Brian Helland wrote:
 
>>This isn't about who has the right to do what and where.  This is about
how far universities would realistically go to govern the behavior of their
fans (student and nonstudent alike).<<
 
Right on.  And there are many steps that can be taken short of the absurd
extremes you mention.  It seems to me that BU has taken a reasonable and
realistic step.
 
>>If schools imposed strict behavioral standards on it's fans and punished
those who would dare break them, it would drive fans away from the arena.
Empty arenas mean lost revenues and athletic budgets in the red.<<
 
>>[If a school outlawed phrases and filled the stands with rent-a-cops, y]ou
would see a lot of people refuse to go to games because someone was getting
in their face and telling them to "shut up or else".  This would lead to a
bad reputation for the athletic department, declining ticket sales and a
less than favorable bottom line.<<
 
And if a portion of your crowd yells vulgar or profane cheers, you would see
people refusing to go to games because people are yelling f**k within
earshot of their eight year old kid.  This would also lead to a bad
repuation for the athletic department, declining ticket sales and a less
than favorable bottom line.  So there's two sides to this argument.
 
>>I personally don't use foul language at sporting events or any other time
and I wish others wouldn't, but it's a sad part of American sports (has been
for years) and athletic departments have to tolerate it to a certain extent
in order to protect their bottom lines.  Just my 2 cents<<
 
Absolutely.  The trick is determining where the "certain extent" line is.
It takes incidents like this one to determine where that line is at any
point in time.  There are also a lot of non-economic (or perhaps second
degree economic) factors, like what kind of behavior does a school want to
have associated with it, and to what extent the school fashions its policies
based on the effect on students vs. various classes of alumni.
 
John Whelan wrote:
 
[types of offensive speech]
 
1.  Profane:  . . .
 
2.  Indecent:  . . .
 
3.  Obscene:  . . .
 
I think "vulgar" is a good synonym for "indecent."  And I'd suggest that
there is a fourth category, racial and ethnic slurs. I think that's a
category that these days would get a fan or fans thrown out even more
quickly than the first three.
 
Clay
 
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