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Lightning Forced To Cancel Game 7 Viewing Party At Amalie Arena Due To NHL Restrictions

The Lightning's fan party for Thursday's Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals was moved from Thunder Alley at Amalie Arena to the nearby Channelside restaurant and bar complex to "fall in line with an NHL policy that allows each team only one official watch party per playoff round," according to Joe Smith of the TAMPA BAY TIMES. The team said that the move was to "accommodate more fans." But the Lightning "held a watch party outside Amalie Arena for Games 1, 2 and 5 of the conference final" (TAMPA BAY TIMES, 5/27). THE HOCKEY NEWS' Ken Campbell wrote the NHL "is not the bad guy here." The league is "basically taking a bullet for its broadcast partner, NBC Sports." Campbell: "Why would the league want to deter thousands of people from assembling in one place to celebrate their team’s playoff run and create a sense of community among fans that no amount of money can buy, unless it was being forced to do so?" The truth is, the NHL "would love it, absolutely love it, if every team in the playoffs held public gatherings for each one of their playoff games." Whoever planned a Game 7 viewing party for the Lightning after already having one for Game 5 "knew the team was going against league rules and could be shut down." The league "sent a memo out to the chief marketing officers of each of the playoff-bound teams on April 12 saying teams were only allowed to hold one viewing party per round." It "may seem petty to worry about a couple of thousand people watching on a large screen being counted as one or no viewers." But those couple of thousand people "matter to the broadcaster, particularly in a market such as Tampa" (THEHOCKEYNEWS.com, 5/26).

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