Under the umbrella of a restructuring plan, the Tampa Bay Lightning fired a handful of employees on Monday, including Matt Hitchcock, who portrayed team mascot ThunderBug.
Hitchcock had played the role of ThunderBug since the 2006-07 season, when he took over for Jason Franke, who resigned to pursue other interests.
Hitchcock, who is listed as mascot coordinator on the team's Web site, portrayed ThunderBug at home games as well as at league functions such as the All-Star Game and community events involving the team, and was available for hire at private events including birthday parties.
Hitchcock declined to comment.
Lightning team spokesman Bill Wickett said ThunderBug will not be going away and the team intends to have somebody else fill the role next season.
More layoffs are expected in the next week.
On Monday, the team issued this statement:
"The Tampa Bay Lightning today announced a restructuring aimed at creating more efficiencies and eliminating redundancies by reducing the size of its workforce. When the current ownership purchased the team, it elected to take a full hockey season to observe and analyze the business before making major decisions regarding its long-term direction.
"With the 2008-09 season completed, the franchise feels it is necessary to form a structure that best supports the business going forward. Today, in a toughening economy, we certainly understand the impact that these decisions have on the lives of the families affected which doesn't make the decisions any easier. However, we feel an obligation to our fans and sponsors to create the best possible organization to ensure our success in the future. We appreciate all the hard work and service these dedicated employees have performed for this organization and we wish them all the best moving forward."
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement
Advertisement