But all this is so true =)
God bless Vinik.

He has invested in the city of Tampa, given out $5,000 donation checks to “local heroes” every home game, didn’t fire or lay off any employees during the lockout, spent gobs of money making the Ice Palace (sorry, the St. Pete Time Forum) one of the best arenas in North America, and brought Steve Yzerman into the organization.

Never will you see this kind of commitment from an owner to his team, city, and fans. He’s looking to build a franchise in a city that has money to spend on hockey. He knows that winning the city over – which he has by donating more money than the Rays of Bucs COMBINED – will establish a lineage of fans who will come out to games and support the team. At this point, they certainly have as season tickets are at a high and nightly attendance is competitive with some large market teams.

Leave it up to Yzerman to build a team and win the games. So far his only real blunder was assuming Rolloson had another year in him. This year could be huge for the Lightning.

And @flyeredub , there’s alot of Lightning Fans, believe it or not. The stadium is almost alyways sold out, I think that’s pretty dang good for being in the middle of Florida and most of the kids that are home-grown don’t even know what hockey is. Hockey in Florida is getting bigger and bigger every year, and thanks to Vinik, who actually cares and upgrades the stadium and prizes his fans/season ticket holders, it will get even bigger and more popular.