NHL teams will no longer wear LGBT pride jerseys to avoid 'distraction,' commissioner says

A good business and moral decision. I pray many others will follow.

David R. Brumbelow

The article notes that the NHL's change is in part due to players refusing to participate--hard to keep a sports league going without star players playing--but I also need to wonder if a number of teams were observing a drop in attendance, and whether the league observed a drop in TV ratings for the "pride" games. Plus, the things that Budweiser, Disney, and Target are going through due to their pride promotions are most likely coming to the attention of NHL executives--or perhaps more tellingly, the players' union is most likely not enthusiastic about the notion that the pool of money from which they're paid could shrink drastically.

The majority of players in the NHL would be in favour of the pride events. Doubt there was any drop in attendance for these nights either.

the event was just the players wearing the jerseys in the pre-game warmup, not in the games themselves. Only a handful stood up against it. The first one to stand up was later traded (punishment? Maybe. But he wasn’t having a great season)

I think the main thing in this case is the league decided they didn’t need the distraction caused by the few who took a quiet, principled stand. Easier to cancel the concept than get into controversy

shows what a few principled people can do, if they have a little courage