Ban on rainbow tape - did the NHL think this through?

[Smirnov2Chistov]

I mean.. this is a business thread right?

Does the NHL actually become more in the ‘spotlight’ or gain a profit from showing rainbow/pride tape off?

I have family members that are gay, but even they themselves think that sports and businesses drive the pride thing way too overboard

 

[The Marquis]

The tangible business benefit is sales of team and league associated pride merch.

 

[daver]

You continue to omit the WHY of them not wearing the something.

I don't care why. They choose not to. Was that not their choice?

I wouldn't wear anything and would not feel compelled to explain the the reason why.

 

[TheLegend]

If you get paid $8 mil and can't put on a warmup jersey with a rainbow once a year for a team event then I'm not sure what to say. Condolences, I guess?

If you get paid $8 mil and can't put on a warmup jersey with a Confederate symbol once a year for a team event then I'm not sure what to say. Condolences, I guess?

It's really not that simple.

A counterpoint to this is…. The players are getting paid to play hockey. Not act as poster children for various causes.

It should be up to the player to decide if they’re in or out…. And without commentary.

What has happened here is the process has become commercialized so much that people are beginning to feel like it’s being forced on them. There are plenty of other ways you can have events outside the game where players who WANT to participate can have jerseys made up, wear them at the event and then auction them off for the cause.

Then it becomes a matter of choice… not something mandated or forced upon people who don’t care for it.

 

[Albatros]

A counterpoint to this is…. The players are getting paid to play hockey. Not act as poster children for various causes.

It should be up to the player to decide if they’re in or out…. And without commentary.

They're paid for what is in the CBA, whether directly related to hockey or not.

 

[TheLegend]

They're paid for what is in the CBA, whether directly related to hockey or not.

What’s in the CBA then?

 

[Mr Positive]

Last year was a disaster

Teams supported LGBTQ with pride nights and great quotes, but that was mostly white noise as it is standard cultural fare nowadays. However all it took was one player abstaining and that sucked up all the attention and got noticed by a much broader audience past hockey even. No matter what the reason, any abstaining was viewed as an attack on the gay community and owners were pissed.

So it makes sense to just toss everything out. The league has no power to force anyone to participate in these events.

Edit: I'd also say that the ban on rainbow tape was clever because it is setting up the reverse situation. Now, we can have players getting in notable trouble for going against the league and using the tape anyway. I bet the league wants it to happen and for it to get press

 

[Crazy Cizikas]

So what if a player wanted to support something like white supremacy or Q conspiracies?

But that’s not the case. And it’s sad that you equate the causes.

 

[Hanji]

They're paid for what is in the CBA, whether directly related to hockey or not.

Right, but the CBA adheres to employment law whereby it's illegal for the NHL to force a player to promote a cause if it conflicts with his religious beliefs. Doing as such would amount to workplace discrimination. Wearing a pride jersey does not constitute an essential function of playing hockey.
Is not discrimination what you're presumably fighting against?

So, no. Said player's salary is not predicated on being a poster child for various causes.

 

[Albatros]

What’s in the CBA then?

SPC:

"2. The Player agrees to give his services and to play hockey in all NHL Games, All Star Games, International Hockey Games and Exhibition Games to the best of his ability under the direction and control of the Club in accordance with the provisions hereof.

The Player further agrees,

(d) to co-operate with the Club and participate in any and all reasonable promotional activities of the Club which will in the opinion of the Club promote the welfare of the Club and to cooperate in the promotion of the League and professional hockey generally"

 

[BraveCanadian]

Short sighted by the NHL as usual.

 

[golfortennis1]

Completely agree with you there, as a gay man myself and I don't do the rainbow thing. All I ask is civility, i don't need you to like who or what I am. If you can be civil and cordial that's all ask, I definitely don't need a coat of many colors to feel welcome or included... but I can only speak for myself, I can't tell others how to feel.

Thank you for putting yourself out there in this discussion. I had debated posing a general question but since you posted, I feel like I can ask you this: does it not seem a tad infantilizing(may not be the exact right word but I think you get the idea) to say that if and NHL team doesn't have a Pride night, they are saying "we don't want those people's money?" I've known a handful of gay people in my life, and none of them seemed like the types who took the lack of something as a big FU.

There are several layers to all this, I admit, but it just seems to me a lot of the "advocacy" people, when you strip it down to the core, seem to act like the LGBT people are helpless, and can't do anything without their help.

 

[CTHabsfan]

But that’s not the case. And it’s sad that you equate the causes.

The white supremacy and QAnon examples were extreme, but what about military appreciation nights? I guarantee people who support the right to not wear Pride jerseys would be criticizing anyone who refused to wear a military-based jersey, while those who feel everyone must wear the Pride jersey would be the first to support someone's right to not wear a military jersey.

 

[hangman005]

Thank you for putting yourself out there in this discussion. I had debated posing a general question but since you posted, I feel like I can ask you this: does it not seem a tad infantilizing(may not be the exact right word but I think you get the idea) to say that if and NHL team doesn't have a Pride night, they are saying "we don't want those people's money?" I've known a handful of gay people in my life, and none of them seemed like the types who took the lack of something as a big FU.

There are several layers to all this, I admit, but it just seems to me a lot of the "advocacy" people, when you strip it down to the core, seem to act like the LGBT people are helpless, and can't do anything without their help.

I get where your coming from, and I can only speak for myself but yes. So long as they aren't descriminating against me, I don't need any kind of positive affirmation to feel to welcome and I don't take a lack of it some kind of slight. Others do, and I'll admit I don't fully understand it.

