The Battalion
OPINION
he Battalion
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JIM WRIGHT
DEFENSE FUND
Spectator violence makes
it difficult to enjoy sports
A few years ago, a drunken fan at a
Minnesota Vikings football game threw
a whiskey bottle that conked an official.
In an outburst of horror, sports colum
nists across the nation predicted this was
the beginning of the dark ages in Amer
ican sports, with fans turning into rabid
beasts.
squeezed, squashed and trampled out of
them.
But it hasn’t happened. Though
many Americans might be inclined to
bash, knife and and shoot each other on
streets, in subways and schoolyards,
they are remarkably well behaved at
sporting events.
Oh, there are the usual fights and the
pouring of beer from the upper deck.
And in the neighborhood around Wrig-
ley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs,
there is the terrible dread among yup
pies that fans will wee-wee on their
grass.
In general, though, American sports
fans are nonviolent, probably because
Tiost of them are couch potatoes. The
injury rate is far greater among the ath
letes.
That seemed incredible until I read
what the soccer promoters, the stadium
officials, the fans and the law enforce
ment people had to say about it.
What it seems to boil down to is one
insane fact: This is the way the fans
want it.
Obviously, none of those who died
wanted to die. But the soccer establish
ment, including the fans, prefers the
conditions that can lead to people being
killed.
Those who died were jammed into a
cheap, standing-room only section at
the end of the field. It’s sort of like a gi
ant cage. They are behind a large fence
that is tilted toward them.
Then we have England, where the sit
uation is the exact opposite.
Although the crime rate there has
been going up, it is still well below ours.
Random crazies and organized gangs
aren’t blasting away with burp guns.
The criminal population hasn’t over
whelmed the capacity of prisons.
But as the latest soccer mayhem
shows, one of the riskiest things you can
do in England is go out and cheer for
your favorite team.
When I heard the first news reports
that dozens of fans had been crushed
and stomped to death at one game —the
latest figure is 94 — I found it hard to
believe.
The fence is there to prevent them
from rushing out on the field and riot
ing, which soccer fans worldwide enjoy
doing.
At the same time, there were other
fans outside the stadium, demanding to
get in. And they were pushing at the
outer gates.
So the cops outside had a problem. If
they didn’t open the gates, people out
there would be crushed and stomped to
death.
Another solution would be to keep
the low-cost standing-room-only sec
tion, but remove the high fences against
which the dead were squashed.
But that would put them back to
square one. They used to be without
fences. So whenthe standing-room-only
fans became drunk and angry enough
about something, they rushed the field
and held riots. And that’s why the
fences were erected.
I knew from past maulings that En
glish soccer fans, especially those from
Liverpool, are prone to violence.
But in this case, it wasn’t even a fight.
The 94 who died had their lives
To resolve that problem, they opened
the gates, and a great herd of fans gal
loped into the standing-room-only pen,
which was already filled.
Those who were jammed against the
fence had nowhere to go. They just got
squashed. Some just turned blue and
died on the spot.
Out of respect for the dead and in
jured, the game was postponed. Sur
prisingly, the surviving fans didn’t riot
So, with fans insisting on the tradi
tional right tostand, the choice seems to
be between riots on the field or fence
squashings.
The English are known for their re
spect for tradition, but even tradition
can be carried toofar. What do they put
on those 94tombstones: “Squashed for
the English Soccer Fans’ Right to
Stand”?
And this is omething for the Wrigley
Field neighbors**} think about. So far,
there is no record ")f any of you being
wee-wee’d to death.
Copyright 1989, "ribune Media Services, Inc.
The Battalion
(USPS 045 360)
Member of
Texas Press Association
Southwest Journalism Conference
The Battalion Editorial Board
Becky Weisenfels, Editor
Leslie Guy, Managing Editor
Dean Sueltenfuss, Opinion Page Editor
Anthony Wilson, City Editor
Scot Walker, Wire Editor
Drew Leder, News Editor
Doug Walker, Sports Editor
Jay Janner, Art Director
Mary-Lynne Rice, Entertainment Edi
tor
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resent the opinions of Texas A&M administrators, fac
ulty or the Board of Regents.
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Do we have room
for the president?
I know everyone is excited about
George Bush coming to speak at grad
uation, but you know me — always gotta
rain on the parade.
The news was sent down from on
high last week that the president of the
United States has confirmed that he will
speak at the 2 p.m. graduation on May
12 — the graduation for the colleges of
liberal arts, sciences and geosciences, as
well as master’s and doctoral candidates.
Swell.
Becky
Weisenfels
Editor
But I am concerned about how A&M
is going to handle crowd problems, such
as whether officials are going to limit
the number of people each graduate
can invite.
I personally have many relatives who
have been planning for months to drive
to A&M so they could see me graduate,
They were planning to show upevenif
JoJo the Wonder Pig gave my com
mencement address.
Actually, before I heard Bush was
coming to speak, I was dreading going
to my graduation. I was trying to decide
how many packs of cards I should take
and how I could smuggle a game of
Trivial Pursuit into the ceremony.
