Amerant Bank Arena

Lore & Background

The arena was built after Wayne Huizenga obtained a new NHL franchise in 1992 that became the Florida Panthers. The team initially played at the now-demolished Miami Arena. In December 1995, Sunrise City Manager Pat Salerno made public a $167-million financing and construction plan for a civic center near the Sawgrass Expressway, and Broward County approved construction in February 1996. The site was chosen by the Panthers in June 1996, and in July, Alex Muxo gathered architects, engineers and contractors for the first major design brainstorming session. Architects Ellerbe Becket were given 26 months to build the arena, which had to be ready by August 30, 1998, for the 1998–99 NHL season, despite never having designed a facility in less than 31 months. Construction involved over fifty subcontractors and 2.3 million man hours without a single injury. Known as the Broward County Civic Center during construction, naming rights were won in July 1998 by National Car Rental, leading to the name National Car Rental Center. The arena opened on October 3, 1998, with a Celine Dion concert, followed by Elton John the next day, and the Panthers' first home game on October 9, 1998, a 4–1 win against the Tampa Bay Lightning. The arena has undergone several name changes: Office Depot Center (2002), BankAtlantic Center (2005), BB&T Center (after BB&T acquired BankAtlantic in 2012), FLA Live Arena (after BB&T merged with SunTrust to form Truist and did not renew naming rights in 2021), and finally Amerant Bank Arena (announced September 19, 2023). In October 2012, the Club Red (now Amerant Vault) lounge was installed, a 12,000+ square-foot exclusive lounge with a center ice view. A new scoreboard funded by Broward County debuted on October 11, 2013.

Reader's Guide

Amerant Bank Arena is significant as the home of the Florida Panthers, hosting multiple NHL All-Star Games (2003, 2023) and the 2001 and 2015 NHL entry drafts. It hosted games of the 2023, 2024, and 2025 Stanley Cup Finals, with the Panthers clinching the Stanley Cup at the arena in 2024 and 2025. The arena has also hosted major boxing and mixed martial arts events, including EliteXC: Heat (featuring Kimbo Slice), Strikeforce: Miami, UFC on FX 3, and UFC Fight Night: Jacaré vs. Hermansson. Professional wrestling events have included WCW Monday Nitro, WWF/WWE Raw and SmackDown, WCW Bash At The Beach, WWF/WWE Armageddon, and AEW Dynamite. The arena has hosted political rallies for Barack Obama (2008) and Donald Trump (2016, 2019), a CNN town hall on gun control after the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting (2018), and the public funeral of rapper XXXTentacion (2018). It is also a major venue for Latin/Hispanic programming, hosting the Latin Billboard Music Awards (2020), Latin American Music Awards (2021), and concerts by Marco Antonio Solís and Juan Luis Guerra, who set Latin gross revenue and ticket sales records in 2022 and 2023. The arena was formerly home to the Florida Pit Bulls (ABA), Miami Caliente (Lingerie Football League), Florida Bobcats (AFL), and Florida ThunderCats, and hosts the annual Orange Bowl Basketball Classic.

Did You Know?

• The arena was built in 26 months, a record for architects Ellerbe Becket, who had never completed a facility in less than 31 months.
• The arena hosted the first 'official' shootout in NHL history during the 2003 NHL All-Star Game.
• The arena's naming rights have changed six times since opening: National Car Rental Center, Office Depot Center, BankAtlantic Center, BB&T Center, FLA Live Arena, and Amerant Bank Arena.

