The NHL has forever been a league that has seemingly fallen behind when it comes to marketing to every potential fan possible. The marketing of the sport of Hockey, in general, has taken a hit in so many turns: the QMJHL banned fighting, Don Cherry was fired, and more political programming has found its way into the sport of Hockey.
There are a ton of people who are burned out of seeing any politicized programming in sports. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, it seems that most players in any sport felt the necessity to intertwine their personal politics into their sport. There is nothing wrong with a player advocating for anything. It is their right to exercise their freedom of opinion. Admittedly, I’ve missed a ton of bases to cover, but a long road has led up to this.
The NHL has taken a confusing approach to its ‘Hockey is for Everyone’ initiative. Though, how did we end up here?
This entire project dates back to 2017 when the NHL partnered with the ‘You Can Play Project.’ This created the ‘Hockey is for Everyone’ campaign that the NHL used to market to fans who are part of minority and/or underrepresented communities. Multiple players took the bold step to cite their religious beliefs for the reasons they are unwilling to participate in themed nights. In short, what should be a good idea isn’t executed like people thought they would have originally had.
One step forward means ten steps back.
Some people will tell you that the programming makes you uncomfortable if you don’t like what you’re watching. While this can ring true in cases such as your favorite television show or video games, this doesn’t ring just as true for the sport of Hockey. You see, the NHL doesn’t have a rival league to compete with. The NHL also doesn’t pull in tons of viewers like the NFL or NBA does.
The NHL has taken ten steps backward in its handling of this situation.
However, The NHL won’t appeal to every single person who turns on an NHL game for the first time. That is simply a fact. The voices for positive change start in youth hockey; if you want to make the game more inclusive, you don’t start at the professional level. It is a gross misinterpretation to say that we need to start from the professional level and work our way down the hierarchy list to figure this out.
It is a fact that the Hockey is for Everyone initiative isn’t targeted to one specific group of people. It was formed to provide inclusivity to every person watching the game, hence the everyone part of the name. The NHL has done a lot of flip-flopping regarding how they market this initiative and how they choose to work towards making Hockey a more welcoming sport. This flip-flopping is more of a recent case, especially with the removal of all themed jerseys last season. The NHL also had a policy in place for allowing pride tape as a way to promote inclusivity and diversity in Hockey. Here we are, a year later, and the NHL has instituted a league-wide ban on the use of pride tape in NHL games, warmups, or in practices.
The story is quite a tough one to write about; the removal of all themed jerseys means that we’ve lost hockey fights cancer, and military appreciation night jerseys for warmups. The NHL’s clarification on this meant that they cannot force a player to do something they feel uncomfortable with. The PR nightmares meant the NHL had to scramble and do something. Regardless of what the NHL had done, there would have been backlash. That is simply a fact of the matter.
Moving away from the professional level, Youth Hockey burns a hole in a parent’s wallet. Want to put one kid in Hockey? Expect to shell out a few thousand dollars to play less competitively. Want to play a higher level of Hockey? Expect to finance your future around one year of Hockey. Imagine if you have multiple kids wanting to play Hockey. You’re either very well off or you’ve mortgaged your future for your child to play Hockey. You pay for upfront costs in equipment and ice time/tuition alongside the many hidden costs. Not to mention, the travel expenses, food, and injury costs are not talked about enough.
Hockey, which is supposed to be Canada’s sport (alongside Lacrosse), is pricing people out of playing the sport. Hockey is not for everyone because of multiple reasons. Freedom of choice and speech is an important and basic human right to value. You don’t have to agree with someone’s lifestyle or their personal beliefs, but the simple act of treating another human being as a human being shouldn’t be a difficult act.
You have to wonder how things will progress from here. The NHL chose to remove all specialty jerseys, not just one specific specialty jerseys. While it is disappointing that we will not see the Hockey Fights Cancer and Military Appreciation jerseys anymore, the NHL has found a way to move forward and has stuck with it.
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Why should anyone be forced to dress up and support something they don’t believe in. The players didn’t do anything against the LGBTQ community and it should have been left at that. Those that wanted to show support, great. Instead, they wanted to choke everyone with their agenda and ruin it for everyone. Could have been a great first step and other campaigns could have benefitted as well. There is other hockey as well. The AHL has been around for years if you’d done your research instead of jumping on the bandwagon that everyone has to change their beliefs and values because a special interest group’s is more important…. to the bottom line.