Flyers Fans Booed the Ice Guys Again Last Night

boos so loud for Ice Men that referee actually waited before he announced the penalty

— Tim Panaccio (@tpanotchRET) September 26, 2014

Another preseason Flyers game, another chance for Flyers fans to show displeasure with the team’s removal of the Ice Girls. Fans actually interrupted the referee announcing a penalty to jeer the fact that women in tiny shorts and tight tops no longer collected ice shavings during stoppages of play.

How long will this go on? Just the preseason? Will loud boos continue to embarrass Flyers fans all year? Will the Flyers eventually acquiesce and bring back the Ice Girls?

The Flyers’ removal of the Ice Girls comes a few months after a Mother Jones story detailed the work conditions of the Flyers and other Ice Girl teams: $50 a game for about 7 hours of work (they don’t just show up as soon as the puck drops, of course). As I wrote at the time, what other Comcast employees would be treated this way?

Even the name is kind of hilarious: People are calling the all-male team the Ice Guys or Ice Men. But, no one called them the Ice Women. Just girls! They did a job, but their outfits told you they were there to be ogled. Not that you could really see them from most areas in the arena, of course, but I guess the idea of an attractive woman cleaning up the ice was good enough.

Wanting the Ice Girls back isn’t even necessarily bad, though. Rather than seeing people lose their gigs, it would have been nicer if the Flyers had paid them more money and allowed them to cover up when they got cold. But loud booing because you no longer have pretty women cleaning up the ice at the Wells Fargo Center is a tad embarrassing.

Not that we even know if the team got rid of the Ice Girls due to fan complaints or the Mother Jones article. Maybe the Ice Girls were too pretty and distracted the Flyers on the ice, causing the team to miss out on the Stanley Cup for almost 40 seasons in a row.

Previously: Flyers Fans Make Over-Ostentatious Display of Their Heterosexuality