From Franchise to Fortress: The Arena's Birth

When Wayne Huizenga secured a new NHL franchise in 1992, the future Florida Panthers had no permanent home, initially sharing the now-demolished Miami Arena with the NBA's Miami Heat. In December 1995, Sunrise City Manager Pat Salerno unveiled a $167-million plan for a civic center near the Sawgrass Expressway, and Broward County approved construction the following February. By mid-1996 the Panthers had chosen the site, and Alex Muxo convened a dozen-plus architects and contractors for the first design session. Ellerbe Becket accepted the daunting task of building the arena in just 26 months—shorter than any project in their history, which had never gone below 31 months. The deadline was August 30, 1998, to accommodate the 1998–99 NHL season. The finished venue cost $185 million, almost entirely publicly financed, and included 70 suites with wet bars and leather upholstery plus 2,623 club seats. More than fifty subcontractors logged 2.3 million man-hours with zero injuries. The arena opened on October 3, 1998, with a Celine Dion concert; Elton John followed the next night. On October 9, the Panthers beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 4–1 in their inaugural home game.

A Chameleon of Names: The Arena's Identity Journey

During construction, the building was simply called the Broward County Civic Center. In July 1998, just weeks before opening, National Car Rental—acquired by Huizenga in January 1997—won the naming rights, and the venue launched as the National Car Rental Center. But corporate ownership shifts would repeatedly reshape the arena's identity. When NRC's parent company ANC Rental collapsed in 2002, the Panthers quickly found a new sponsor: Office Depot, headquartered in nearby Boca Raton, and the name became the Office Depot Center. Three years later, in September 2005, BankAtlantic, a Fort Lauderdale-based institution, took over the naming rights. Then in July 2012, BB&T's acquisition of BankAtlantic triggered another rebrand to the BB&T Center. The next upheaval came in February 2019, when BB&T announced its merger with SunTrust to form Truist Financial. The merged entity chose not to renew the naming agreement after it expired in 2021, leaving the arena with the temporary placeholder name FLA Live Arena. After a search for a new partner, South Florida-based Amerant Bank was announced on September 19, 2023, as the latest rights holder, giving the venue its current name.

Hockey's Sacred Ground: All-Stars and Championship Glory

Beyond serving as the Panthers' permanent home, the arena has repeatedly hosted the NHL's most prestigious gatherings. It welcomed the 2001 and 2015 NHL entry drafts, and on February 2, 2003, it staged the All-Star Game in which the Western Conference edged the East 6–5 in a shootout—a historic moment, as it marked the first official shootout in NHL history. The 2021 All-Star Game was slated for the venue but was cancelled due to the pandemic, yet the arena bounced back to host the 2023 All-Star Game on February 4. The true pinnacle, however, has been the Stanley Cup Final. In 2023, the arena hosted games three and four of the championship series. The following year, it hosted games one, two, five, and seven, with the Panthers clinching the Cup in the final game. In 2025, the venue hosted games three, four, and six, again witnessing the Panthers secure the championship. The arena also received a new scoreboard in October 2013, funded by a Broward County vote the previous May, and in 2012 the 12,000-plus-square-foot Club Red lounge (now the Amerant Vault) was installed, offering center-ice views. Today, the arena stands as the largest in Florida.

Beyond the Rink: Latin Music and the Fight Pit

Since 2019, the arena has become a major stage for Latin and Hispanic entertainment, capitalizing on the growing cultural market in Sunrise and Fort Lauderdale. Its central South Florida location draws not only from Miami-Dade but also from the roughly one million Hispanic and Latin residents of Broward and Palm Beach counties. The programming has been impressive: the Latin Billboard Music Awards in 2020, the Latin American Music Awards in 2021, Amor A La Musica in 2022 and 2023, and Uforia Mix Live in 2022. Marco Antonio Solís set a Latin gross revenue record with a sold-out show in April 2022, then shattered his own record on April 1, 2023. Just three weeks later, Juan Luis Guerra broke the Latin ticket-sales and gross record with a sold-out performance on April 22, 2023. Peso Pluma and Santa Fe Klan added to the momentum in the summer of 2023, with Luis Miguel and Pepe Aguilar among future headliners. The arena has also been a fight venue: EliteXC: Heat in 2008, Strikeforce: Miami in 2010, the first UFC event in 2012, UFC Fight Night 150 in 2019, and a 2023 exhibition bout between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and John Gotti III.

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