Another one bites the dust; another Fort Worth pro sports team shuts down

As the 11th largest city in the United States, Fort Worth remains America’s greatest undeveloped sports market, and a place where minor league teams live only to die.

On Tuesday, the National Lacrosse League (NLL) announced that Panther City Lacrosse Club in Fort Worth ceased operations effective immediately. Panther City Lacrosse existed for three years.

“We have worked tirelessly to resolve a complex situation, but this untimely withdrawal of Panther City’s membership placed the league in an unprecedented situation,” said NLL Commissioner Brett Frood. said in a statement.

Panther City Lacrosse Club is owned by Bill Cameron, who also owns the Dallas Wings WNBA franchise that plays in Arlington. Team president Greg Bibb could not be reached for comment.

Despite what was a decent product, fan interest didn’t grow beyond that of a small, loyal base. For a minor league team to “make it,” attendance typically needs to be in the low thousands. Panther City was not coming close enough to that figure for ownership to keep going.

The team wasn’t drawing enough to offset the costs of running the franchise, which included the high price of rent at Dickies Arena for home games. The ownership group had to make a decision to continue to invest in one team that was not producing revenue, or the one that is rapidly growing, the Dallas Wings.

According to people familiar with the situation, the ownership group tried doggedly to find a potential buyer for Panther City either locally, or nationally. They were willing to move what had been a team that far out performed expectations for an expansion team on the field. When it became apparent that there was no interested buyer, it had to cease operations.

The players under contract will go into an dispersal draft, and that’s that.

Panther City Lacrosse Club launched in the fall of 2021 amid great hope and optimism that it could crack Fort Worth’s sports code, and tap into the growing population of DFW. “Box Hockey” was introduced to a market that has been slowly growing and adding youth lacrosse teams all over the area.

The logic was sound, and ownership was sure this was the right time for a Fort Worth-based team to succeed.

The team’s players were mostly Canadians who held second jobs; they would fly into Fort Worth for a practice, play a game the next night, and return to their lives the following day. That model has worked in many other markets for NLL, which has existed since 1986.

It didn’t work here. The fate for Panther City is the same one that has greeted most minor league sports ventures in this city; the Fort Worth Fire (hockey), the Fort Worth Cats (baseball), the Fort Worth Cavalry (Arena Football League), the Fort Worth Flyers (basketball) were all previous teams here whose timelines ended in closed doors.

Two local minor league teams that have “made it” continue to be the Fort Worth Brahmas (hockey), and Fort Worth Vaqueros (soccer).

The Panther City ownership group spent a lot of money to make this work, but the audience simply never came to support what was an improving team. In three years, the team finished a combined 26-28, with a winning record in its second season.

That was the same season when, in the spring of 2023, the team qualified for the NLL playoffs and club officials knew that had they advanced further they would need to find a temporary arena because of scheduling conflicts at Dickies Arena. The team was eliminated, and thus avoided that potentially embarrassing situation.

Team officials learned the same lesson the hard way what most other ownership groups that have entered Fort Worth. Sports fans in this market identify with, and support, the major league franchises - Cowboys, Rangers, Stars, Mavericks, FC Dallas. Sports fans in this market have barely supported the minor league franchises.

By size, Fort Worth is a big league market that once again demonstrated it will not support a minor league team.