{"id":534857,"date":"2026-04-01T14:56:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T14:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/534857\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T14:56:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T14:56:15","slug":"florida-panthers-new-president-promises-to-put-fans-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/534857\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida Panthers New President Promises to Put Fans First"},"content":{"rendered":"

SUNRISE \u2014 The Florida Panthers introduced their new president of business of operations on Tuesday with Mike White saying his No. 1 priority is the fan.<\/p>\n

White, who comes to the Panthers from the Amazon-owned robotaxi company Zoox, spent 11 years as an executive at Disney working both with the parks and with ESPN.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of things we want to bring to the fans here,\u2019\u2019 White said. \u201cBut how do we amplify some of those things? \u2026 There\u2019s really nothing like the guest experience at Disney, but here at the Panthers, we\u2019re going to create really extraordinary fan experiences.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

White replaces Matt Caldwell who left the Panthers<\/a> after their second consecutive Stanley Cup championship last summer to become the CEO of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx.<\/p>\n

White will be in charge of all of the Panthers\u2019 business entities including the team, arena, IcePlex, IceDen, and the War Memorial.<\/p>\n

He said at his introductory press conference Tuesday at Amerant Bank Arena that he was \u201chumbled to be here,\u2019\u2019 and promised to be a \u201csteward for the brand, the team, the community, and, especially the fans.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

White was introduced by two people he spent a lot of time talking to over the past couple of months in owner Vinnie Viola and general manager Bill Zito.<\/p>\n

\u201cMike comes from a very accomplished career as a visionary,\u201d Viola said. \u201cHe\u2019s a creative, innovative leader. \u2026 The whole purpose of this organization is to respect our fans and give them the absolute best experience in sports both on and off the ice.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

Added Zito: \u201cI am excited to for what can be and for what we can do together to help. I am literally talking about hockey and the impact that Mike and his experience, his intellect, and his character will have on us. Not to mention the myriad of things that you can do business-wise for our franchise in general. \u201d<\/p>\n

Although White will be working mostly on the business side of the organization, it was key he and the hockey operations department gets along as well as they did with Caldwell.<\/p>\n

White says he and Zito hit it off right away.<\/p>\n

That was pretty evident on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cMeeting Bill, it just felt natural,\u2019\u2019 White said. \u201cIt was one of those things where you were just like, \u2018yeah, this is where I need to be\u2019. I love Amazon. I had a great job and had no intention of leaving until they came into my life.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

FHN: Florida Panthers Go Dark on Comcast Xfinity during Tuesday\u2019s Game<\/a><\/p>\n

A graduate of Ohio State who said he returns to Columbus at least once a year for a Buckeyes football game, White says he is passionate about sports.<\/p>\n

He is in a good spot for that.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously very aware of what they\u2019re doing,\u2019\u2019 White said of the Panthers. \u201cThis is a world-class organization that has won two years in a row.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

ON DECK: GAME No. 75
\nBOSTON BRUINS at FLORIDA PANTHERS<\/p>\n

\"Get<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SUNRISE \u2014 The Florida Panthers introduced their new president of business of operations on Tuesday with Mike White…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":534858,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5102],"tags":[62,57,5141,5,4,63],"class_list":{"0":"post-534857","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-florida-panthers","8":"tag-florida","9":"tag-florida-panthers","10":"tag-floridapanthers","11":"tag-hockey","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-panthers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116330037541216179","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=534857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/534857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/534858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=534857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=534857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=534857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}