A professional ice hockey team from Tennessee stirred up controversy this week after it publicly endorsed incumbent Nashville mayoral candidate David Briley, a “progressive” Democrat.
“I want to urge everyone to get out and vote. I also want to let Smashville know that we’re supporting Mayor David Brilely,” Sean Henry, the CEO and president of the Nashville Predators, announced in a video posted to social media Wednesday:
The backlash was immediate, with sports pundits and fans alike blasting the team for politicizing ice hockey for what many believe to be ulterior motives.
The Nashville Predators are reportedly in talks with Mayor Briley over a new lease for their home stadium, Bridgestone Arena, and have hired two lobbying firms to assist them. That the team chose to publicly endorse the mayor at a time like seems very sketchy to some:
Notably, the endorsement of Briley comes as the team is in talks with the mayor's office about a new stadium lease regarding the team's home, city-owned Bridgestone Arena. The Predators recently hired two lobbying firms for that effort. https://t.co/vY1dw5jaNH
— Joey Garrison (@joeygarrison) May 17, 2018
@ClayTravis I don't know if you caught this or not, but the reason the Predators doors to Mayor Briley is because they're in the midst of renegotiating their lease for Bridgestone Arena. I think they're trying to get a better rate.
— Steve Johnson 💎 (@Grizzly_Stevens) May 18, 2018
Since no one asked, let me say the effect of the Predators endorsing a mayoral candidate will be virtually nil at both the polling place and the arena box office. It might indeed be quite helpful (or harmful) when lease talks fire up
— J.R. Lind (@jrlind) May 17, 2018
Sports used to be free of politics, but thanks to liberal insanity run amok, left-wing politics has invaded nearly every facet of the industry, turning ice hockey teams, football teams and even sports news networks into veritable arms of the Democrat Party.
And make no mistake about it — the politicization of sports invariably runs in one direction only: Democrat.
This isn’t the first time the Nashville Predators has unnecessarily involved itself in politics. Late last year the year publicly endorsed a referendum by then-Mayor Megan Barry (also a Democrat) that would have raised taxes on the residents of Nashville to fund a mass transit plan:
Barry wound up resigning in March and being replaced by Briley, her vice mayor, after being busted as a giant crook (surprise, surprise). Briley picked up her proposal, but it was crushed during an election held May. 1.
Despite that loss, and despite the growing backlash, Henry remains perfectly content with his decision to politicize ice hockey.
“I’m glad we don’t just stick to sports. I’m glad that we can leverage the attention that people have for our logo, to take things that we think are important moving forward,” he said to The Tennessean.
Of course, because first throwing your support behind a crook who wanted to raise taxes and then throwing your support behind a radical who reportedly wants to confiscate firearms is just such a great thing to do …
It’s sad too because the team has thus far enjoyed great popularity among locals. The more the team keeps embracing left-wing politics, however, the less likely it’ll remain popular for the long-term.
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V. Saxena is a staff writer for BizPac Review with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University.
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