I watched the Mike Tyson fight in Chilliwack a few years ago at a sports bar and after the fight on TV the whole town decided they wanted to fight as well. The streets were filled with the locals fighting.

I don't think that kind of behaviour is a monopoly of PG, but rather a result of rowdies that can't control themselves.

They live in every city everywhere.

This kind of behaviour is bad, but it would have happened no matter which city hosted the event.

For some reason, watching fights + yahoo + alcohol = a yahoo who wants to fight... go figure.

From the Globe and Mail:

Hockey Enforcers rumbles to a dull road

By JANE ARMSTRONG

Sunday, August 28, 2005 Updated at 8:19 AM EDT

Globe and Mail Update

Prince George, B.C. — Dean Mayrand, a native of Toronto, won a split decision over Mike Sgroi of Windsor, Ont., to win the $62,000 first prize in the inaugural Battle of the Hockey Enforcers on Saturday night.

After all the hype and hand-wringing, Hockey Enforcers, a gladiator-styled event in which a group of burly hockey players are paid to thrash one another, finally got its world debut in this northern B.C. town.

In the end, the fights that erupted in the stands among highly stoked fans were as fearsome — and unpredictable — as the duels at centre ice. Police were summoned at one point to quell the rowdy fans.

On the ice, there were a few surprises as well. Link Gaetz, the 36-year-old Enforcer favoured to win the event, went down twice in his very first fight, splayed face forward on the ice.

Then, the middle-aged and out-of-shape Kent Carlson was the first player to draw blood off an opponent after landing a punch to Mark Raiter's nose, a move appeared to surprise even Mr. Carlson.

The event had the feel of any big concert or sporting event; skaters glided onto the ice amid swirls of dry ice, pounding heavy metal music and two monstrous screens above the ice to replay the fights again and again.

But after all the hand-wringing and debating, Prince George's big slugfest on ice got repetitive fast.

The crowd was enthusiastic but small. About 2,000 seats in the 6,000-seat CN Centre were filled. The rink was reduced to a patch of ice between the blue lines and was surrounded by false boarding.

A female announcer with long blond hair and a tight red dressed introduced each player over a microphone, like at a boxing match.

The players did their very best to play up their tough-guy personas, narrowing their eyebrows and jabbing the air during introductions.

The fighters were divided into four pools and each player was guaranteed at least three fights.

Some fans said event was a perfect fit for the hockey-mad northern B.C. town, where street brawls are commonplace on a Saturday night, "As soon as there's blood, this crowd will go nuts," said Taki Papadopoulous, 21, a student at the University of Northern British Columbia.

Mr. Papadopoulous and his friend Chris Hebert, 21, sat high in the nose-bleed section and admitted they were reluctant fans. Mr. Papadopoulous said he loves hockey and only bought tickets to Hockey Enforcers because he wanted to see what the fuss was about.

Besides, he added, there's not much else to do on a Saturday night in Prince George.

Mr. Papdopolous was right. When Mr. Carlson pounded his first opponent until his nose bled, the fans roared and flew out of their seats.

Each fight was scheduled to last one minute, but linesmen called a duel at the first sight of blood.

Fans booed if the players took too long to start throwing punches. And they booed again if they thought a fight was ended too soon.

But the crowd went crazy when local player Trent Potskin glided to centre ice to face off against Eddie O'Toole, a former junior player from Toronto and an amateur boxer.

Mr. O'Toole bared his teeth for the cameras and landed half a dozen quick jabs to the taller Prince George player. But Mr. Potskin, who weighs nearly 50 pounds more than his shorter, stocky opponent, drilled Mr. O'Toole in the last seconds of the fight.

Mr. Potskin won that round and a lineman skated on the ice to scrape away Mr. O'Toole's blood.

Despite the hype and enthusiasm, there was a monotony to the fights especially with no game on the line. After each fight, each player gave one another a friendly slap and skated into the dressing room.

