Milwaukee Admirals Pride Night a winner despite some complaints – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Given the times, Milwaukee Admirals President Jon Greenberg was curious what he might hear regarding Tuesday night.
At least two National Hockey League teams have experienced hiccups in their Pride Night festivities in recent weeks, and several states are considering tightening restrictions on drag shows. The team was about to have both.
“Every year that we’ve done this, yeah, there’ve been folks unhappy that we’ve been doing this type of things and to those people we always say, it’s one night during the course of the season and if it’s a night you choose not to come out, so be it,” Greenberg said. “Some people choose not to come out for other things.
“We don’t necessarily look at this as a political thing at all.”
In the end, the positive response more than outweighed the negative calls and social media posts as they have in the past, Greenberg said.
“We are big on the ‘Hockey is for Everyone’ thing, whether it’s disabilities, whether it’s the pride community, whether it’s women in sports,” Greenberg said, referring to an NHL inclusivity initiative launched 25 years ago that has grown significantly in recent years. “It’s all the different things that are part of making our game more accessible to people.
“The audience that’s here tonight seems to really appreciate it, the people who bought tickets,” Greenberg continued. “I’ve seen people tonight that we don’t usually see through the season, so we’re exposing our product to a new audience, an expanded audience, so that’s important to us.”
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Other theme nights held around hockey have celebrated Black history and the heritage of Indigenous people or those from Asia and the Pacific islands. The Admirals had a Hispanic Heritage night in October.
The Milwaukee Bucks held a Pride Night on Jan. 25, and the Milwaukee Brewers have one annually since 2018, although the 2023 date has not been set.
How the Milwaukee Admirals celebrated Pride Night
Beyond the logos on the scoreboard and some extra merchandise in the gift shop, the pride celebration Tuesday night at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena was relatively low-key.
The Admirals used rainbow-patterened tape on their sticks in warmups, but it was gone by game time when players reverted to the familiar black. The ceremonial puck was dropped by Charlie Nash, founder of the Cream City Foundation, a fundraising and philanthropic organization addressing LGBTQ+ issues.
The crowd of 2,495 that took in a2-1 loss to the Grand Rapids Griffins was about what Greenberg expected. The team was coming off a strong two-game weekend and was going head-to-head with the Bucks playing a block away at Fiserv Forum.
About 150 people stuck around after the game to sing along as three drag queens danced and lip-synced near the bar on the arena’s lower level.
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Among those happy to be at the game were Dana Spandet and a group of friends and coworkers from Flour Girl & Flame, a West Allis pizza shop she owns.
“I think it’s a really big deal for us in the LGBT community to see ourselves represented and celebrated on a larger scale,” Spandet said. “So something like this is a big deal and noteworthy.”
Pride Nights have become routine across hockey, with some NHL teams wearing once-a-year jerseys with rainbow-colored numbers, letters and accents – usually later auctioned for charity – and involving members of the LGBTQ+ community in pregame festivities.
Actions by other NHL teams, players on Pride Night draw heat
Two recent Pride Night promotions in the NHL did not go as smoothly as hoped.
In Philadelphia, Flyers defenseman Ivan Provorov sat out warmups before the team’s Jan. 17 game against the Anaheim Ducks rather than wear a Pride sweater. Provorov cited his Russian Orthodox faith and said after the game he did “respect everyone’s choices.” Coach John Tortorella expressed his support for Provorov’s decision.
The player, coach and team took some heat online, although Brian Kitts, the co-founder of You Can Play, an official NHL partner that advocates for LGBTQ+ inclusion, did an interview with Front Office Sports in which he asked for “a little bit of grace” and understanding toward Provorov.
Then Friday, members of the New York Rangers were going to wear custom sweaters and have rainbow stick wrap for warmups before their game with the Vegas Golden Knights at Madison Square Garden. While other Pride Night activities did go on, the tops and tape were scrapped with no real explanation from the team. Steve Buckley, a columnist for The Athletic who is gay, took the organization and the NHL to task for sending the message that gay players aren’t 100% welcome.
Luke Prokop, the first openly gay player under contract to an NHL organization, was in Admirals training camp last fall before he was sent to play another season of juniors in the Western Hockey League. Prokop was a third-round pick of the Nashville Predators, the Admirals’ NHL parent club, in the 2020 draft.
“He’s not here as a gay hockey player; he’s here as a hockey player,” Greenberg said. “And if a hockey player can help us, we’re fully on board because at the end of the day we want to win a championship and it takes all our players, no matter what, to go out and do that.”
At a time when studies show an increase in hatred and threats toward the LGBTQ+ community, Spandet, the restaurateur, said she and her friends enjoyed the atmosphere at Tuesday night’s game.
“I think Milwaukee is a really inclusive city, and this is a perfect atmosphere and environment to have this. Milwaukee’s just got the right vibe,” said Spandet, who added she attends Admirals games occasionally. “We’re inclusive, we’re Small-waukee. … we’re all that.”
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