Report: Tampa Bay “strong-arming” longtime fan over tickets.

The Tampa Bay Lightning  have certainly been causing a stir with their new playoff ticket policy. Although we have heard stories of out of state fans suffering by being refused tickets, but now it appears that the organization has stooped to a new low. When Paul Dhillon, an Army captain, learned in 2013 that he was going to be stationed in TampaBay, he immediately purchased a 10-game Tampa Bay Lightning ticket package. He bought two season tickets right behind the Lightning bench. You could often see him on TV wearing Tampa Bay colors. However, you won't see Dhillon these playoffs as he is currently stationed in Fort Knox, Ky., for five weeks of Army training, part of his duties as an assistant professor at the University of South Florida Army ROTC program. According to Dhillon, he attempted to sell his tickets on a secondary market, since he would be unable to attend the games anyway. This struuck a chord with the Lightning front office and they have threatened to move his seats or cancel them for the rest of the playoffs and next season. They have also temporarily blocked his ability to manage his tickets online and said he would have to pick up his tickets in person at the arena if he wants to use them. Dhillon said he never agreed not to sell his seats when he bought the season ticket package or when he re-upped for 2015-16. "I'm willing to comply with any policy they show me in writing but they're just making up stuff as they go," Dhillon, 32, said. "I really feel that they're strong-arming me into complying with what the Lightning want." Keep in mind this is the same man  who attends Tampa Bay fan events with his young child and wife and was honored in full uniform on the team's jumbotron as a "Hero of the Game" just last spring. Dhillon said he sold about half of his 41 games on StubHub during the regular season without ever hearing from the Lightning. He attempted to sell tickets for Round 1 against the Detroit Red Wings, only to be contacted by the organization asking him not to risk selling them to Red Wings fans. "I told him 'I completely agree as a Lightning fan but I can't control who buys the tickets on StubHub,' " Dhillon said. Dhillon was informed he had three options: Use the tickets, give them back to the team for games he couldn't attend or have his account canceled. Though it meant forgoing large profits on the secondary market, Dhillon didn't sell any more tickets for the next two rounds. For the Stanley Cup final, though, he thought if he resold the tickets through Ticketmaster's resale exchange accessed through the Lightning website, Ticketmaster would block anyone outside Florida from buying his tickets. He sold two $290 tickets to Game 2 against the Chicago Blackhawks for $2,600 a piece. But the out-of-state restriction did not apply to Ticketmaster's resale market, and Dhillon received another phone call from the Lightning front office. This time, he was told the Lightning was taking the rest of his tickets. Since this story leaked, the team has backtracked and allowed Dhillon to access his tickets. Lightning CEO Tod Leiweke told the Tampa Bay Times on Friday that the team may have gone too far in Dhillon's case and "perhaps on this our passion got in the way." "If a gentleman serving our country feels he was slighted, oh my god, we owe him an apology," Leiweke said. This seems to be getting out of hand.