Dallas Stars fans prefer refund over Nickelback music

Dallas can afford to have some perverse fun with their paying customers. The team are playing well and are first place in their division through the weekend, so the crowds are in a good mood, writes Rob McKenzie.

Jason Spezza of the Dallas Stars celebrates the goal by Patrick Sharp against the Vancouver Canucks in the first period at American Airlines Center on October 29, 2015 in Dallas, Texas. Ronald Martinez/Getty Images

Music is not a big deal in ice hockey.

It is not like European football, where the fans love to sing, or even baseball, where each batter has his walk-up song. In hockey, music is something that fills the spaces between plays and that marks the home team’s goals.

Queen and AC/DC are favourites in arenas everywhere. The Isley Brothers' Shout often punctuates a hat-trick or comeback, while Tainted Love is good when an opponent scores. The White Stripes' Seven Nation Army is a standard-bearer in Detroit. Don't Let Me Down by ELO has been known to kick off the power play in Boston. Anaheim blasts a fair bit of heavy metal.

But Dallas took things a big step further against Vancouver on October 29. At breaks in play throughout the second period, the PA system blared out selected “hits” from the Vancouver-based “band” Nickelback.

Over, and over, and over.

And over.

And over.

This annoyed the hometown fans a lot more than it did the visiting Canucks. Footage from the disaster scene shows spectators covering their ears and pleading for mercy.

Finally a graphic on the scoreboard asked fans:

What artist do you never want to hear again?

a). Nickelback

b). Nickelback

c). Nickelback

Nickelback won, and the long dark night of the Dallas soul ended.

Dallas can afford to have some perverse fun with their paying customers. The team are playing well and are first place in their division through the weekend, so the crowds are in a good mood. But such a ploy would be beyond cruel to fans whose team are already tormented enough.

By which I mean, Toronto.

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