Ben it seems that you didn't have a problem accepting their advertising money on this website,c'mon get real nobody died and no one got hurt.A city with 80000 people had about one quarter of 1% of the population (2000 fans)chose to go watch a bunch of guys that work for a lot less when they play hockey compete for 50 - 60 k.There just can't be any suprise that there was a few fights in the beer garden.
Rock

Go to any concert in any city and you will see the same amount of altercations if not more. Give me a break, people are looking for anything to prove their senseless rants about the event. If people want to watch it they will, if they don't they won't...case closed. Hopefully the city and businesses made some cash of the deal and lets move on.

What is at issue here? a few people made their play to stop the battle of hockey enforcers from taking place and failed? Sounds to me like meisner is a bit of a Skakun fan and ate some humble pie when they lost their personal battle with ol colin Kinsley. Well guess what boys, suck it up you are too old to go on crying this long.

later........

Oh and one more thought. How many of these drunken redneck scrappers were even from Prince George? There were an awful lot of out of towners in town for the event.

later.........

hey hey hey hey ! Did we all forget the funniest part of the story here? Escorts (hookers, i checked out the kaliproject website) serving the drinks in the VIP section. Do hookers normally carry a serving it right certificate? I have heard of many of them having good caretaking skills as some of their clients are 90 years old. But doesn't hookers serving cocktails kind of tell you the quality of the event? This Wolsky cat must be a real classy individual.


later........

Stop condoning the idiotic actions of the brawlers who attended that event.
What the hell kind of city are we to promote violence-at any time- at any place.
This city can certainly boast a pack of ignorant clods-but do we have to promote them also.
Grow up-and grab a brain-the whole lot of you!!!!

Sorry, but hockey brawl or not, the rest of the world sees us as unsophisticated rubes probably because we have a large percentage of unsophisticated rubes living here. Accept it & move on.

escort hookers? fighting in the stands? sounds like a night at the Genny to me...what's the difference PG?

To each his/her own, i would'nt spend my $$ to go to the show, but i'm not going to push my decision on others who went, that's their choice, it's legal, and sounds like it was quite amusing to see society at its finest..and lets face it, who was really surprised?

Did I miss something? Is Ben slamming the event or the conduct of those who attended? You know, I've heard there was a push on to get Meisner to run for Mayor, with the kind of crap you people dish out all the time, it is no wonder he hasn't filed an application, (at least we haven't heard that he has filed). Who would want to try and make the City better for such an ignorant public? You people are unreal. Here is a guy who works on setting up a site where you can have a voice, and you can't wait to slap him in the face. You don't deserve to have a guy like him around!

IMO he set the website up to make some $$$,which is great.As far as Ben being slammed,I was just calling it the way I see it.Not to worry there flower,I'm pretty sure Benny can look after himself.
Rock

Ben set up this site so we can all have a voice, not so we can all have his voice...he, like the rest of us, has his own opinion and this site is where he, and we, voice it.
The hockey enforcers drew the crowd who wanted to see it, the fighting on the side? Nothing new, nothing surprising, violence breeds violence. But those of us who wanted no part of it, stayed home or found other things to do, as we had a right to. An opinion on this, is just an opinion because when you get right down to it, either you supported the event and purchased a ticket, or you did not and so, did not! I myself, did not, but I will not condemn those who did. If I was to express an opinion on anything it would be regarding the "no brainer idiots" who did all the fighting on the side, how immature! Next time, enter the contest yourselves you dummies!

we as adults, by what we say and do teach and influence our children and the next generation. i see no value in enhancing the fighting part of hockey. which part is the sport? fighting or hockey? what happened to boxing?

Well I guess this drinking at hockey games will rock the CN Center for the whole hockey season. As I said before the alcohol service at the complex is much more of an issue than the Enforcers ever was. I over heard someone talking about how wasted they were at that show. I knew that would happen..Gee what fun...What were they thinkin!

Drinking at the CN Centre? During hockey games? Shoot, now when I leave a hockey game I gotta watch out for drunk drivers?!! No fair!