It’s exciting that Bush will be there,
but they just really want toseemewall;
across the stage (aawwwwww, isn’t that
nice). Actually, if they don’t see me wall
across the stage, they probably will
never believe I graduated.
I begged my parents not to come be
cause then I wouldn’t have to go to the
ceremony. It would be so much easier to
just pick my diploma up at a later date
instead of waiting hours and hours to
get the piece of paper (and remember,
my last name is Weisenfels — a back row
name if I ever heard one.)
I know a lot of other people who art
graduating and are in the same predica
ment with their relatives. If A&M was
going to limit admission, we should have
known sooner.
Everyone seems excited about the
ceremony and about hearing Bush
speak — the only question is, will there
be room?
There are going to be lots of disap
pointed relatives if they can’t come, and
what will that do to help me get those
gifts they are buying me?
in protest. The legendary English re
straint, I suppose.
Now English authorities are tying to
figure out how to prevent future mass
slaughters.
An obvious solution would be to tear
down those fences and do away with the
cheap standing-room-only section. Ev
eryone would be in a seat. If you don’t
have a ticket for a seat, you stay home
and watch it on the telly, as the English
say.
An obvious solution? No. One soccer
official said: “The public in England de
mands the right to stand. It is a very tra
ditional thing.”
The official noted that when one sta
dium did away with the giant standing-
room-only cage, the fans were very an-
g r Y-
“People wound up standing on the
seats.”
I think it’s great that Texas A&M is
able to have Bush speak at a graduation
ceremony. It is a shame that a college
with the reputation to attract the presi
dent to speak cannot find room to house
the large crowd that will obviously want
to hear him. But hindsight is 20/20 and
there’s nothing we can do about that
now.
Then you have to consider the stu
dents at A&M. Having the president
come to speak on your campus is a big
deal, and many of them would like to
see him. Unfortunately, there probably
won’t be room in G. Rollie White Col
iseum for them. I guess they can always
sit outside with my relatives, eat Cheetos
and play Monopoly.
A&M has two choices: limit admission
or move the ceremony.
As it stands, G. Rollie White Coliseum
holds 8,000 people, and that includes
people on the floor. The registrar’s of
fice, as of Wednesday, had 1,270 down
as graduating during that ceremony.
Someone mentioned that A&M may
have to sell tickets to the graduation cer
emony. Right. My parents paid for me
to go to A&M for four years, and now
they would have to pay more money to
see me get out. I hope hot.
Univers
Beeson
REPORTER
While many uni
ties restricting th
side consultation
bers, Texas A&M -
specific limitation
McDonald said.
Unlike A&M,
Tennessee has a r
side consulting to <
“Most of the A
bets don’t take ar
much time const
If faculty men
consulting, it mu;
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Educ
reneg
By Melissa Naui
REPORTER
Contrary to pr
paigns, funds for
and cannot meet
of the College of E
Corrigan said tl
has claimed to be
ger" attempts at ec
satisfactory thus fa
“The rhetoric <
"With all the talk ;
appears to be m<
paigns than in our
Corrigan’s view
Association report
of students being
grams: Chapter 1
Act and the Edut
Act.
The decrease i
aimed at poor chil
nous symbol for tf
According to tl
school year, sever
the Chapter 1 pr
however, only 5.6
Simple math: 8,000 seats minus 1,270
seats for graduates equals 6,730 seats.
The other option A&M might haveto
consider is moving the graduation cere
mony, but there is not another building
on campus big enough to hold the grad
uation ceremony.
Remember that this is George Bush,
and some seats are going to be reserved
for important school and community of
ficials who want to hear him speak —
take out another 100 seats (and I think
that is a very modest figure).
Maybe the ceremony could be moved
outside to Kyle f ield or somewhere, but
then we run into the problem of unpre
dictable weather, among other things.
But right now, I think that would be the
best bet.
That means 6,630 seats left. Divide
that among 1, 270 graduates and that
means each person can invite at most
5.22 people (let’s round that off to five).
That number does not allow for other
students or administrators.
I don’t know what the solution is
going to be. However, if it came down to
a choice between having my family or
George Bush at the ceremony, I would
have to choose my family.
Becky Weisenfels is a senior journa
lism major and editor ofThe Battalion.
Mail Call
Shame on you, Ags!
EDITOR:
First of all, I would like to congratualte the A&M baseball team for
beating the University of Texas’ team this past weekend. Our team showed
character, poise, and a never-say-die attitude that represents the school well.
However, the joy of the two victories was overshadowed by the behavior
of a large majority of the fans in attending.
It is one thing to support the team and cheer them on. But one does not
need to stoop to such depths as displayed by some fans in attendance this
weekend. Why not keep it good, clean and wholesome.
I think I know Coach Johnson well enough to say that he would rather
have the boisterous and supportive crowd of 200 or 300 from the previous
years.These large crowds should clean up their act and not embarrass the
baseball program with their language. Leave that to other schools.
In the seventh and eighth inning of the first game, it was scaryjust how
quiet 5,000 people could be. The team can sense this and it affects them.
All I ask is that you at least think about what I have said and consider how
your actions reflect on this school.
George Lengel
Graduate student
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