- Address: 1 Panther Parkway, Sunrise
- Country: United States
- Capacity: 17,000
- Opened: 3 October 1998
- Main use: Ice hockey
- Tenants: Florida Panthers (ice hockey)
Extra stadium info – Amerant Bank Arena
The venue was known as the National Car Rental Center, the Office Depot Center, the BankAtlantic Center, the BB&T Center and the FLA Live Arena. Its construction costs were $185 million. The construction of the arena started in 1996. It became a venue for several events, like basketball, boxing, concerts, ice hockey, indoor American football, indoor football, mixed martial arts, rodeo and wrestling.
The first events at the Amerant Bank Arena
The Canadian comedian and impressionist André-Philippe Gagnon and the world-famous Canadian singer Céline Dion both performed at the Amerant Bank Arena on its inauguration day. Reginald Kenneth Dwight, commonly known as Elton John, performed at the venue the next day. A few days later, the Florida Panthers played their first home match at the arena in front of a capacity crowd. The Panthers defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning from Florida 4-1. Mark Daniel Parrish and Viktor Nikolayevich Kozlov both scored two goals for the Panthers.
The Florida Panthers
The Florida Panthers moved to the Amerant Bank Arena in 1998. The ice hockey club was founded in 1993. They play in the National Hockey League, which became the most popular ice hockey league in the world. In 1996, the Panthers played in the championship series of the NHL for the first time in their history. They faced the Colorado Avalanche in the championship series. The Colorado Avalanche also made their debut in the championship series of the National Hockey League in 1996. They won all four games in the championship series of the NHL that year. The first two of those four games took place in Colorado. The other two of those four games took place in Florida.
