As everyone very well knows, hockey playoff season is under way. It's an exciting, heart stopping, adrenaline rushing time for fans who were blessed enough to have their teams make it to the playoffs. I come from the city of Pittsburgh, so naturally, I cheer on Pittsburgh teams. However, I live in the city of Tampa, which those of you who are hockey fans know, is the home of the Bolts. For those of you who are really into the sport you know that these teams are currently battling it out for who gets to move on to the next round. Thus far, I haven't had a problem being a fan of another city's sports teams until today.
However, some of you may be unaware of the things that have recently taken place in Tampa regarding the playoff season. So let me take a few minutes to fill you in.
A few days ago a Bradenton business man who is also a Pittsburgh native and an avid Penguins fan decided to sponsor a towel for fans at Consol that promoted his business. Once the local Bolts fans got wind of this they lost their minds and started a Twitter hashtag that stated #BoycottBradenton. Now let me just break this down from the opposing side. I'm fully in support of what this man did. He was promoting his business to a target audience he knows well. He saw no issue with it and to be frank neither do I. What I do take issue with is how Bolts fans reacted. Listen, I get it, it's happening in your backyard; you're offended. Well let's look at facts: 1. Bradenton is the home of Pirates spring training. It's our southern home away from home. 2. Your state is made up of thousands of transplant people. Some of which are going to be from Pittsburgh and are going to flock to certain areas because of the ties we have there. Are you really going to boycott an entire city because it didn't support the team you like? Suck it up buttercup. That's the nature of sports.
The next piece of news that came out this morning was that Penguins fans will not be permitted to wear Penguins gear to the games at Amalie Arena if you have glass seats or club seats. On top of that during pre and post game events Pittsburgh gear is not permitted. Okay so wait a minute, you may have paid copious amounts of money for these tickets, the plane ride, hotel, food, etc. and you aren't allowed to wear your team's gear? If fans do show up in the opposing team gear they will have the choice of either turning it in to customer service and receiving a black or blue plain shirt or they will be escorted out. This boggles my mind. I understand the wanting your own jerseys on national tv as they scan the crowd. But again let me reiterate you are a state made up of transplant people. More than half of your state is made up of people from other cities and states. So to the south side business man who made up those blue "This is not a Penguins t-shirt," I applaud you and those will sell big time here in Tampa.
Now that you are caught up on the news portion here is my opinion portion. I've lived in this city for two years and never have I felt so unwelcome before. I've traveled to different places for all of my Pittsburgh teams. NEVER even in our most rivaled of cities (Baltimore, Cleveland, Philly, etc.) have I ever been banned from wearing my team's jersey. Even if it was in enemy territory. Have I been booed and threatened? Sure I have, but that's part of the sport. We travel as Pittsburgh fans, I finally get to see the games on tv, and now I'm being asked to pretend like my team doesn't exist? A business man who was merely trying to advertise his business, because Lord knows us Burgh people are pack rats. If we can't get a t-shirt we might as well get a towel or shot glass out of it. Knew this about his audience and was made to issue a public apology because your people were threatened by it. We let you into our city with your gear on and never uttered a word. If your fans existed in our city and wanted to promote their businesses we might rib them for it all in good fun, but we wouldn't start a slander campaign. You probably would have gotten a human interest story out of it on one of the local stations with the headline being local business person sticks to hometown ties. I find your Bolts fans and city's behavior appalling, petty, and childish. I know your city doesn't win much in the way of sports, but yinz guys need to learn some humility and manners.
On that note, stop being so salty Tampa.
