How Segregated Economics is Sanctioned by Leadership Silence
By Pat Freeman, The Mighty O’Ba
Pat Freeman, The Mighty O’Ba
When I first started writing about how Black owned and operated media outlets have continuously been shut out of advertising by our professional sports franchises, I thought there would be a massive outcry from the public. Well after eleven years of exposing this horrible practice, from entities that receive millions of dollars of taxpayer subsidies, we hear little public outcry. The only person who publicly took on this problem was former Buffalo News columnist Rod Watson, who wrote about this issue in 2014. He of course sought feedback from the ownership group of most of our professional franchises in the area, which was met with silence.
After writing about the franchises several times, I decided to take this fight to their respective leagues. This effort was also met with silence, with the hope that eventually this truth will just go away. This is the strategy of those who refuse to render justice to the oppressed now, rather than answering this issue, we will just wait it out until the petitioner gives up or transitions. The petitioner then wrote to every major organization who stated “We are waiting for our local affiliate to bring this to our attention. “Truly many of our elected leaders have had conversations with these professional sports organizations but they continue to practice segregated economics.”
The greatest offender can be tied to the professional hockey team, which literally refuses to expand its support base, in a city where it could be easily accomplished. The Buffalo Sabres could easily become the flagship to grow the base support of NHL franchises beyond the mostly European support, which could help make Hockey a truly international sport—one founded by the freed enslaved Africans who settled in Nova Scotia, Canada. They formed the first league called the CHL (Colored Hockey League). This league is where many of the modern techniques used were first developed. It is a shame that the current league and its ownership group would rather exclude part of its history rather than build on it.
International Deaf Hockey Returns to Buffalo
Northtown Center at Amherst will serve as the site for the inaugural Jeff Sauer International Deaf Hockey Series to be held April 11th-14th. The four day event named after Jeff Sauer, former head coach of the USA men’s deaf team, will showcase men’s teams from the USA, Canada, Czech Republic, and Finland and women’s teams from the USA and Canada.
The series is hosted by the American Hearing-Impaired Hockey Association (AHIHA) and the Stan Mikita Hockey School for Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
Jeff Sauer, a member of the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame, spent more than 40 years coaching hockey, and had nothing but success in his varied endeavors. Sauer gained prominence as a college coach, but he is also remembered for his work coaching hockey players with disabilities.
He gave endless, endless, endless — you don’t know how much time he gave — energy and love to those kids,” said U.S. Olympic team coach Tony Granato who played for Sauer.
Sauer was president of the American Hearing-Impaired Hockey Association. He helped select the last five U.S. Deaflympic Ice Hockey Teams and led the team as head coach at three Winter Deaflympics, including a gold medal at the 2007 Deaflympics in Salt Lake City, Utah.
He spent seven years as head coach of the U.S. National Sled Hockey Team. He led the U.S. to the gold medal at the 2012 International Paralympic Committee Ice Sledge Hockey World Championship. Two years later, he was at the helm of the gold-medal winning 2014 U.S. Paralympic Sled Hockey Team in Sochi, Russia.
The event will be held April 11th- April 14th at the Northtown Center at Amherst. Northtown Center was the host of the 2017 Deaf Ice Hockey World Championships. The best deaf and hard of hearing hockey players from around the world will compete in a round robin format.
For additional information please contact tournament director Steve Smart at steve.smart@ahiha.org. or visit: https://ahiha.org/jeff-sauer-internationaldeaf-hockey-series/