OUT WITH THE OLD: #FlaPanthers Change Up Banners at Arena

It appears as if the Panthers have done some renovations to the rafters of the BB&T Center.

Gone is the NCRC opening night which featured Celine Dion; gone, too, is the old 1996 Eastern Conference championship banner that was raised to the rafters at Miami Arena and brought north in 1998.

The Panthers replaced the 1996 banner and the Bill Torrey '93 banner (last picture) with new ones, most likely so they match the 2011-12 Southeast Division championship banner that goes up Saturday.

A good number of teams try to have all of their banners match -- the Heat do as well -- although I kind of like the mismatched look. I would rather see the banner that was raised at the time (and the logo from that era) than have a cookie-cutter look.

Anyway, it looks like the 1993-94 expansion banner (that also once graced the rafters in Miami) was taken down as well.

Comments

[strangelove]

Weak!!

[Jeff]

George -

Any idea where the old banners are being moved to? It would be a shame if they are going to end up in storage somewhere - perhaps they will relocate them to the area where they have all the memorabilia in the arena?

[Catfan927]

Theyd be to big for the Den Of Honor but would look great hangin in the front windows of the main lobby!

[HurricaneWarning]

Lame

[Ed Purchase]

I wish they wouldn't make a big deal about raising the Division Banner. I think it would be more fitting to - pardon the mismatched sports analogy - pull a post-TD Barry Sanders and just 'act like you've been there before, and will be there again.' Have it hanging already and just put a spotlight on it or something. Also, I hope they don't pull a Minnasota Wild and retire a number 'for the fans'. That is SOOOOO lame. Pleased they took down the Celine and the Expansion banners; also tacky.