Color of Hockey: Hamilton takes stand, inspires change at Flyers arena

William Douglas has been writing The Color of Hockey blog since 2012. Douglas joined NHL.com in 2019 and writes about people of color in the sport. Today, he profiles Philadelphia Flyers director, events Lyric Hamilton, who was instrumental in Wells Fargo Center updating its code of conduct.

Lyric Hamilton spoke up and spoke out.
When Wells Fargo Center prepared for the return of fans in the spring of 2021, the 27-year-old director, events for the Philadelphia Flyers -- who also handles select concerts and other events -- felt the arena needed to do more than have additional hand sanitizing stations and a new air circulation system to help make its patrons and employees feel safe and welcome.
In the wake of George Floyd's murder by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020 and a spate of other racially-charged incidents nationally and locally, Hamilton suggested the time had come to update the arena's code of conduct.
"I had vocalized that one of my worries was for when we brought hockey back in person with fans was what was the climate going to be, how could people possibly react in person to me, and to anyone else of color or who had a disability," Hamilton said. "I kind of proposed the idea of revamping the code of conduct of that new 2021 season ... I proposed that we do a marketing campaign to make it clear what we're going to accept and what we're not."
Hamilton and the Wells Fargo code of conduct -- which includes a zero-tolerance policy for racial or other identity-based slurs, abusive behavior or inappropriate altercations and calls for patrons to treat arena employees respectfully -- got the attention of the NHL.

The League is developing a fan code of conduct that would be applied to all 32 arenas.
Hamilton was invited to speak about the Wells Fargo code at the NHL Business Meetings in Washington, D.C., in July.
A presentation of the working concept of the NHL code was given during the NHL Board of Governors meeting in Palm Beach, Florida, in December.
"She's spurred something at the local level that created an acceleration point for all of us at the League to move fast but thoughtfully, considering what's been done in Philadelphia provides more reason to figure out how we level up as an entire league," said Paul LaCaruba, NHL vice president, growth, strategies and innovation. "I think that there's going to be opportunities for us to learn from what they're doing, but also for the Flyers to continue learning across the other 31 clubs on the strategies, systems and tactics that improve fan behavior and the experience for everyone.
"It starts with an internal champion. She's been that for the Flyers organization, and has become a force for what positive change looks like."
Spectacor Sports and Entertainment president and CEO Valerie Camillo said Hamilton unflinchingly sharing her thoughts about the code of conduct to higher-ups is typical for the Philadelphia native who has risen rapidly since joining Comcast Spectacor, the Flyers' parent company, as an intern in 2017.
Camillo said Hamilton was a major player in Wells Fargo Center's $350 million transformation, which improved every level of the arena.
"Many of the meetings, brainstorms, ideations that we had around what we were going to create, she was the voice of the fan and was incredibly innovative and had a number of out-of-the-box ideas on what that future of the arena should look like," Camillo said.
"The second way she stood out ... just stepping beyond what you sort of might expect from someone that many years into their career in saying, 'The Wells Fargo Center needs a code of conduct that is more broadly understood and covers the relevant, necessary issues of today,' to identify that as a need.

"She also had the courage to say, 'I want to talk to Valerie about it' and came to see me. As you know, a lot of junior employees lack the confidence to do that."
Hamilton chalks that confidence up to her Philadelphia roots. She grew up in the city's West Oak Lane section and attended Central High School. She attended Drexel University, where she briefly studied to become a nurse. She transferred to Penn State University, where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in theater, a passion she developed in high school.
"Philadelphia is my hometown, so I have a sense of pride when it comes to the teams and the artists who come here," she said. "It feels good to be able to put on these big events for the city and be able to say, 'I did that for my hometown.'"
Hamilton is pursuing an executive MBA at Philadelphia's Temple University's Fox School of Business through Comcast Spectacor's Executive Scholarship award program, which was instituted in 2020.
"Hopefully, it accelerates my moves upward in the company I currently work in," she said. "I know I'm going to accelerate with or without it because I'm ambitious, but I think it will help get even higher."
Photos: Philadelphia Flyers, Lyric Hamilton