It’s a project more than four-and-a-half years in the making — and still not completely finished.

The Panthers’ first announced in April 2019 their plans to remodel, revitalize and restore Fort Lauderdale’s War Memorial Auditorium, which has been around since 1950. They broke ground on the project, initially tabbed at $65 million, in May 2021.

The team portions of the facility, now called FTL War Memorial, is complete, which allowed the Panthers to take the ice in their practice home of the not-so-distant-future for the first time on Friday. Once fully complete, FTL War Memorial will be the main home for practices and morning skates for both the Panthers and visiting teams.

“A lot of blood, sweat and tears went into making this first class,” Panthers president and CEO Matthew Caldwell said. And to have our first practice today, I just saw the players and they were overwhelmed. We’re just blown away.”

Once everything is done, hopefully by early 2024, FTL War Memorial will have two sheets of ice for public use, a restaurant, 1,000 seats for fans to watch practices, retail space and an outdoor concert venue. There are also outdoor training spaces, a terrace with barbecues for players to grill, lounge areas. Players have 24-hour access to work out or get treatment.

“I never played in a rink this nice as a kid,” Panthers general manager Bill Zito said. “Now kids are going to be able to play here. After a hockey game, you can say, ‘You know, I’ll go play pickleball or run around the soccer field.’ It’s so exciting from that standpoint, too. It’s a big deal for the franchise. It’s a big deal for the community.”

The location is perfect for players, most of whom live on the east side of the county. Normally, it would take them about a half hour (sans traffic) to get to either Amerant Bank Arena or the IceDen in Coral Springs for practice.

On Friday, many players including Tkachuk and forward Carter Verhaeghe drove to War Memorial on golf carts. Others used e-bikes. Coach Paul Maurice, who lives a couple blocks away, opted to walk.

Estimated time of arrival: Less than 10 minutes if they took their time or the back roads.

“That was a nice change for me,” Maurice said Friday. “Usually, by the time I leave the house and get the first cup of coffee at the IceDen, it is about an hour. I didn’t have to make coffee at home this morning because the coffee here is better.”

Added Tkachuk: “Everyone lives right around the area. We’re all pretty jacked up about it.”

Beyond the benefit to the team, the FTL War Memorial revitalization adds another location in Broward County to spread interest in hockey. The Panthers have their sheet of ice at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise and the three sheets at the IceDen, which Caldwell said will now be the Panthers’ “youth hockey Mecca.” Now, they have been able to expand east.

“We always talked about being from the Everglades to the beaches,” Caldwell said, “and we’re sure covering the whole county now. People from Palm Beach and Miami and Naples are still very welcome, but our core base is here in Broward County.”