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Et Tu, National Hockey League?
Ice hockey is a popular winter sport. It originated and remains popular in our coldest climates. Think Canada. Or, perhaps Sweden, Finland, and Norway. Even Russia. Those countries and the United States usually win medals at the annual world championships and the quadrennial Winter Olympics. Professional ice hockey leagues permeate almost every European country, including the Baltics.
In the United States, some children who grow up in northern Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and the far reaches of northern New England learn to skate at the same time they learn to walk. It is one of the most challenging sports to play, played on ice at high speeds and requiring enormous hand-eye coordination, with no small amount of violence.
There are few sports more accessibly available to the physically challenged than ice hockey, thanks largely to the National Hockey League.
It should not surprise anyone that the demographics of these countries are relatively similar. They are predominantly caucasian.
And this past week, the NHL apologized for it. From their new report, “Accelerating Diversity and Inclusion:”
During the re-ignited movements for social justice over the past few years, particularly following the murder of George Floyd, our initial response was to listen and learn. This response ultimately led to new ways of thinking and new internal competencies that, in many cases, built upon work that had been growing across the hockey community. Since January 2020, the League Office and all 32 NHL Clubs have united to strengthen diversity and inclusion (D&I) with new urgency, pursuing a variety of initiatives to make this great game more welcoming, inclusive, accessible, and socially conscious.
No, you won’t find the words “apology” or “apologize” in the report. The league used the report to promote its longstanding diversity efforts and programs. But a review of the “commitment to change” section of the NHL website embraces and promotes publications and authors that promote a distorted view of America’s origins (the 1619 project) and “white privilege.”
“White privilege” training is designed to bludgeon Caucasians into believing they are racist. And if you don’t accept that, you’re . . . racist.
Suggested reading and viewing by the NHL.
This is despite longstanding efforts for decades to broaden its fan base and diversify, including making it accessible to the physically challenged (e.g., sled hockey) and notable investments in hockey in predominantly minority communities, especially Washington, DC.
Washington Capitals captain and Russian national Alex Ovechkin and other players routinely skate and work with members of a Fort DuPont hockey team in the city’s predominantly black southeast quadrant.
The NHL’s report is the latest corporate and professional sports virtue signal and risks devolving the sport from a meritocracy to one where quotas trump talent and hard work. And they might invite legal challenges if they discriminate based on race.
The NHL is the most international professional sports league in the world. My favorite team, the Washington Capitals, currently features a roster with players from the United States (9), Canada (6), Russia (3), Sweden (2), and one each from Denmark, Slovakia, and Belarus. There are currently no African American players on the team, but in past years, now-retired Caps Joel Ward and Anson Carter were popular with fans. Several players have championed LGBT communities in their respective communities, including Washington Capitals Stanley Cup-winning goaltender Braden Holtby.
Women are now making it into the NHL as coaches and officials. The names of six women appear on the Stanley Cup, including co-owners and executives. The Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association is on the verge of creating its own league, which will undoubtedly receive great support from the NHL. It already has.
The trendline is clear. The NHL and the entire sport of hockey have nothing to apologize for. But their sparkling achievements and efforts aren’t good enough. They have too many white people, and they plan to exclude them from mentoring programs. From the website boundingintosports.com:
Getting to the section of the Workforce Demographic Study, it specifically notes the purpose of the study was to confirm they had too many white people.
It states, “When our survey was distributed to the thousands of employees across North America who make up the National Hockey League, we hoped to establish an accurate baseline of employee demographic data – with full consciousness of the pre-existing anecdotal evidence that increasing employee diversity needs to be a priority at all levels of hockey.”
“The results of the Study only reinforce the importance of this priority. In sharing the core results below, we hold ourselves accountable to generate significant improvement in all aspects of employee diversity, starting with the initiatives described in the ‘Employment’ section of this report, as we work to promote a strong and vibrant workforce culture,” the league declares.
The entire report smells of panic and malevolent corporate influence since these efforts mirror equally-woke companies like Amazon, Apple, and other official league sponsors.
And it earned a mockworthy post from BabylonBee.com, a satirical website.
Perhaps worse, the NHL is joining other professional sports leagues and jumping into public policy advocacy. Think of MLB moving its 2022 All-Star game from Atlanta to Denver over Georgia’s new voter integrity laws. The NHL now plans to be an advocate on “climate change” and the partisan and misbranded “Freedom to Vote” Act, which tramples on free speech and undermines popular state voter identification laws.
