Strange decision on banning fans

JJ Atayde, a rabid De La Salle University (DLSU) alumnus wasn’t at the Mall of Asia Arena (MOA) last Sunday when the Green Archers streaked to their sixth straight win in the second round of the UAAP basketball competitions at the expense of National University, 57 – 55. The joke going around was his absence was the Archers’ lucky charm!

Atayde wasn’t around because the UAAP Board, in a “precedent-setting” decision, banned  Atayde from attending UAAP games up to the end of the current season. The ban is the penalty for Atayde’s heckling Ateneo coach Bo Perasol after a dramatic and emotional game Sunday, Sept. 1, between the Green Archers and the Blue Eagles at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. 

Earlier, DLSU’s Almond Vosotros converted two technical free throws awarded to the Green Archers after Perasol (whom our STAR colleague Quinito Henson describes as “mild-mannered”) charged into the court to confront the referees about calls (and non-calls) made in the crucial moments of the game. The Green Archers were awarded possession after the Vosotros foul shots, thus denying the defending champion Blue Eagles the opportunity to score and even win the game.

Reports indicate that after the game, as players, and officials, including Perasol, were headed for their dug-outs, Atayde waited for Perasol and sarcastically “congratulated him for winning the game for DLSU.” Other accounts state that Atayde preceded his sarcastic remarks with an expletive. Whether it was pure sarcasm without any expletive will be a matter of his-word-against-my-word. But the point is, Perasol again charged into someone, this time a spectator. Perasol had “blacked out” according to Henson.

Moving swiftly, the UAAP Board suspended Perasol for one game and banned Atayde.

All these (and the literally last-minute decision of reducing the two-game suspension of UE’s Charles Mammie so he could play against La Salle) were made, we are told, with UAAP Commissioner Chito Loyzaga outside the meeting room. In the case of Mammie, not even the Board-created Technical Committee was given a chance to explain the video clip of the infraction of Mammie. One Board member reportedly (unbelievably) exclaimed to justify the lifting of the two-game suspension that, any way, the FEU player wasn’t injured and “he (the FEU player) was just “ flopping” (faking the injury)!

That practice of excluding the Commissioner from the discussion of operational matters speaks volumes of the strange roles a policy-making body like the UAAP Board has arrogated unto itself. But that is another matter.

The ban on Atayde brings up the issue of fans’ behavior, code of conduct and, ultimately, the basic human right of free speech  which has to be balanced with the right of other fans (with children) to be spared from offensive or vulgar language, if Atayde’s language was indeed offensive and vulgar.

The ban also brings up issues like: coaches’ code of conduct and rights; the rights and responsibilities of the league organizer, in this case, the UAAP, and similar rights and responsibilities of the venue owner, in this case, the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

It is the right of the fan in any sporting event to have a full view at all times of the sporting event in the seat assigned to him or her in the venue. It is the responsibility of the venue owner to ensure the fan’s safety and help promote fan enjoyment of the facility and the event. It is the responsibility of the venue owner, shared with the league organizer, to protect the players, the coaches and officials and fans.  On the other hand, it is the responsibility of the league organizer to ensure that the games are properly organized and officiated credibly.

 The admission ticket serves as the contract among the league organizer, venue owner and fan. By buying the ticket, the fan expects a service to be rendered and his rights protected.

Back in the 1990’s at the height of the Vizconde rape-murder case, Jason Webb was playing for La Salle and his brother Hubert was incarcerated for the murder of Carmela Vizconde and other Vizconde family members. Fans from the opposing teams screamed all sorts of expletives and vicious insults in several games at the Webb family (which exercised patience and restraint), prompting Bulletin sportswriter Badong Hilario (who doesn’t belong to the Victorian era) to, rightly, call these fans “vulgar.”

The UAAP did not ban fans of that team where Carmela was an alumna and fans from other teams from succeeding games. Hubert and his other co-accused were acquitted by the Supreme Court in that celebrated case but only after they languished in jail for several years.

And yet, Atayde is banned. 

The UAAP and other leagues and venue owners have to make a distinction between heckling (which is part of most sports except perhaps golf, tennis, billiard, chess and other sports where physical contact is minimal) and inappropriate behavior like obscenity, vulgarity, racial slurs, negative cheering about one’s sexual orientation and inform everyone of rules on fan behavior

Lack of a realistic definition will be a temptation for concealing the promotion of one’s parochial self-interest and could lead to lawsuits and inquiries from the Commission on Human Rights.