Country music superstar Garth Brooks has announced that he and his wife Trisha Yearwood have cancelled all three of their shows at the Amalie Arena due to a scheduling conflict with the 2014-15 Stanley Cup Finals.
The Garth Brooks World Tour with Trisha Yearwood has officially announced that all three performances scheduled over the course of Friday, June 5th and Saturday, June 6th, 2015 at the Amalie Arena would be cancelled.
The announcement comes in wake of the Tampa Bay Lightning defeating the New York Rangers to become the Eastern Conference Champions and the Chicago Blackhawks defeating the Anaheim Ducks, becoming the Western Conference Champions. The reigning Eastern and Western Conference Champions are set to compete for the Stanley Cup starting June 3rd.
Since the Tampa Bay Lightning finished the regular season with a higher point total than the Chicago Blackhawks, this would give the Lightning home ice advantage. As you know, this also means that Games 1 and 2 are set to be played here at the Amalie Arena. According to the official schedule set forth by the National Hockey League, Game 2 was set to be played on June 6th.
As we mentioned in our previous article, June 6th was the second of two dates scheduled for the Garth Brooks World Tour featuring Trisha Yearwood. Unfortunately, the two sides were not able to reach a conclusion that would adequately benefit both sides, which has caused Brooks and Yearwood to cancel the two dates here in Tampa.
In a statement released on Garth Brooks’ official website, Brooks and Yearwood seemed understanding of the predicament that the arena found themselves in and explained that the safety of the crews had to come first and played a big part in the cancellation of the previously scheduled dates.
"“First of all, we would all like to congratulate the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Chicago Blackhawks for reaching the Stanley Cup Final. As we now know, Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final is being played on Saturday, June 6th. All parties looked into moving Saturday’s two Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood shows to Sunday. The issue of getting the network crews and their gear out of the building and getting our crews and gear into the building late Saturday/early Sunday for two shows on Sunday raises serious safety concerns. It is because of those safety concerns that the choice is being made to refund all shows and reschedule depending on finding a date that works for both the arena and the tour.”"
Brooks and Yearwood went on to praise everyone who had been involved in the process as well as stating that they appreciated all of the hard work that had been put forth in an effort to find a plausible solution to the matter.
"“This was a hard decision for everyone. We would like to thank Elmer Straub at Amalie Arena and Tod Leiweke with the Tampa Bay Lightning for working around the clock for the last 48 hours to find a remedy for the situation. We personally know Gary Bettman and are very familiar with the League and its players, coaches, and staff…they are all stand-up people. We are convinced everything that could have been done was done to try to remedy the situation.”"
On the bright side, at least we know that the country music power couple will be watching intently to make sure that their sacrifice would not go in vain. Even the biggest names in country music need a night off every once in a while.
"“Congrats again to the City of Tampa, good luck, and we will be watching the series!!!”"
It is not everyday that an area’s hockey team has the chance to host a Stanley Cup Finals game. While we are certainly sorry to both Garth Brooks and all the country music fans here in the Tampa Bay Area, but at the end of the day the Amalie Arena was built to be the home of the Tampa Bay Lightning and an event like the Stanley Cup Finals will always come first.
As we mentioned before, all the action will kick off on Wednesday, June 3rd as the Chicago Blackhawks make their way into Hockey Paradise to go one-on-one with the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals.
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