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Panther tag favorite; others face extinction
Goodbye, Girl Scouts, Tampa Bay Storm and Orlando Predators.
By Times staff reports
© St. Petersburg Times
published February 16, 2002
The Florida Panther license plate is Florida's best-selling specialty tag, outpacing sales of the Save the Manatee tag for the second year in a row.
But plates for the Girl Scouts and a couple of professional sports teams will be discontinued for lack of interest.
In a report released Friday, the state Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles said Floridians spent more than $23-million on 51 specialty tags, paying an extra $15 to $25.
The extra supports programs ranging from college scholarships to environmental research.
Protect the Panther tags, at $25 each, were purchased by 113,776 car owners, while 105,291 bought Manatee tags for $20.
Sales of Florida's original specialty plate, created to honor the astronauts who died in the Challenger explosion in 1986, also rose but dropped from third in 1998 to sixth in 2001.
About 80,000 people bought the University of Florida tag, which ranks third. Florida State University fans bought almost 70,000 tags in 2001. University of South Florida fans bought only 7,000 tags.
Slated for the scrap heap are tags honoring the Girl Scouts of America and two arena football teams, the Tampa Bay Storm and the Orlando Predators.
State law requires at least 8,000 tags be sold or renewed over a five-year period to be retained. State university tags are exempt from the rule.
Only 236 people bought Tampa Bay Storm tags in 2001. The Predators sold 426 tags and the Girl Scouts sold 1,651.
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