Posting this for my Algonquin College Sports Business Management students. Each year we have a discussion on controversies and issues surrounding national anthems in sports. Here's a good example for the "no anthem" side of the argument:
Pennsylvania Prep Hockey League Ices National Anthem
By Michael Popke — AB Managing Editor
Citing the need to not waste precious ice time, the commissioner of the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey League has discouraged the playing of "The Star-Spangled Banner" before games. Late last week, Ed Sam sent an email to the PIHL's 183 high school team members in central and western Pennsylvania conveying that message.
“The National Anthem should not be played only because of time constrains [sic],” Sam told Pittsburgh's CBS affiliate, KDKA-TV. “It’s not that we’re not patriotic, that’s the furthest from the truth. Ice is very, very hard to get and it’s not cheap. We’re talking $300 an hour sometimes or even higher than that.”
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According to a Fox News Radio report, Sam later tried to soften his admitted "poor choice of words," telling reporter Todd Starnes that "a lot of our teams never really played the National Anthem. But some of them did."
(Thanks to former student Rod Jacobs for sending this one.)
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