A former resurfacer who was fired by the Detroit Red Wings in February 2022 for urinating into the Zamboni drainage system claims he is a victim of age discrimination.
The Detroit Free Press reported this on Friday.
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Al Sobotka, now 70, lost his job after a colleague spotted him emptying his bladder between two Zambonis without the public being able to see him. Since 1971 he worked for Olympia Entertainment, the owner of the Red Wings.
The man filed a lawsuit against his ex-employer just two months after he was fired. Since then, Olympia Entertainment has tried unsuccessfully to avoid legal proceedings.
A few weeks before the bladder incident, Sobotka claimed that Vice President Tim Padgett came up to him in a Zoom meeting and said, “You're getting old.”
He claims the company used his ineptitude as an excuse to get rid of him, asking a manager who didn't know him to fire him so that the vice president's remark would be swept under the rug.
Olympia Entertainment says Padgett had nothing to do with the decision. However, he said in an affidavit that he advised President Keith Bradford to fire Sobotka.
“It kills me”
Sobotka had been employed by Olympia Entertainment since he was 17 and was in complete shock when he was shown the exit door. He even took the liberty of texting Red Wings President and CEO Christopher Ilitch and asking him to give him a second chance.
“Chris, you probably heard that I was fired,” he wrote to her. I don't think I deserve it. After 50 seasons of hard work, countless hours, vacations, missed family events… I hope you have enough heart to give me another chance. I would like to choose when I retire. I have a lot of respect for you and your family…Please, it’s killing me.”
Sobotka never received a reply from Ilyich.