The Panther don't have people in the stands anyway.
As for free entry, they have $1 ticket nights with free hotdogs and soda, among many other promotions.
It's a great thing for fans in Florida, of which they are few, and a losing team doesn't help.
In any event the Panthers are happy with what they have, they are not in any financial trouble, and the hockey operations side is just a tax write off for the owners.
The Panthers make all of their many from shows and conventions. They get a lot of tax and lease incentives on the publicly funded building, and rent it out year round.
If you ever watched a Panthers feed you'd notice that there is a constant stream of concert advertisements, even during the game with a section flashing something about Billy Joel or the other, and the commentators mentioning it on air quite frequently without even the effort at using a thinly veiled segue.
It's a very profitable company, that just so happen to also own a NHL hockey team for the lease and tax benefits; at least that's how it works from what I can see.
I don't see the NHL being particularly interested in adding more Canadian teams. They have declined to add another Toronto team and Quebec is still not an expansion team.
