Let’s get it back to hockey.

The Flyers are not in the playoffs, but the Lightning and Panthers played in round one, and before a recent game in Tampa, a father and his 11-year-old son were approached by security and asked to remove their Panthers jerseys or else they would have to leave Amalie Arena.

The gist here is that this particular portion of the arena has a rule where opposing team jerseys aren’t allowed. It’s not the rule for the entire arena. In this case, security comes over to the dad and explains the policy, and here’s how the interaction goes:

Hmm, well there’s a lot to unpack here.

The dad is saying that he talked to somebody who said it was okay to wear their shirts in the seats, but not in the club area. Then the security guy is telling him that it doesn’t matter, because he got bad information.


So.. they’re at an impasse, right? When you get to this point isn’t it probably best to just defer to the customer and let the whole thing go away? And I don’t know what the dad is trying to accomplish with the hypothetical about the Swastika, because you can question the policy’s legitimacy all you want, but it doesn’t change the fact that the policy exists, and in that specific moment in time, it’s not gonna change.

Here’s more on the rule and why it exists, via Bro Bible:

Close to two-thirds of Florida’s population is comprised of transplants who arrive in the state with their former allegiances in tow. It’s also a notoriously cheap place to fly to and home to a number of historically mediocre sports teams who sell tickets at a fraction of the price you’d typically shell out to watch in cities that are home to contenders. As a result, it’s not rare for the likes of the Marlins and the Dolphins to find themselves playing de facto away games surrounded by fans clad in their opponent’s colors.

In 2015, the Tampa Bay Lightning decided to institute a new measure to cut down on these invasions by instituting a new policy in certain parts of the arena where spectators are banned from rocking any apparel showing support for another team during the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The three sections represent around 2% of the total number of seats in Amalie Arena and all reserved for season ticket holders who mostly voiced their support for the policy.

Feels like a little bit of insecurity on their part. Dunno. This seems like a specifically Floridian type of sports problem, so I’d have to down to a few games to get a feel for their crowds before commenting with any sort of credibility here. But the bottom line is that you’ve got a kid and his dad sitting there, not harming anybody, so if there was a miscommunication, just let it slide. It’s not a big deal.