The Tampa Bay Lightning will be playing in a Game 7 on the road with a trip to the Stanley Cup Final on the line. For games as big as that one, teams will occasionally hold watch parties for their fans to allow them to convene in a festive atmosphere and watch together on a giant screen.
The Lightning have been holding watch parties for many of its playoff games throughout the postseason and at least appeared to have plans to hold another one for Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
However, the Lightning put out a tweet Wednesday to alert fans that there would be no watch party for Game 7, but that local businesses would be holding a block party instead.
 | @TBLightning | |
On tomorrow's #PITvsTBL Game 7: pic.twitter.com/gsHKbgtV4A
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The team has reportedly held outdoor watch parties for each of the away games this postseason and has even had rallies outside of the arena for some of their home games.
The fact that there would be no watch party for the team's biggest game of the year naturally upset Lightning fans who were planning to take in the event at the team's home arena with the fans that they've been hanging out with for most of the playoffs. Many took to social media to voice their complaints.
So why the apparent abrupt change in plans? It would seem the NHL's Fun Police is to blame.
 | @EvanAxelbank | |||||||
Response from NHL on TBL watch party: "NHL has a longstanding policy on watch parties, one per round per team." Seems like TBL violated that
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Now why would a rule like that exist in the first place? TV ratings appear to be a big reason for it. One of the most important properties the NHL has is their television rights. It's one of the biggest revenue generators and the league has a responsibility to assist their partners in getting the most bang for their buck. Additionally, viewership has been down for this season's conference finals, per sportsmeidawatch.com.
According to Deadspin.com, the NHL threatened to fine the Lightning if they held another watch party during the series against the Penguins.
While the relationship with a rights holder is unquestionably important, the league also has a responsibility to the regularly-paying customers to keep them engaged at all cost. Not to mention that when footage of these watch parties that are so often shown on TV broadcasts and featured on the NHL's own social media platforms, it makes the league look good. Despite the team apparently being in violation of this policy, the league often included footage from the official watch parties in their #MyPlayoffsMoment campaign to get fans to show how they were watching and reacting to the games. Events at Amalie Arena can be seen in the #MyPlayoffsMoment videos from Games 1 and 5 of the Eastern Conference finals.
You can see the NHL's position and the networks wanting to keep as many eyeballs on multiple screens instead of one, but the league's selective enforcement of this policy - unless they are going to sanction the Lightning for prior watch parties - isn't terribly fair for Lightning fans who have been showing up in droves for these kinds of events. The team's success with these watch parties may ultimately be the cause of their demise. Too many people showed up, which is not great for ratings, but really great for the Lightning who have been building up their following locally rather rapidly with the team's on-ice success. Events like these help continue to foster those relationships with fans.
There will still be a type of watch party, as the fans are invited to convene in the parking lot of the Channelside development near Amalie Arena. Despite the development's connection to Lightning owner Jeff Vinik, it appears this event would be considered independently-organized, ensuring the Lightning don't violate the league's watch party policy.
So fans still have a chance to get together to watch the game. It just won't be at Amalie Arena, which has been the site of some raucous postseason parties already.
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