These people want to hurt you. Its frightening. You feel like youre in a cage out there. Reggie Smith, (Berger, 1990).
spectator violence at sporting events has been recorded throughout history. People who have power over the events, often team owners, indirectly influence the amount of spectator violence by encouraging the factors contributing to violence, in order to benefit themselves. Sale of alcohol, encouraging crowd intensity, creating rivalries, and targeting social groups, are factors affecting the degree of spectator violence and can be proven to be influenced by the owners actions.
Therefore the blame for spectator violence can be attributed to whoever has power over the sport. Many historians suggest that an increase in spectator violence coincides with the commercialization of sports. Anthropologists agree that in societies where games were not for profit, they were enjoyed as celebrations of physical skill without competitiveness or violence between players or spectators (Berger, 1990).
However, when people gained power or financially from the sporting events, spectator violence increased (Berger, 1990).
Public spectacles and games were part of the Roman Empire. Each emperor had an amphitheater and the size of the crowd reflected the emperors wealth or power. The emperor through crowd excitement could influence spectator violence to such an extent that gladiators could be killed or freed depending on the crowds effect on the emperor (Robinson, 1998).
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The emperor encouraged the Roman working class, to forget their own suffering, by seeing others suffer, while the senators, and emperor would benefit financially from gambling profits (Robinson, 1998).
With the commercialization of sports, owners profits increased with alcohol sales. Beer drinking has been an integral part of sports since the late 1870s. Chris van der Alie noticed that his saloon did well when St. Louis Brown Stockings were in town. As a result, he decided to sell beer at the games.
On February 12, 1880, Alie signed a contract with the Browns allowing him to sell alcohol on their property (Johnson, 1988).
During a game on July 6, 1881, the first alcohol related brawl broke out in the crowd, injuring twenty spectators and killing two (Johnson, 1998).
The signed contract with the Browns was a financial bonus for the owner, however permitting alcohol to be sold, might have indirectly contributed to the injuries and deaths. Alcohol sales contribute financial support to teams. Without beer companies as sponsors, the teams would have trouble making ends meet. Bob Whitsitt, president of Seattle Supersonics, (Berger, 1990).
The more alcohol consumed, the more revenue for the owners. During the 1987-1988 season the Cincinnati Reds sold 12,610 half-barrels and 35,365 cases of beer. The amount of beer consumed averages out to a pint for every man, woman, and child who attended the 81 games the team played at home (Johnson, 1988).
The teams owner benefited with a financial profit of over 1 million dollars. Sponsorship or ownership of teams by alcohol manufacturers, increases the alcohol sales. The first major partnership of beer and baseball dates from the 1953 purchase of the Cardinals by August A.
Busch, Jr., president of the Anheuser-Busch brewery (Johnson, 1988).
In twenty-five years its sales soared from fewer than 6 million barrels a year to more than 35 million (Johnson, 1988).
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Debra Cortese Theme Study-Advertising & Cultural Peters/TimonerAugust 1, 2004 Alcohol Advertising-Under Age Drinking In researching my report on alcohol advertising, I came across underage drinking and what influences someone under the age of 21 to drink. I today's society, I don't believe that the under 21 age group is influenced by alcohol advertisements, such as television and magazines, ...
In addition to direct profit, alcohol also indirectly increases profit through increased attendance. In 1974, when the Cleveland Indians fan attendance was down, the owner implemented Beer Night where they sold beers for 10 cents at the first game of a three game series against the Texas Rangers (Berger, 1990).
Attendance was up by 3500. The night turned out to be the first and last Beer Night. When a brawl occurred during the 5th inning, hundreds of Indian fans charged the field and beat up the Texas Ranger players.
Seventy-six people were arrested. All were intoxicated (Berger, 1990).
Theres no question that the beer played a great part in the affair (GM Eddie Robinson).
Eddie Robinson did not apologize for the incident, and it took Lee MacPhail, president of American League to intervene and ban the beer nights (Johnson, 1988).
The rowdy behavior contributed by alcohol consumption often accompanies the throwing of beverage containers. Cups, bottles, and cans act as stimuli and provide a throwing opportunity. In 1988, Pete Rose of Cincinnati Reds was pelted with full cups of beer and whiskey bottles, when he stormed out of the dugout to dispute a call. It was insane, many of the fans were throwing unopened beer cans Pete Rose, (Johnson, 1988).
To restrain spectator violence, many agree with not selling alcohol at sporting events. The selling of alcohol at sporting events should be banned (Johnson, 1988).
Other solutions have been implemented, such as limiting drinking to designated areas, selling low alcohol beer, and making it more difficult to buy. The solution of prohibiting alcohol at games was never implemented (Johnson, 1988) Alcohol sales increase revenue; profits keep the owners satisfied. The owners to increase entertainment and increase attendance often promote other stimulants such as music, hearing obscenities, and aggressive play in the event or in the stands. Since sports are a source of entertainment, loud music and aggressive play in the event pump up the crowds, increasing the fans enthusiasm.
Hearing obscenities can be contagious and escalate into more swearing, name calling and fighting. An obscene cheer starts with two fans, increases to eight and soon a whole section is vibrating to the pulse. If fans take exception to the obscenities individual fights break out building into group fights, as friends come to assist. Owners are often able to control the crowds involvement in the game with the type of music they play and how loud they control the volume (Robinson, 1998).
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An excited, participatory crowd heightens the atmosphere and increases future ticket sales, benefiting the owner. However, the same atmosphere can increase hostility leading to fan violence. Basketball games attract anywhere from twenty to thirty thousand fans, whereas a gymnastic competition may attract a few hundred (Robinson, 1998).
This is party due to the loud, exciting atmosphere at a basketball game. Goldstein did a study comparing crowd hostility before and after a basketball game to before and after a gymnastic competition. He proved that the hostility increased considerably for the basketball fans, and also discovered that hostility occurred no matter if the fan was rooting for the winning or the losing team (Robinson, 1998).
Large sport events like basketball often use music to increase the crowds hostility and competitive awareness of the game. Owners often dont realize at what point hostility turns to fan violence. This may have been the situation for Dan Goodenow, organizer of the 1988 Martin Luther King Classic basketball tournament where 5 fans were arrested, a man’s face slashed, and a police officer injured during a riot (Atyeo, 1979).
Coaches and game officials blamed the rap group Public Enemy, who played before the game shouting obscenities, carrying plastic guns, and working up the crowd to an extent of raucous excitement (Chapman, 1988).
Owners or school leaders help create team rivalry by encouraging fans, through city or school patriotism, to support their team. With media support, owners use historical team rivalry, competitive stories, propaganda and team loyalty to promote high-ticket sales and increase profits. Excessive promotion of rivalry changes crowd cheers to je ….
