Hershey Bears Game Delayed by Whiteboard Placement
Sunday night at the Hershey Bears and Lehigh Valley Phantoms game, the first ever “Whiteboard Delay” in hockey history took place in Giant Center.
A very loud fan behind the visitors bench at GC had his view obstructed by a whiteboard on the glass in front of him. We will let the photos, captions, and tweets tell the rest of the story:
Pregame and first period:
Whiteboard and towel on the glass right in front of fan wearing camouflage jersey.
Fan kicks the glass and almost hits Lehigh Valley’s assistant coach.
Lehigh Valley coaching staff looks at Hersheypark Security.
Fan argues with Hersheypark Security.
The whiteboard was removed, but returned in the second period.
Second period:
We have a delay in the game as the Phantoms have a whiteboard blocking a fans view
— Chocolate Hockey (@ChocHockey) November 1, 2015
This is the first ever whiteboard delay in hockey history
— Chocolate Hockey (@ChocHockey) November 1, 2015
The game we don’t think will start until the fan behind the bench will be removed from his seat?
— Chocolate Hockey (@ChocHockey) November 1, 2015
Players discuss the situation with the officiating staff.
The fan is removed and the whiteboard is then taken down. This is more entertaining than the game!!!
— Chocolate Hockey (@ChocHockey) November 1, 2015
RE: fan behind Phantoms bench https://t.co/XNCfcDMpcR
— Chocolate Hockey (@ChocHockey) November 1, 2015
@ChocHockey he wasn’t removed, he’s in the Bears suite.
— Steve (@Bearswoo) November 1, 2015
Bears statement on the events via their Facebook page:
Comments are closed.
Heckling the opponent is part of all athletic competition. How can it be allowed to block the view for a paying patron? I wasn’t down front and don’t know how heated things were but they should have had to remove the obstruction immediately.
Indeed it should have been removed immediately. There is no television revenue in the AHL and if there is I am completely unaware and doubt it’s much. So it’s the fans who pay the salaries(via the price of admission) of all of those involved at the arena.
Fan was also drunk and badgering the athletic trainer before the game started. The glass boards did hit the coach and trainer when it was kicked by the fan.
I was sitting in the same row and the glass boards did the wave all the way to the Hershey bench when being kicked.
This does happen a lot to the fan and usually they (opposing team) are forced to take it down after the first period. Why didn’t they just force the Phantoms to take it down like they have done the past 20 times?
It seems like this could have been avoided if we followed past protocols.
I’m not happy that the Bears Front Office allowed a visit in team, let alone a rival, to come into our house and treat a fan, let alone a long time season ticket holder, to be treated like that.
“The game we don’t think will start until the fan behind the bench will be removed from his seat?”
Huh?
Mark, that should really say “The game, we believe, won’t start back until the fan behind the bench is removed from his seat.” It’s pretty tough to tweet out games on my phone and take photos at the same time.
-Kyle
Believe me, it’s not all the obnoxious fan. They deal with him every game. But that coaching staff knows exactly what they’re doing. Every visiting coaching staff tries it, and most don’t get away with it that long.