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.