We are hearing that hockey is looking at an early return to start the season for one reason, that being to generate lost revenue for the league.
We have Adult “Beer Leagues” in the lower mainland that don’t want to implement strong rules for abuse and/or racial disrespect from any player or team.
Before you say it never happens, think twice as clearly it does, but mostly when you have teams of different races or cultures that play against each other and realistically speaking it’s not just ice hockey.
Prior to any start-up of any hockey league all facilities should not just request, but demand to see the list of suspension rules that the league will implement for upcoming seasons.
We are not just referring to simple three game suspension for accumulating too many penalties, but racial remarks from one play to the opponent.
At times the officials simply don’t hear the comments, but the solution for this is simple for the league and the arena to control.
Following the game both officials MUST send in a write-up to the arena management (not the league) of the facility so as to deal with this.
Having mentioned this the reason is simply that the league doesn’t want to handle any suspension – the arena deals with it directly!!
In the lower mainland most leagues don’t want to handle this for fear of losing revenue from any team should the team pull out from their league and in most cases the arena management never knows anything about this.
Far too often this happens, which it does with various leagues and we see the “beer leagues” turn away from the issue as they simply want to be known as the “good guys” that just run the league.
When dealing with “beer leagues” it’s not just the officials that are privy to this, but also the timekeepers who have to listen to all the verbal racist remarks.
At times it’s not all racist, but rather filled with profanity when one player shouts at the other on the opposite side of the timekeeper, who quite often is a woman and can’t help but hear the verbal profanity.
Before anyone mentions that it’s “hockey language” and it’s part of the game and we should allow it to happen, clearly it’s not.
When any player uses this type of language it shows a complete disrespect for not only the league, their team players but the timekeeper.
Given the state of the Pandemic with no one knowing when sports will be allowed to return, it’s time for all leagues and teams to have a long and hard look at the state of their game.
One of the major problems with “beer league” hockey is that some, but not all of the officials are only there for the money and could care less about the game, which is sad to say!!!
I know that some officials will take offense to this, but if they honestly reassess who they work with, they know this is a true statement.
Sports is one thing, but given the state of the world and lack of respect we see from player to player, let’s control our emotions and start to respect one and another, either at the rink or away!!
