Calming down brutish Birds fans
Philadelphia Business Journal
It's already become a tired subject: Beating up the Eagles fans over their behavior in the recent game against hated rival Dallas. As Cowboys receiver Michael Irvin lay on the Veterans Stadium turf, fans actually cheered what was obviously a serious injury -- and the cheering didn't stop when an ambulance came onto the field.
Eagles fans -- for that matter, Philadelphia fans -- have never been shamed into good behavior. In fact, nearly every sports fan takes at least some pride in making life difficult on visiting players -- through taunts, jeers and old-fashioned boos. The Vet wouldn't be the Vet without the boo-birds.
But there's a limit to this kind of behavior -- and Sunday's game, televised live by Fox-TV's top broadcast team, John Madden and Pat Summerall, proved it.
The Irvin incident -- chronicled this week on ESPN, CNN and USA Today -- wasn't the first notorious act to gain national attention. It was one of a series of infamous acts. Eagles fans were already known for snowballing Santa and firing flares at 49er fans -- on the most high-profile venue, Monday Night Football. This baseball season alone, a drunken brawl marred opening day and, in August, fans hurled D-cell batteries at St. Louis Cardinals hurler J.D. Drew.
And there will doubtless be other incidents -- unless the Vet takes aggressive steps to stop the worst behavior.
No one wants to stop fans from having a good time, or from giving away the Eagles' and Phillies' decided home-field advantage when they play at the Vet. To paraphrase Mayor Rendell, it's really only a handful of fans that make the other 50,000 look bad. Yet if Philadelphians are repelled by their own stadium louts, imagine how the rest of the country feels.
At a time when the Phillies and Eagles brass are hungering for new stadiums, you'd think they'd want to provide a venue to attract fans.
So, here are several steps Vet management can take to end the worst behavior. The plan starts with raising the price of beer, which won't cut drunkenness but would help pay to:
4 step up the security presence. There's nothing like the site of those yellow SpectaGuard jackets to put the kibosh on rowdiness.
4 better patrol the stands for contraband beverages. Any fan who has been there knows bottles and cans are making their way in -- and not just to the 700 level.
4 throw out the rowdiest fans. Other stadiums and arenas do it, why can't the Vet? A few evictions will put other fans on notice.
4 beef up the "Eagles Court," the ad-hoc Municipal Court set up at games to try offenders.
4 prosecute the worst offenders. When fans zinged snowballs at a Giants Stadium game two years ago, officials used game videotape of the stands to help convict one of the rowdies.
Honing in on the worst-behaved fans will make the Vet a more enjoyable place -- for the fans, the families that go to the game and for the rest of us who have to live with the consequences of thoughtless acts.
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