The Dallas Stars have banned a fan from their home arena after video surfaced of a group of individuals giving an apparent Nazi salute during a game.
“We identified and spoke with the individual that purchased the tickets and will be banning the individual indefinitely from American Airlines Center,” a team spokesperson said in a statement to the Dallas Morning News on Monday, April 6.
The statement continued, “Additionally, we are increasing in-arena messaging regarding the Fan Code of Conduct and how our fans can report violations, along with prioritizing staff training to identify and handle situations that arise.
“Any type of discriminatory or hateful behavior will not be tolerated and has no place in our arena,” the team concluded. “Creating and sustaining environments that are inclusive, safe and respectful is a non-negotiable for the Dallas Stars.”
The statement comes after the video has gone viral on social media. While the Stars were able to identify the individual who bought the tickets, they were not able to identify the other men involved
The video showed a group of young men seated in the upper deck during the Stars’ December 21 game against the Toronto Maple Leafs. They made the apparent gesture to the rhythm of the Stars’ goal song, “Puck off” by Pantera.
“These boys were sitting in front of us doing a Nazi salute every time the Stars scored,” the Reddit user who first posted the video wrote. “I’ve been to several games and never seen anything like this before. I recorded them and sent it to arena management, but they said they couldn’t find the boys despite me giving them their exact seat numbers.”
Though the original Reddit post was deleted, the video has continued to circulate via X, leading to users to tag the Stars, calling on the team and players to speak out.
An American Airlines Center spokesperson told the Dallas Morning News that it has “zero tolerance for any acts of hate and/or discrimination” and that the arena launched an investigation into the incident.
The gestures also violate the arena and NHL’s fan code of conduct, which opens with the sentence, “The best hockey experiences happen in environments that are inclusive, safe and respectful.”
It also bars “language, gestures, behavior, clothing, signs, or other personal expressions that negatively reference or demean a specific race, ethnicity, gender/gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, disability status, or other identity-based characteristic.”
