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Lightning fans angry over Bradenton sponsored Penguins towels

Josh Cooper

Tampa Bay Lightning fans weren’t pleased with rally towels given out at Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final by the Pittsburgh Penguins.

This was because they were promoted by the Bradenton Area Convention and Visitors Bureau a town that’s about 45 miles south of Tampa.

Lightning fans came up with the social media hashtag #BoycottBradenton in order to voice their displeasure. Bradenton is the spring training home of the Pittsburgh Pirates. It’s also the home of the Bradenton Marauders, Class-A affiliate of the Pirates.

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“We’re the agency that’s charged with promoting visitation to the Bradenton area and our staff and stakeholders truly love the Lightning and we hope to cheer them all the way to the Stanley Cup, but at the same time as a convention and visitor’s bureau, we have objectives to drive visitors to our areas in the most unique and effective manner,” said Bradenton Area Convention Visitors Bureau executive director Elliott Falcione in a phone interview with Puck Daddy. “This is one tactic we used that we felt and now know will be effective.”

Falcione said the Penguins had contacted his organization as they readied for a potential Eastern Conference Final matchup and asked if they wanted their name on a rally towel. It was an offer they couldn’t pass up based on their tourism connection with the city of Pittsburgh.

"The thought wasn’t who the opponent would be. The thought was getting our brand in front of those Penguins fans that mesh will with our visitor demographic," he said.

The city of Bradenton has also held a partnership with the Lightning the last two years according to Falcione with their brand being behind the visitor’s bench at Lightning games.

“The Pittsburgh Pirates have been partners with us since 1969 and they are our sister city as well, so it’s a big feeder market for us and we keep seeing continual growth in visitation from Pittsburgh to Bradenton,” he said. “Pittsburghers traditionally save things, and I believe that they’ll have these rally towels in their homes for many years to come, so when they think it’s time to go to vacation in Florida, they’re going to remember that rally towel and plan a vacation to the Bradenton area.”

According to the Tampa Bay Times, the Lightning also released a statement in order to try to calm the fury over the towels.

"We understand that our region and our state have been built on the tourism industry and we acknowledge Bradenton's great long term relationship with the city of Pittsburgh and its people. We are all in the business of selling the state's assets — our beaches, the water, sunshine, great weather — as we continue working to grow and develop our regional economy.

"Hopefully hockey fans throughout the region, including our friends in Bradenton, can enjoy a competitive, spirited Eastern Conference Final between the Lightning and the Penguins.”

Still, local fans were up in arms over the towels. The #BoycottBradenton hashtag was still trending in the Tampa area according to the Trends Map website as of Saturday afternoon.

Falcione noted that this passion was helped by Lightning owner Jeff Vinik, and the job he has done to help grow the team's reach within the Tampa area.

“They created a great brand in the Tampa area in a tough state to play hockey,” Falcione said. “And that brand continues to resonate and in my mind, this area will be producing future NHL hockey players because of the passion it has gained because of the product Jeff Vinik and his group have put together the last several years.”

The Lightning won Game 1, 3-1 to take a 1-0 series lead. Game 2 is Monday in Pittsburgh.

Falcione said there were no plans for his organization as far as Game 3 sponsorship when the series shifts to Tampa.

“We have budget limitations and quite candidly we feel like the rally towel advertising opportunity really allowed us to showcase what we needed to showcase for this time,” Falcione said. “So we’ve met our goals and we expect to get some direct and indirect ROI from that. Even when Penguin fans, and if you know the Pittsburgh sports market – Pittsburgh fans travel all over the country and you know Steelers fans and Penguins fans, so when Penguins fans come to the Lightning games in Tampa, they’re familiar with the Bradenton area brand. I’m sure they’ll stay in our hotels, eat at our restaurants and go up there and enjoy the great game of hockey. I love the rivalry, I think we’ve helped enhance the rivalry between the Penguins and the Lightning, so I think this initiative created some noise for the NHL that I think at the end of the day it’s really, really good.”

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!