The National Hockey League is one of the world’s most popular professional sports leagues, at least in attendance. When it comes to financial value, not so much, and perhaps that is driving the decision. The NHL has the world’s third-highest attendance in professional sports (at least as of 2019), behind Major League Baseball (MLB) and narrowly behind Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. It draws slightly more fans than the National Basketball Association, even though the NBA has a higher collective financial value. It helps that MLB has 161 regular season games compared to the NHL’s 81, and their stadiums are bigger.
Capitol One Arena, home of the Washington Capitals.
The NFL draws lower overall attendance but only features a 16-game regular season. Their value is derived from their lucrative broadcasting and other commercial deals. The most valuable NFL franchise, the Dallas Cowboys, is worth about $8 billion. The NHL’s most valuable franchise is the New York Rangers at $2 billion. The league average is around $900 million. Television and broadcasting contracts have a lot to do with that. Superbowl Sunday, anyone?
Yes, racism has rated its ugly head in NHL. Fortunately, it is rare and not tolerated by teams, leagues, and fans. Nothing recently. And yes, of course, the NHL should continue to find ways to broaden its fan base and expand access to the sport to new communities and cultures without forcing players to violate their beliefs. But it doesn’t have to openly discriminate, trash America’s founding, or demand its current fan base to flagellate.
Sports at all levels should be a great unifier in our culture, not a great divider. Teaching people to apologize for whom they are is a step in the wrong direction.
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The NHL has decided their fan base is too white? Very well. I’ll do my part by not buying tickets or watching them on TV any more. A more diverse fan base is a stronger fan base, even if it’s smaller.
Ice hockey is also one of the most expensive team sports for young people to get into at a competitive level.
Skates, helmet, stick, pads, special jersey, special pants, special underwear, plus rental fees for ice time, add up quickly.
Does that mean that basketball is too black? All of this is just ridiculous.
P. K. Subban
I think that it’s a mistake to view “ diversity” as an achievement at all. Maybe it’s wiser not to play their anti-white, anti-male, anti-normal game at all.
I’m still boggling at that Turkish TV show about ice hockey. Its story was of a widower with a teenage daughter and a young son, living in Canada, where he is the coach of an ice hockey team. No, really. He is such a firm disciplinarian that he slugs one of his own players. This is too much even for Canadians, so he quits or is fired – I was unclear on which – and decides to return to Turkey. Did I mention he and his kids are all Turkish? Although Istanbul sure looks good, the children hate it. The guy himself is unsure he has made the right move, as who among us would not be after punching a hockey player and then buying plane tickets to the Middle East. Anyway, on a long brooding nighttime walk, he finds in Istanbul a brand new hockey rink! Wow! He misses the game, the competition, the camaraderie. And what do you know, investors are getting up an ice hockey team, and they need a coach. And so on.
I have recently come to wonder whether I was imagining all this. Even diversity has its limits, inclusion can include too much, and multiculturalism will mess with your mind. But no: this really was a show.
If I was the king of the NHL I would work hard to push my product into the televisions of more people. I would try to steal market share from soccer who’s season ends the when NHL’s is ramping up. That means you have to appeal to Latinos that make up the lion share of 930 million people in the Americas. I would have games in Mexico City and Sao Paulo.
As the father of an ice hockey goalie, I completely agree.
Points well taken.
I’ll stand by my comments on the issue and that of others the other day here.
Let’s be realistic – good sports players start a generation beforehand. You need a place to play, and eventually a good series of coaches to develop your skills. Hockey has a tradition in places where you can play it outdoors in the winter, and people probably already skate. Sports that get big world-wide are the ones with the cheapest starting materials. Soccer only needs a ball, goals can be improvised. Basketball needs a ball, hoop, and a hard surface.
When I was watching the Blackhawks victory parade in Chicago, I remember seeing plenty of black folks cheering them on. This stupid quest for diversity is a waste of time.
I nearly became a hockey fan – it’s an amazing sport, fast, skillful and played by the toughest people on the planet, but alas, life got in the way. I’ve given up the NBA because of woke nonsense and lost interest in baseball for their woke run during COVID and the introduction of the appalling designated hitter in the national league. Only one sport remains for me, football.
Have I missed those sports I’ve walked away from? Not at all. I have found that I’m grateful for the time back. These sports leagues ought to be careful about chasing away fans, they are likely to find they can’t get them back.