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The Panthers don’t play well with other South Florida teams, says Marlins president

Marlins mascot

Apparently the Florida Panthers don’t have the best reputation with the three other major sports franchises in South Florida.

Marlins president David Samson explained the gulf Thursday at a sports business symposium, as reported by Sun-Sentinel.

“Let’s put it out there: What really hurt this year — and we talked about it — is what happened with what the Panthers did at the Dolphins’ practice facility a few months ago. That’s not what you do when you’re in a market when you’re working together with teams. It’s just not appropriate,” Samson said.

What happened was Panthers’ sales executives handing out business cards to fed-up fans protesting the Dolphins’ management, or mismanagement as the team’s 6-10 record in 2011 may suggest. (But hey, free-agent signing David Garrard’s a…quarterback.)

Panthers president Michael Yormark subsequently released a statement denying there was a rift but admitting Samson had a point about the incident at the Dolphins’ practice facility: “We spoke to those sales executives, underlying the respect we have for the other teams in the market, and the issue has since been rectified.”

However, Samson also still holds a grudge over the Panthers’ decision to build an arena in Broward instead of working with the Heat on a shared downtown facility.

“It’s an extra layer of competition (for concerts, etc.) that really is not necessary. From my standpoint of somebody who is in Miami sports, that was a bad day when the Panthers went north,” Samson said. “It has an impact politically. It impacted us for 10 years trying to get a ballpark. It’s still going on right now.”

Related: Panthers president rips young woman for her lack of Twitter followers