Fans Behaving Badly

We continue tonight with our sadly ongoing series "Fans Behaving Badly." Last night during the second half of a men's college basketball game between Pittsburgh and West Virginia, fans starting throwing objects onto the court when Pittsburgh started to rally from a double-digit deficit. You know things are bad when a coach grabs the microphone in the midst of the insanity. Bob Huggins, the coach of West Virginia suggested that if someone sees another person engaging in this behavior they should, "point them out so we can throw them out of here." Bravo for being the voice of reason coach! Sadly, he doesn't go far enough.

Over the past several years there has been an escalation of bad fan behavior. It started with the "malice at the palace" in the Pacers-Pistons game in 2004. In that case it was not just fans, but players as well. That same year saw Frank Francisco of the Texas Rangers throw a chair into the crowd in a game against the Oakland A's which resulted in a woman getting a broken nose in the midst of a fan melee that started when then Texas Rangers pitcher Doug Brocail charged from the Rangers' bullpen to go after a fan, Craig Bueno, who, Rangers' players claimed heckled the Rangers pitcher about his stillborn child. Then in 2007 there was the revelation about the "Gate D" party at Giants Stadium where fans gathered at the spiral columns of the stadium and encouraged women passing by to lift their shirts and engaged in other lewd behavior. No surprise, some were drunk and some threw beer bottles. Notice a pattern here?

What is to be done? In my view there are a number of things we can do to deal with this. First, if fans start acting this way play the next game before an empty stadium. This is not a new, radical concept. They do it all the time in Europe when the soccer fans get out of control. In 2005 fans at a game in Italy started throwing flares onto the field, not just plastic bottles and other objects. If it happens again, make it two games with an empty stadium, and so on, until the message sticks. Additionally, surveillance cameras should be in all stadiums and fans caught engaging in unruly behavior should be banned for the season. If they offend again, they should be banned for life. Finally, and I know I'm going to be unpopular for saying this, alcohol should be banned at ALL, yes, ALL sporting events. Period. I know not everyone is a drunken buffoon, but sadly this is another case where a few idiots are ruining it for everyone else. In far too many of these cases of fan violence have coincided with drunkenness. Since there is no evidence fans can police themselves I say we go prohibition-style. I have nothing against casual drinkers. If you want a beer or two watch the game at home or go the local bar. Then maybe we can go back to enjoying sports instead of having to be in fear for our lives in the stands.