My first hockey entry
by Steve, February 3rd, 2006
The Tri-City Americans of the Western Hockey League are having Breast Cancer Awareness Night tonight when they play Everett. As part of the deal, the ice will be pink, as will the players’ skate laces and stick tape. (Other teams have done this type of thing in the past, including wearing pink jerseys.)
God I love hockey.
Our Winter Hawks, who have slipped to 4th place (out of five), play last-place Spokane tonight, and will try to break a six game losing streak.
February 7th, 2006 at 9:42 am
Pink Ice?
Pink laces?
The only thing that
a hockey rink
should be pink
with
is the blood of the players
skating in honor
of all the ghosts of hockey past.
I mean really–
what would Lord Stanley of Preston say?
Doesn’t this violate the Canadian Hockey Purity Law or something?
February 7th, 2006 at 11:24 am
Hee hee hee.
Now come on, Ben, these are sensitive new-age hockey players.
But seriously, these kinds of promos are pretty common in major junior (and minor pro) hockey. In the “WHL”:http://www.whl.ca/ most teams do a “Teddy Bear Toss”. No, they don’t toss teddy bears to the crowd, the crowd tosses teddy bears on the ice when the home team scores their first goal.
Then the teams take the bears around to local children’s hospitals. Portland’s Teddy Bear Toss this year netted something like 20,000 bears. Yes, that’s 20 thousand. That’s tens of thousands of dollars spent on teddy bears. The mind boggles. But it’s one of the most popular promotions of the year.
The pink ice promotion in Tri-Cities (that’s Kennewick, Wash. for you non-northwesterners) netted something like $2,800 for a local cancer clinic. Not chump change, but less than $1 per person in attendance. And you’ve got to wonder how much they spent dying the ice and relacing and retaping.
The WHL is so much fun.