San Jose Sharks vs. Bad Boys Bail Bonds

Have the San Jose Sharks violated fans’ freedom of speech?

Greg Wyshynski - September 27, 2011

From YAHOO! SPORTS

Watch any NHL game on television, and you may not remember what the fans seated in back of the home bench were wearing that night.

Here's the thing: The Sharks argue that "promotion" of a business on a T-shirt at the game is actually "advertising." So the team changed its dress code at HP Pavilion for the 2011-12 season: Prohibiting ticket holders from using their tickets to "generate publicity for the purposes of promoting and/or marketing other businesses." Which means, going forward, the team intends to ban Bad Boys Bail Bonds T-shirts behind the players' bench. Which means they now have a 260-pound problem on their hands named Jeffrey Stanley, who owns the company. "My constitutional attorney says we have a legal right to wear the shirts at the game," Stanley told us on Monday. Bad Boys Bail Bonds was founded in 1998 by Stanley, and now has seven offices in California. He's been a Sharks season-ticket holder for around a decade, and currently has two seats behind the home bench and two seats behind the visitors' bench — a seating request from his daughters, who wanted to be on the glass. They've worn the bail bonds shirts to the game for years. Last season, Stanley decided to further his relationship with the Sharks by buying ad space behind the benches and sponsoring the penalty box, which seems like a rather appropriate venue for a bail bonds company.  |  Read More