What’s a sports game without a cannon blasting cheap custom tee shirts into the crowd? For most, it’s a disappointment, but if you ask the people from Otago, New Zealand, it’s probably a good idea. Recently, an unidentified woman attended the Otago Highlanders’ game, and left bloodied after being blasted in the face with a custom tee cannon.
Fortunately, it was not that serious of an injury. After getting blasted in the face by a custom tee, the woman was treated there at the stadium, and was not taken to a hospital.
Bevan Potter who was sitting near the woman said that the cannons firing customized shirts were a “bloody stupid” idea, explaining to the Otago Times that “the thing’s flying at a million miles an hour and one came flying over three or four feet above me and hit a woman sitting a couple of rows behind me. She had blood pouring everywhere.”
In response, the rugby team’s managers said that the team would not be firing custom tees from the cannons, at least for a while.
“I don’t know if there was too much air in it, or whether it was the way it was fired … but it was really powerful and one struck a lady,” general manager Roger Clark told the Otago Times.
Team management followed up with the woman after the game, and reported that she was doing fine — a bit shocked because she wasn’t expected to be hit by a custom tee — but otherwise fine.
Management was also sure to note that this was the first time anyone had been injured by the tee shirt cannon at a Highlanders’ game.
Crowd Shot, the company leasing custom tee cannons to the team, denied any claim that it was one of his company’s cannons that was responsible for the incident, explaining that his could have a maximum pressure they cannot go above and that he had never heard of such a thing in his life.