Positive topic what would you do?

[Kat]

Everyone has an opinion as to what just happened with the mess in Detroit. My thought is; once great minds get together they find solutions. I thing everyone is on the same page that is was a thing no one wants to see again. What is the solution?

I'll get it started;

1. The arenas should have better security. I.e, see what Cuban did in the AAC after 9-11.
2. Beer sales are cut off at a certain time and limited, or not sold at all. (See AAC rules again for an example).
3. Suspending the players such as Artest and Anderson (Anderson was worse if you look at the video, I think) without imposing an anger managment program or other appropriate program is self defeating.
4. Fans that do not act appropriately lose their season tickets without compensation.

You have to have rules, now more than ever. Obviously. What is it going to take to make sure this doesn't happen again, outside of retraining our society to be better humans?

[Smiles]

I'm not sure whether the AAC would've been entirely prepared for players to launch up into the stands. I am sure they are in the process of reviewing appropriate policies and prodecures - even though they already have some rather decent guidelines. For one thing, they have the players tunnel (supposedly added after the Kings / Lakers ruckus last year), so things couldn't be thrown down on visiting players as they are leaving the floor.

Some AAC fans have been known to get away with pretty obnoxious verbal behavior. I imagine that will be curtailed to some extent (?).

If the AAC security personel needed to physically stop a player, or a rather "strong" fan, do you think they could all manage that? Maybe arenas need to hire people seriously trained and able to "bring down" big, strong, adrenaline-stoked-athletes/fans (in case that ever became necessary)?

To respond to your questions:

1. What did he do after 9/11....?
2. Good move.
3. I agree.
4. Agree again, but this could lead to lawsuits. They'll think of something, surely (even if they put the clause in next yrs season ticket holders contracts?).

[EricaLubarsky]

security needs to be sharp on the fans, but most of all the instigators of the riot in Detroit need to be punished badly enough that no fan would ever think of doing that, not that a Mavs fan would.

As for the players, the riot was only the second time that this has happened in the history of the NBA, and it certainly won't happen again soon. There is no reason to go crazy about what happened. The guys who did it are gone for a long time.

PS- I thought that the AAC already had such an alcohol policy?

[MavKikiNYC]

From the How-Not-To Manual.

Coincidence (or is it?) that Zeke's an erstwhile Piston.


Pitching Seats by Appealing to the Inner Pistons Fan
By HARVEY ARATON

Published: November 30, 2004

A FRIEND of mine, a longtime Knicks season-ticket holder, has passed along the team's recently mailed brochure pitching miniplans for lower bowl seats yet to be sold for 2004-5. I am suddenly very excited about choosing a package and getting into the game.

The Knicks need me, it turns out, in their push to win the Atlantic Division and return to the N.B.A. playoffs. Stephon Marbury wants my help and is making a personal appeal.

He is on the cover of the new brochure, with Madison Square Garden silhouetted in the background and the following recruiting pitch printed in white, block letters: "TOUGH. AGGRESSIVE. FEARLESS."

Intrigued, I flipped the page, only to discover this was no description of the Knicks' improved up-tempo style of play, but a reference to me, prospective miniplan owner.

"AND THAT'S JUST THE FANS," the brochure boasts.

Granted, I am not among the featured Knicks loyalists, captured in midgame frenzy, faces contorted, mouths open, fists clenched and, as the Knicks have presented them, ready to rumble. I am the first to admit that I have not yet proved myself as tough, aggressive and fearless as these young male zealots with their caps on backward and their angry faces brushed with war paint. I have not stepped up in a big spot, serenaded any Celtics, cursed any Kings or pummeled any Pistons.

The truth is, after all my years of attending basketball games at the "world's most famous arena," the most aggressive act I can recall is rushing across Eighth Avenue traffic. My most fearless moments have been those when I overcame my childhood dread of being swallowed whole by an escalator. Tough? That's a tough one. Does not being reduced to tears when Peter Vecsey ripped me in The New York Post count?

I believe I can do this, though. I think I can down a few beers and get juiced up by the high-tech introductions and the screaming public-address announcer and the ear-splitting music and the shapely dancers. I think I can root with rage at the highest level.

I can be just like the dedicated hoops fans in the row behind me last week at Madison Square Garden for the semifinals of the National Invitation Tournament, who came through big time for Michigan in its overtime loss to Arizona.

Though they wore no distinguishing clothing, I am guessing these beefy young men with buzz cuts and scruffy facial hair were Michigan fans, because most of their profanity and cheap racial slurs were directed at the Arizona players. Not only were these guys loud, emitting a sound (and smell) you couldn't mistake, they also raised their intensity as the game wore on and they were able to refuel again and again at the nearby concession stand. They were impressive, from the ceremonial spilling of the first drink.

Five days after the fans at the Palace of Auburn Hills showed how tough, aggressive and fearless they really were, nobody was about to make any requests for civility and risk coming off as an old-fashioned wimp who doesn't understand the modern, interactive basketball experience.

Now that I get it, I am going to purchase my Knicks miniplan and immediately prepare some choice phrasing for the opponents whom I will be expected to intimidate. I will not worry too much about security or the few ushers who haven't been laid off by the Garden so the Dolans can save their $53-a-game salary to help finance their costly campaign against the West Side stadium for the Jets.

I won't concern myself with the holdover intellectual quiche eaters, like my season-ticket-holder friend, who for years has been whining about the steady attrition of "knowledgeable fans," and the infiltration of corporate loudmouths who wouldn't know Oscar Robertson from Oscar Meyer, who "only come to be seen and heard" and who "really believe they are part of the game."

Guess what? We are. Or I will be, as soon as I choose my miniplan, affordably priced in the range of $240 to $728 a seat.

Once I am part of the team, welcomed into the fold, encouraged to be tough, aggressive and fearless, I promise to bring to the Knicks my A game. Though I have aged somewhat beyond the desired 18-to-34 male demographic, I have been working out at the Y.M.C.A., and after years of yelling at my kids, my voice is ready to be heard. I am ready to curse my maniacal brains out.

I am leaning toward Miniplan C, the 13-game package that includes dates against the Lakers (Bring me Kobe on a platter), the 76ers (I will tattoo Iverson with derision) and the Timberwolves (If that ingrate Sprewell goes after our man James Dolan again, I will make those Michigan rooters look like Woody Allen and Soon-Yi).

When the going gets tough, the aggressive get fearless.

And for up to $728 a ticket, I plan to get my money's worth.

[Smiles]

Originally posted by: EricaLubarsky
security needs to be sharp on the fans, but most of all the instigators of the riot in Detroit need to be punished badly enough that no fan would ever think of doing that, not that a Mavs fan would.

As for the players, the riot was only the second time that this has happened in the history of the NBA, and it certainly won't happen again soon. There is no reason to go crazy about what happened. The guys who did it are gone for a long time.

PS- I thought that the AAC already had such an alcohol policy?

I agree that NBA fans the world over will take notice of the consequences suffered by the Detroit holigans.

AAC has an alcohol policy, but it's probably one of the many security related factors up for review since the distaster at The Palace took place. Who knows if it will be made more stringent or not?