Another Incident Signals How Out of Control Fans Are
As a kid growing up, my family never went out to eat that much. We were living in an era where most families viewed eating out as “treat” to be enjoyed a handful of times a year so it stayed in the category of being special.
Once I got to college, I met plenty of students who worked in the food services industry. They were waiters/waitresses, dish washers, bartenders, etc. Some of them broke in at various fast food chains as high school students. As time went on, a group of us would frequent the places where they worked. As you could imagine, it was frequently a good time. We would all come into the establishment ready to eat and drink while clowning around with our friends… those in front of and behind the bar.
The plan was always the same. Get on the edge of drinking too much without going over and make sure you had enough money to hit off our friends who were serving us. As someone who never worked in the industry, I thought this was status quo.
It wasn’t until later did I realize that the job my friends/classmates had wasn’t all fun and games. Their livelihood as a college student depended on other’s generosity. And lets just say, not everyone was generous.
The stories would usually come around during NFL Sundays when we would pile up in someone’s apartment or condo. That’s when I saw the true impact of the saying “the customer is always right” and everything that came with it. There were stories of being cussed out. Ones of being called names. Others involved being constantly on a stopwatch and being told that there tip weighed heavily on whether the customer’s expectation was being met. This was a foreign world to me. Of course, I was familiar with the “the customer is always right” mantra but I never had seen it used as a weapon.
Being naive, I thought the situations when customers used this is when something egregious happened. That was far from being the case. What I saw was a weapon being used recklessly to justify belittling people with the threat of little to no tip. I grew to understand that a large percentage of people of use this statement are self-indulged jerks looking for any excuse to spend less money that night or get a free meal.
Consumer expectation was being turned into a license to justify boorish behavior.
Over the years, I’ve seen an increasing problem with this very thinking at sporting events. There is this belief that buying a ticket gives you license to treat those providing the services anyway the consumer pleases at that time.
Going to live sporting events are no longer family friendly. I know this because growing up I went to plenty of them with my parents (Washington Bullets/Wizards season ticket holder). Then eventually I became of season ticket holder myself (Washington Capitals). I watched the degradation of fan behavior in real time.
The first time I saw fans engage in a brawl was in 1989. A friend and I were at Game 5 (series tied at 2) of the Washington Capitals-Philadelphia Flyers playoff series at the Capital Centre. It was intense. The Caps were still fighting for respect on and in the stands. Back then, playoff games at the Capital Centre usually had a healthy mix of fans from both teams. This was two-fold. The arena was situation right off I-95 where the fans of the other teams in the Patrick Division could easily make the trip. But the other reason was because the team was situated in the Washington DC Metro area. An area where there are people from all over the world who relocate to work and raise a family here.
After blowing a one-goal lead in the third period, the Caps were down two when they pulled their goalie Pete Peeters. That’s why Philadelphia Flyer goalie, and noted league bad boy, Ron Hextall would make history. The Caps would dump the puck in and Hextall would get it with an open net glistening at the other end of the ice. Hextall would risk taking the icing call and throw it the length of the ice and what do you know, he scored.
At that moment a lot of fans started making a mass exodus for the exits. My buddy and I sat there. When you drive all the way from Warrenton, VA to Landover, MD, you’re not leaving any game early. What we saw next would be the first time I had ever seen this at a sporting event. Two guys would start to argue. Two grew to six to eight. Six to eight grew to darn near 20. And then hit happened. One fan shoved another and now four rows of fans were throwing punches like it was a Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini-Livingstone Bramble fight. Initially, I didn’t know what to think. I was two sections over from the “festivities” and all I was concerned about is that it doesn’t reach me.
On the way home, my buddy and I had a good laugh about it. The extra-curricular entertainment seemed like nothing more than a one-off.
What has happened over the years is not only has physical altercations and other neanderthal type behavior become common place but today’s fans now think it’s justifiable. Why? Because the customer is always right. So fighting each other is fine. Using profanities and racial slurs are fine. Treating athletes in objectionable fashion is fine.
Mind you, purchasing a ticket comes with it’s own set of restrictions on behavior. But, those restrictions be damned, the customer is always right. What gets ignored are the customers like me. The ones whose ticket should protect me from that type of behavior. The customers who think that the next generation of fans should be able to go to a game without being victim of a two-fisting drunk moron using profanity every other word.
It’s why, for the most part, very seldom do I attend NFL games in person and my NHL attendance has plummeted.
And what’s sad is this type of behavior has bled into college athletics where boosters, those who attended and didn’t attend that particular university, think they have the right to yell anything they want at young, unpaid athletes.
This leads us to the latest in the installation of the self-indulged fan.
During the Washington Wizards 125-108 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers, Isaiah Thomas was ejected for going into the stands and saying something to a fan.
What would cause Thomas to react in this fashion borders on bizarre. A fan felt compelled to give Thomas the both of his middle fingers (twice) and say ‘F— you, b—-‘ three times. Why? Because by making one of two free throws, Thomas cost the fan a free Frosty. Yes, you read that correctly. The Sixers offer a free Frosty is an opposing player misses two free throws in the second half.
This is where we are in 2019.
Per NBA rule, Thomas was handed a two-game suspension for going into the stands. People can debate whether this is justified or not but to put it simply, that’s the rule.
Where the NBA gets it right is that they have seen the folly of the “customer is always right” mantra. The Sixers along with the Wells Fargo Center announced that the fans involved along with the season ticket holder will also suffer consequences for the incident.
Both fans involved in last night’s incident have been banned from Wells Fargo Center for 12 months.
The season ticket holder that transferred them the tickets will also have season tickets revoked. https://t.co/9TSfajyT7o
— Serena Winters (@SerenaWinters) December 22, 2019
The NBA was thoroughly embarrassed by the “Malice in the Palace”. What Adam Silver and the NBA have recognized is the crisis that is being caused by the consumer’s thought that a ticket has become of free pass to be a hooligan. So in the offseason the NBA announced a zero-tolerance policy for abusive and hateful fan behavior.
Unlike the NFL, the NBA is largely viewed, and the key is the term “viewed”, as a “black male league”. Because of that, every little thing that happens is viewed in a different prism than the NFL. There just isn’t a lot of leeway allowed before anti-NBA guy tries to use social and moral reasons for not being a consumer when we all know the real reason.
As a child, I remember going to the arena to watch the best players in the world play. It was always a special occasion no matter how many times I’ve gone. We’ve lost that. Too many fans define who they are and how they feel based on whether their team wins or not. What sort of pathetic existence is that?
The problem is today’s athletic arena isn’t the players. It’s helicopter parents. It’s self-indulged fans. It’s the thought that customer is always right when in reality, the customer is often wrong.
