Seattle Vacation

Kids are so wonderful. They love the simple things in life. Our family recently took a vacation in Seattle where we visited the zoo, aquarium, air and space museum, and took a harbor tour. My 2 year old son loved all of that, but equally as entertaining was the back-hoe, or "digger" to him, that was working across the street. When we would come back to our hotel room for a break, he would camp out at the window watching it bring loads of dirt from inside some building (I am totally curious about that) and fill up a waiting dump truck. Even here, in the picture, when the digger was simply parked, he couldn't take his eye's off of it.

Storming the Court or Field

Last Saturday, March 15, was the Mountain West Conference Tournament Final. It pitted #1 seed BYU against #2 seed UNLV at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas (It is UNLV's home court). It was a hard fought game with BYU building a first half lead and then UNLV getting hot in the second half, taking the lead with the help of outstanding offensive rebounding, and putting the game away late when they made their free-throws and BYU couldn't hit anything. UNLV got the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament and BYU ended up as an At-Large team, both as #8 seeds.

After the game, in spite of multiple announcements that fans are not allowed to enter the court during or after the game, and a 6 foot wall surrounding the court, erected specifically to keep fans off the court during the tournament, UNLV fans stormed the court after the final horn. In the crush of people trying to reach the court past the barriers and guards, a few scuffles broke out between BYU fans and UNLV fans. This sparked days of debate on the Mountain West Conference(MWC) discussion boards at http://www.mwcboard.com about whether fans should storm the court or field after games.

I would argue that the problem persists because the enforcement of the rule is equivalent to our border enforcement. We make a token effort to keep them out, but once they are in there are few if any repercussions, and generally only if you break some other law. Consequently millions have illegally crossed our borders, because there is little to risk, but so much to gain.

Fans who storm the court meet only token resistence from security and once there, they are left pretty much alone until they decide to leave. In fact, I worked at the BYU football games one year and was on field duty at the end of the games. We lined up, one person every 5 yards, holding a nylon barrier, but in our training we were instructed to tell people to stay off the field, but to not make any effort to stop them. No one ever tried to storm the field but had they tried with any sort of numbers it is likely that nothing would have happened.

If a conference or school wants to have a policy prohibiting fans from storming the field or court after games, then they actually need to enforce it, and not just a half hearted effort. Erecting barriers in the Thomas & Mack Center only produced a back log of people that filled the aisles and forced frustrated and disappointed BYU fans against the surge of exuberant (and often drunk) UNLV fans which led to more problems. And then once the UNLV fans were on the court there were no consequences for breaking the rules, which essentially encourages fans to follow suit in the future.

For the sake of safety and order I would like to see the MWC prohibit storming the court or field (which probably makes me old). I remember once while I was at Beaverton High School we won a game against our bitter rivals Jesuit High School and in so doing won the conference. Many fans stormed and field and I followed, convinced it had to be the coolest thing ever. I made it to about the 30 yard line. Stood in the crowd with friends for a few awkward moments before I realized there was nothing to do once you were on the field. I felt silly and left for my car and home.

Sure the victory was thrilling, but there is nothing to do on the field or court after a game, and people are often hurt in the crush to reach the field. Stadiums are designed to get people in and out from the street, not from the field. Plus opposing fans are trying to leave the facility while you are shoving towards the center. Fans routinely get black eyes and bloody noses in the effort, and every so often someone is seriously injured.