Stars fans donate $20K to Ben Stelter Foundation

Four days after the Dallas Stars arena DJ sparked outrage in Oil Country for playing La Bamba at American Airlines Arena following the Edmonton Oilers‘ Game 2 loss, Stars fans have made an apology — to the tune of $20,000.

Per Lia Assimakopolous of The Dallas Morning News, fans began a donation spree to the Ben Stelter Foundation, created in honour of six-year-old Oilers superfan, Ben’s father and executive director of the foundation Mike Stelter confirmed.

Stars DJ Jonathan “Shippy” Shipman played La Bamba following the Oilers’ 3-1 loss, but later explained he was unaware of the song’s significance in Edmonton. He publicly apologized and made a donation of his own to Ben’s foundation and encouraged others to do the same.

“The response from Dallas Stars fans has been incredible and overwhelming,” Mike Stelter told Assimakopolous and The Dallas Morning News in an email. “We know that Shippy played La Bamba to poke fun in the rivalry, and we had no ill feelings towards him or the organization. Ben understood sports rivalries better than most people, and he would have had fun with it.”

Though La Bamba has been used as the Oilers’ win song since 2021, Ben coined the phrase “Play La Bamba, baby,” during the team’s 2021-22 run to the Western Conference Final. He passed away that summer, but the phrase has become an important motto to fans across Oil Country.

In a post on X, Mike said that Ben “would be laughing right now…. but he would also throw in a ‘Boo Dallas!’”

The Stars currently lead the Oilers 2-1 in the Western Conference Final, with Game 4 set to take place on Wednesday evening.