The NHL inadvertently drew the ire of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis last week over an advertisement for his Pathway to Hockey Summit, which will be held in South Florida ahead of the NHL All-Star Game in February. This week, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman made it clear the league is not interested in a public back-and-forth with the governor, who accused the league of being “discriminatory” in its initial advertisement of the event.
“The answer is we’re planning to be in Sunrise and celebrate our sport at the All-Star Game,” Bettman said The Athletic on Thursday when asked for his response to the DeSantis camp’s statement. “I don’t want to get into all of this, but the fact is what the summit is, and was, has been mischaracterized. It’s not a job fair. It was an informational session so that people could learn more about us.”
Bettman said he didn’t want to “increase the debate on it.”
“We’re just looking forward to the All-Star Game,” he added.
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On Feb. 2, the NHL is hosting a Pathway to Hockey Summit, which is intended to be an informational career event that encourages “those that have historically not been exposed to hockey” to come and learn more about the sport and the job opportunities within the league. The day is scheduled to include guest speakers, panelists and networking opportunities.
When the NHL initially advertised the event on LinkedIn, the announcement included a note on the bottom that read, “Participants must be 18 years of age or older, based in the US, and identify as female, Black, Asian/Pacific Islander, Hispanic /Latino, Indigenous, LGBTQIA+, and/or a person with a disability. Veterans are also welcome and encouraged to attend.”
According to a league spokesperson, the wording of the post was a mistake. The league did not intend for the original text to include only those minority groups but it was meant to especially encourage those who are underrepresented in hockey or wanted to learn more about the league. Before the listing could be corrected, DeSantis’ team noticed it, and the governor’s spokesperson released a statement.
“Discrimination of any sort is not welcome in the state of Florida, and we do not abide by the woke notion that discrimination should be overlooked if applied in a politically popular manner or against a politically unpopular demographic,” said the statement from Bryan Griffin. “We are fighting all discrimination in our schools and our workplaces, and we will fight it in publicly accessible places of meeting or activity. We call upon the National Hockey League to immediately remove and denounce the discriminatory prohibitions it has imposed on attendance at the 2023 ‘Pathway to Hockey’ summit.'”
The NHL revised the posting and plans to continue with the event as scheduled. It is open to anyone 18 years or older. The league did not take issue with DeSantis’ comments or ever consider pulling the All-Star Game from Florida, where the NHL also hosts other events, including the board of governors meetings.
The summit is part of the NHL’s response to its first diversity and inclusion report, which the league released in October. According to the report, 83.6 percent of league and team employees identify as White, 3.74 percent identify as Black, 3.71 percent as Hispanic/Latino and 4.17 percent as Asian. Only 36.81 percent of the league employees are women, and fewer than 4 percent of the league identifies as LGBTQ+. Of the four major professional sports leagues in North America, the NHL is the least diverse.
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In the report, Bettman wrote, “We are working to better understand and accelerate our engagement across all layers of diversity — including nationality, race, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability and religion — and their nuances and intersections.
“Each day, we are committed to ensuring inclusion becomes more of ‘who we are’ than ‘what we do’ — and we know this requires scale, frequency and authenticity in our efforts.”
(Photo: Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
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