The NHL, a few of its teams, and a few of its players have come under fire and praise for not warming up in LGBTQ-themed jerseys on their Pride nights.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman stated that the custom jerseys would not be worn on the rink in order to avoid any “distraction”.
“I’ve suggested it would be appropriate for clubs not to change their jerseys in warm-ups because it becomes a distraction and takes away from the fact that all our clubs are in form or other host nights in honor of different groups or causes,” Bateman told SportsNet at the NHL Board of Governors meeting Thursday. They continue to get the proper attention they deserve and not be a distraction.
The announcement was made during Pride Month, at a time when the league was under fire for not welcoming members of the LGBTQ community to its events. Bateman called these criticisms “legitimate concerns”.
“But in the final analysis, all the efforts and the stress on the importance of these different training sessions has been undermined by the distraction in terms of teams and players, and in this way we keep the focus on the game and on these major nights, we will focus on the issue.”
According to Bateman, Pride Nights and other patriotic celebrations will continue.
“All those nights are going to go on. … The only difference would be that we wouldn’t change shirts to warm up because that became a distraction, really, from the core purpose of these nights,” he said.
More than that, according to Bateman, players will have the option to “design” themed shirts that will be sold and manufactured.
“It’s really just a matter of what’s on the ice,” Bateman said.
The issue was made public when Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Ivan Provorov objected to wearing the team’s Pride jersey during warm-ups, citing his Russian Orthodox faith. Soon after his stand, his jersey quickly climbed to the top of the league’s best sellers.
Although they had previously stated that they would, the Chicago Blackhawks, New York Rangers, and Minnesota Wild also decided not to wear such jerseys, while other players from several teams chose not to wear such jerseys, citing safety and religious reasons.