How Far Is Too Far?
"Guaranteed Fight Night" Promotion
Kathy Johnson
MinorLeagueNews.com
11.23.02 -Will Don King soon be running the Atlantic Coast Hockey League? Did you come to see a fight and a hockey game broke out? And the opening card will feature.... the Cape Fear FireAntz and the St. Petersburg Parrots.
The FireAntz are promoting a "Guaranteed Fight Night" Saturday, November 23rd, against the St. Petersburg Parrots. If a fight does not occur, everyone in attendance Saturday will receive free admission to the following afternoon's game versus the Orlando Seals.
Is this what the game of hockey has come to? Promoting violence over the finesse required to play? Gimmicks over the game just to fill seats?
Media Relations Director, Galen Clavio said, "People who are opposed are being very vocal. People who aren't are buying tickets."
"We don't feel like we're promoting a fight. It happens, it always will. It's part of the game. I haven't told anyone to go out and start taking swings at people. The team is going out to play a game," Clavio reported.
"It has been asked quite a bit, why promote fighting when it's already part of the game? My answer would be that culturally what you see is fans who want the fantastic," Clavio commented. " NASCAR and wresting are big down here. They are violent sports that are promoted violently. We are not putting out blood ads."
The St. Petersburg Parrots said they knew nothing of the media stunt.
"There was no collaboration between Parrots and the FireAntz for the fight night. We are not a bunch of goons. We really only have two guys on the team who are fighters. The rest of the team are mostly scorers," said Monica Newberry, Media Relations Director for the St. Petersburg Parrots.
"Nothing's guaranteed," said the Parrots' Coach Bruce Ramsay, a veteran player who's laid down the gloves more than once himself. "I'm not here to market the team, I'm here to put wins on the board."
Ramsay holds league records in many of the leagues that he's played for Most Penalty Minutes.
" I might not be as appreciative as I should but, if it helps the league, I'm all for it.... [I]n reality, fighting is part of the game and always will be," Coach Ramsay concluded.
The last time these two teams met, however, about five fights did break out.
Prior to its inaugural season, the ACHL touted itself as a new league much in the model of the ECHL. Yet the league office does not seem to hold the same opinion of using fighting as a promotional tool.
"IIt's pretty harmless. If a fight happens to break out, then it does," ACHL Commissioner, Jim Riggs said. "If not, the FireAntz will be footing a very large bill for the following game. This type of promotion should draw a different crowd than a normal game would and the teams will not be going out of their way to fight. They will be on the ice to play a game."
The ACHL will have an official present Saturday to keep an eye on the game, and to make sure things don't get out of hand.
In the wake of Marty McSorley incident, the NHL, AHL, CHL, and the ECHL have put tighter rules into place about deliberate fighting. It's not tolerated.
Brian McKenna, President and CEO of the East Coast Hockey League said, " It's a sham. At the AA level, skill of the sport is promoted, not the fighting, even though it is a part of the game. The sport should not have to contrive a gimmick to add to the game."
Fighting is part of the game. At what price, though, is a new league willing to bring in one-time customers? Will this "different" crowd that Commissioner Riggs states will attend this kind of promotion actually stay to watch hockey where fighting takes a back seat to skating and power play?
How the ACHL treats this and other such "promotions" will define what this league will be known for: Goons that skate, or hockey players that mix it up from time to time.
