Saturday, May 12, 2007

Throw-ins

When the Galaxy and Chivas USA met for about the second or third time, the stadium give-away that day were these little metal trash cans.They were cute, and a lot of people turned them into impromptu drums that day, adding to the intense atmosphere.

But as someone who has seen fans fighting outside stadiums in Argentina, there was a little knot of dread in my stomach when I saw those cans. There's no way such a giveaway would happen in an Argentine stadium. It would be too dangerous. Even something soft might not be a great idea. I mean, if they gave away a mini-Beanie Baby bear in Boca colors, some River fans might think it a good idea to stuff it down a Boca fans' throat.

So I was surprised and pleased to see that nothing like that happened at the HDC stadium. No one tried bashing fans of the opposing team over their heads with the trash cans. People cheered, booed, drummed, and chanted, but were generally polite.

In Toronto, though, the fans threw their stadium freebie on to the field repeatedly in their game today. Chicago had to ask for a cover for their bench at halftime. As much as I admired Toronto fans for their support of their team in the debut match, throwing stuff on the field (confetti being an obvious exception) is dumb and dangerous. Today, seat cushions, tomorrow coins and batteries?

Soccer is not supposed to be interactive in the sense that the crowd has any right to throw physical objects that make the playing surface dangerous to run on or could hurt someone on impact.

I'm not necessarily worried about the professional athletes alone here. MLS fields are usually ringed by ball kids, some of them pretty small. Their job is to face the field, so they're unlikely to see anything being lobbed from the stands until it hits them. I'm not suggesting that anyone is aiming for the kids, but why take the chance of hitting one?

Toronto fans have set a nice precedent for the league in many ways, but I consider this behavior a low for them. I hope the league comes up with a way to deal with their actions.

Penalties for unruly fans (including those who throw nothing, but indulge in racist chants) in other leagues have included stadium bans, docking points from the home team, or playing home games in closed stadiums. I'm not suggesting consequences this extreme are in order, but perhaps they should cancel other freebies to fans, or pass them out to Toronto supporters only after the game is finished. It's a basic rule to keep your stuff to yourself.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Honestly I've never been a fan of confetti, either. You were saying seat cushions might lead to batteries, etc. But why doesn't confetti lead to seat cushions? Also, it's a distraction for the players with the confetti laying on the field and I've seen one or two players slip on it. You either have to say throwing things on the field is OK so long as it's not hard, or you have to say nothing is OK. Pick one, but there's really not a huge difference between confetti and seat cushions.

That said, I'm willing to cut the Toronto fans some slack with the seat cushions. They scored their first goals and won their first game in very entertaining fashion. They deserve to be able to celebrate a little bit. When it comes to irresponsible celebrations, people always say, "act like you've been there before." Well, TFC hadn't been there before...

A.C. said...

I do think players would say there's a major difference between confetti and seat cushions. I don't think Chicago would have asked for a cover to protect them from confetti.

Anonymous said...

I believe you're getting excessive towards Toronto's fans. C'mon, throwing that stuff has nothing to with what happens in Europe or Argentine. It was cool to see it. Real fans. Ok, this does not mean that everytime has to happen, just tell them, but c'mon...

scaryice said...

You're making a big deal out of nothing.

A.C. said...

I don't by the argument that "real fans" trash their own stadium by throwing flares that burn their holes in their field (which also took place in Toronto) or endanger their own players by throwing things that players could step on and get injured. Half the time a player is running, they're keeping their eyes on the ball, or a player, and not where they're going, so they could easily step on something and turn an ankle badly. It's funny how just because it didn't happen, some negate the possibility that it could have, and might if it repeats. That's not nothing.
Finally, aren't people there to watch the game? Forcing a game to stop to clear off the field for safety reasons is killing the flow of the game entirely - fans who really care about the match should let it keep going.

Anonymous said...

The exact same thing happened in San Jose a few years ago. The Quakes scored in a really tight high strung game, and a shower of "Go Army" seat cushions littered the field.

From then on, the Quakes gave away items like that after the game.