DurhamRegion.com<\/a> Thursday that he gets a lot of complaints from fans \u201cabout the [person] next to them smelling like cat pee, bad breath, this, that and everything else.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\nHe told the news outlet that these complaints have increased over the last month.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018Not a great look’ for Oshawa, fan says\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a city that some call “the Dirty \u2018Shwa,” one fan said the Generals\u2019 email plays into negative stereotypes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ashley has been attending Generals games since she was a child. CBC News is not using her full name because she works in an industry tied to the OHL and is concerned about speaking publicly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While she’s not a season ticket holder, she said she thought the email was funny and she wasn\u2019t personally offended. But she said the email drew extra attention because of Oshawa\u2019s nickname.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just played into that \u2026 confirming that everyone in Oshawa is dirty and we have to be told to shower before we go to the game,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a great look on Oshawa, but for me personally, I just laughed about that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ashley said she hasn\u2019t noticed bad smells at games before. She called the email a blunder for the team, saying they should have addressed odours by approaching people in person.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201c[They should have] handled it in a more personal and human way, than in such a wide way that is going to offend so many different people and all the season ticket holders that you rely on to keep the team going,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771061355_971_default.jpg\")
Kyle Bichener, right, attends a few Generals games each year with his family. During a New Year\u2019s Day matchup, he said a strong odour from a fan behind him made it difficult to focus on the game. (Submitted by Kyle Bichener)<\/p>\n
Kyle Bichener, who also doesn\u2019t have season tickets, takes his family to a few games throughout the year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
During a match on New Year\u2019s Day, he recalled complaining to his wife about a strong odour coming from a fan sitting behind him. He said the smell was so overpowering that he didn\u2019t even want to turn his head.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was all I could think about,\u201d Bichener said. \u201cIt was kind of ruining my attention and focus on the game, and the time and money I spent to take my family out.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said he didn\u2019t complain to staff, adding there could have been many reasons for the fan\u2019s odour, such as a health condition.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While Bichener said he hasn\u2019t encountered this issue at other games, he said he could see how season ticket holders attending regularly might experience it frequently.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said the Generals\u2019 email wasn\u2019t a personal attack on Oshawa or the fans.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were ultimately addressing hygiene issues and keeping people healthy and safe within the arena,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474195,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-474194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474194\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Text](\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/a\/assets\/texttospeech.svg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771061354_613_default.jpg\")
The team posted an apology statement on X, Instagram and Facebook on Thursday after sending fans an email asking them to shower before games. (Oshawa Generals\/X)<\/p>\n