Longtime Flyers exec Luukko now with Panthers

SUNRISE, Fla. - Sunrise Boulevard isn't quite Packer Avenue, and Panther Parkway is by no means Broad Street. The roads that lead up to BB&T Center are filled with housing developments and a few shopping malls. The streets are lined with palm trees. Just west of the arena that houses the Florida Panthers are miles and miles of swamplands.

This is where Peter Luukko chose to take on a challenge. The former president and chief operating officer of the Flyers and Comcast Spectacor was hired by the Panthers in February. Officially, he is in charge of Sunrise Entertainment.

Speaking of sunrise . . . He sold his house in West Chester and lives on the 17th floor of a condominium complex in Fort Lauderdale, about 20 minutes from BB&T Center. He's got an ocean view and a nice tan. He didn't expect to get back into hockey after leaving the Flyers in early December of 2013. He wanted to spend more time with his kids, he said. His son Nick is in the Flyers' organization, playing for the Reading Royals of the ECHL.

Luukko's job is a lot more than laying by the pool, although he said he spent Friday attending the morning skate before making calls by the complex pool. He's tasked with helping right the ship for an organization and ownership group that's asked for a $78.4 million bailout from the Broward County Commission. The organization loses about $25 million-$30 million annually. Luukko is charged with both trying to build a winner and trying to fill an arena. They sometimes go hand-in-hand. For now, the team is committed to staying in South Florida, with no plans to move and more than 10 years left on the arena lease.

But the people to whom he's trying to sell the product, relatively speaking, aren't native to the region or hockey. It's not Philadelphia, where Luukko oversaw the Flyers for more than 25 years. And it's not the diehard sports town of Boston, where Luukko was born.

"It's fun," Luukko said before his Panthers romped the Flyers, 7-1, on Saturday night. "It's an opportunity to build something almost from scratch, frankly.

"It's such a diverse culture. And so many people are from everywhere else. I've met more people from Massachusetts that pick up on my accent . . . I can't believe it. We've gotta build a winning tradition here and I think we'll be just fine."

The Panthers were last in NHL attendance with an average of 11,271 per game last season. It was a big deal when more than 11,000 showed up for the home opener last season, yet it was 8,000 shy of a sellout.

Saturday, BB&T Center was full, with an announced crowd of 19,424. And they were treated to a mauling.

"We're making a push for every game (to be a sellout)," Luukko said. "Obviously opening night is special. It's special in all sports. But we really got our (season ticket) base up this year."

Winning helps. And the Panthers look like they're going to start doing that soon. They made a push for the playoffs and fell just short last season. But there was a big change in the organization's philosophy. Instead of selling at the deadline, they went out and traded for Jaromir Jagr. Then they signed the ageless wonder in the offseason.

Luukko, a proven businessman who was instrumental in getting the 2012 Winter Classic to Philadelphia, is hoping the momentum is moving in the right direction, but it's not an easy fix.

"When you make the playoffs once in 15 years, that's hard," Luukko said. "How would you like to be in Philly missing the playoffs 14 out of 15 years? That's difficult. We've gotta give it its chance and I think people are believing. Ever since we did the Jagr deal at the trade deadline, we were a buyer, not a seller. This team had been a seller a lot of times for various reasons . . . people are seeing the commitment.

"We're just rolling the snowball here."

He's still playing his early-morning pickup hockey games at the rink, though his colleagues made him take the Flyers decals off his helmet. He said he thought about bringing his hockey gear to Philadelphia when the two teams play the back end of a home-and-home tonight at Wells Fargo Center. Luukko said it was perfect to open the season against the Flyers and he's looking forward to today.

He said there are no hard feelings with Ed Snider and Paul Holmgren regarding the way things ended here. He's excited to see them, but also the ice crew, the ushers and various employees with whom he worked for so many years.

"I hear some people say, 'Oh it's just another game.' It isn't," Luukko said. "These guys are my friends. With Homer I think I played a big part of bringing (Ron Hextall) to Philly. To see Claude (Giroux) and Jake Voracek and all the players was really cool because you care for them. When guys are going bad, it's personal . . . or they're going good. It's always very personal.

"I wish them the best of luck after Tuesday, I guess. But it's great to see everybody."