It's a reason if I were in some alternate universe that if I were in the NHL I'd probably be more guarded with sexual orientation to avoid being that first openly gay player poster boy... To me that would be the most patronising thing, I'd be a hockey player, what does my sexual orientation have to do with anything.

 

[Crazy Cizikas]

The white supremacy and QAnon examples were extreme, but what about military appreciation nights? I guarantee people who support the right to not wear Pride jerseys would be criticizing anyone who refused to wear a military-based jersey, while those who feel everyone must wear the Pride jersey would be the first to support someone's right to not wear a military jersey.

I think that you either support everyone (which you shouldn’t) or you support no one. All of those theme nights should be abolished. But individual players should be free to express their opinions during warmups.

 

[CTHabsfan]

But individual players should be free to express their opinions during warmups.

In theory that's fine, but I think you'd have players getting criticized if they don't go along with what others are doing, or feeling forced to join in a cause. Let players express their individual opinions on their own time.

 

[Crazy Cizikas]

In theory that's fine, but I think you'd have players getting criticized if they don't go along with what others are doing, or feeling forced to join in a cause. Let players express their individual opinions on their own time.

In fairness to them, they are people with people opinions.

 

[dj4aces]

Edit: I'd also say that the ban on rainbow tape was clever because it is setting up the reverse situation. Now, we can have players getting in notable trouble for going against the league and using the tape anyway. I bet the league wants it to happen and for it to get press

If it actually has this effect, it could be positive for the league. Just wait until certain publications out there highlight the players who use the pride tape, and watch all the people who get irrationally upset about a bloody rainbow on a stick blade for ten minutes once a year before a game.

In my view, the league loses no matter what it does, but it stands to lose a lot less, and maybe even continue attracting interest from people who weren't all that interested previously, if they're open to players using pride tape and teams wearing pride sweaters during warmups.

I know several LGBT+ folks who are unhappy with the league and its decision to ban pride tape when they themselves were attracted to the sport because of it, and the perception of inclusivity. By taking a stand against it, they're not just alienating the people who were interested in the sport because of that, but also undermining their "hockey is for everyone" marketing.

Time will tell whether this has any effects on the league in the long run, but I think the league would've been far better off had they simply not taken a position on this issue.

 

[StreetHawk]

I think that you either support everyone (which you shouldn’t) or you support no one. All of those theme nights should be abolished. But individual players should be free to express their opinions during warmups.

Watching the nfl right now. All of the coaches on the sidelines are in team apparel with a rainbow patch on them. Just as a comparison of what another league is doing.
2 weeks from now you will see a bunch of pink tape and towels on the players for breast cancer awareness. I assume they will also continue their support the troops and have camouflage towels and apparel around veterans days.

 

[Barnum]

Is all colored tape banned from sticks? So if it's breast cancer awareness night is pink tape allowed?

And this is why the league is wrong wrong wrong. Life is changing out there and these recent blowbacks, pushbacks and set backs will be judged accordingly, in time. The recent wins by I guess we call them the “asleep” people is only fleeting. Enjoy, because it’s only a matter of time before we all grow up and in the now, it’s only loss of revenue.

Tick tock, people, tick tock.

Signed: straight but not narrow

 

[Barnum]

When it comes to social and visibility issues, the question of ‘did the NHL think this through’ is always no, which is why they’ve had their status as a ‘major sport’ put in peril. This is just the most obvious example we’ve seen of it.

It’s a lack of courage to do the right thing because at the moment it seems risky due to the current atmosphere of a few leftovers from the past. Time will judge on stuff like this, and the league will end up on the wrong end, socially and financially.

 

[Elvis P]

https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/washington-capitals/nhl-news/nhl-pride-tape-ban-players-speak-out

 

[CTHabsfan]

Watching the nfl right now. All of the coaches on the sidelines are in team apparel with a rainbow patch on them. Just as a comparison of what another league is doing.
2 weeks from now you will see a bunch of pink tape and towels on the players for breast cancer awareness. I assume they will also continue their support the troops and have camouflage towels and apparel around veterans days.

NFL staffers and players raise awareness each year by wearing multicolored/rainbow Crucial Catch apparel. The rainbow is meant to represent all types of cancer, such as red for blood cancer and lime green for Non-Hodgkin lymphoma. This is not Pride apparel.

 

[Viqsi]

NFL staffers and players raise awareness each year by wearing multicolored/rainbow Crucial Catch apparel. The rainbow is meant to represent all types of cancer, such as red for blood cancer and lime green for Non-Hodgkin lymphoma. This is not Pride apparel.

Odd how the bolded somehow makes all the difference.

 

[Strangle]

Because Teams and the League get bad press when the media circus ensues when a player skips it.

People would still claim hockey/NHL is homophobic when the droves of players would've continued to skip the pride stuff if they continued on with it.

Lose-Lose

It’s a big lose-lose for the league.

The Twitter crowd, who had never heard of Reimer or provorov before, ignored the mcdavids and the Crosby’s and the matthews overwhelming support and decided they’d put the league through the bad PR ringer instead.

It’s too bad, but that put the league into an impossible decision.

I think long term it’s the better business decision, though. There are going to be more controversial topics and causes that people will want to support in the future, just better to leave that stuff on Twitter and off the ice.

Could you imagine if people wanted to start up themed stick tape for this Middle East mess right now? No thank you