At what point do you engage/remove an obnoxious fan?
 

I make it a point to completely tune out fans, unless I happen to hear loud, abusive or foul language and know exactly who said it -- so I can get him/her ejected. But the other night, in a 30-point blowout, after calling an obvious foul on the losing team, a parent of the losing team in the stands nearest where I'm standing makes some comment about me stealing my game fee for my work in the game. Being down 30, it was a pretty ridiculous comment. I usually don't pay attention to any fan comments, but this one really irritated me, it was so stupid and uncalled for. Is there a point, shy of the obvious, that you'll remove a fan for a stupid comment like this? Or ignore except for swearing?

I'd ignore this one and chalk it up to ignorance and frustration.

I ignore comments like that. The only time I even worry about a fan is if it is foul language, they threaten me, or come out to the floor area to taunt me (had that happen one night). When I have one that needs to be addressed I let the game administrator know and let him handle it

It's not hard to pretty much ignore fans like that. In reality, they're just making fools of themselves. Aside from profanity or threatening behavior, if a fan is persistently obnoxious, I have no problem having them sent to the parking lot. Actually, athletic directors/game managers seem to live for those opportunities.

As frustrating as it is to hear these types most fans around them see the person for who they are: a loud mouth, obnoxious, make our school look bad kind of fan. There are spouses who can't even sit with one another at a contest because of the embarrassing behavior that is expressed by one spouse. In the long run, I think such a fan pays a much larger price for the pound of flesh they're trying to extract. The other moments, language, abuse, coming onto the court, etc., yeah, those are an escalation. Deal with them quickly. Thankfully it doesn't happen all that often.

No. They don't.

I wouldn't in most cases directly. The only time I would even say anything directly if that individual in the first row and they decide to talk to me as I am right in front of them.

That being said there is a little trick that some friends use and we call it, "Playing the game." If a person is over the top obnoxious, I have with some friends bring my partner with me together and look at the individual and even point directly at them, but we could be talking about anything like where we are going to eat or what cute girl is in the stands and usually this gets the fan's attention and the people with them. They know they have been pointed out and they usually fall in line without any other action as their spouse or child gets them to stop because of their total embarrassment. Every time I have seen this done, there is no need for further action. Again, you do not go to the stands and do this and you do not need to stop play. But it is a little trick and it works. I have done it twice this year and one of the times the police wanted to know if I was going to eject the individual. But other than that if you are going to actually eject a fan have the game management do that for you. Just point them out and get them out. Do not tell the individual yourself or say anything to them.

Peace

Nice! I like. Cretin gets the hint, if he doesn't he's gone.
Filed.

Excellent.

+1 - may use that myself if the situation warrants

This works so well one time with a guy that was so bad, that when my partner's did this to him, he said immediately..."I'm leaving!!!" and walked out the door.

Peace

I'm lucky in that my governing body of basketball operations (not the officials wing) has a zero-tolerance policy.

And..... they want it enforced.

They have this because years ago, the comments were becoming an "issue".

I had a partner kick out a fan by himself once. It was the championship game of a holiday tournament. I have no idea what the fan said to get himself the boot, but he walked out without a problem.

I had a game earlier this year where I thought about kicking a fan out. Near the end of a 30-point blowout, Team A is still pressing Team B. Team A has a fan that has been very outspoken all night long, and has sort of laughed when Team B makes an errant pass or something like that.

B1 steps out of bounds to inbound the ball, right in front of this fan. B1's last name happens to be Patel. I knew that because they introduced the starters, and she was one of them. He says to her "Alright Patel, let's see what you've got".

If her last name wasn't Patel, or if I didn't know at the time at her last name was indeed Patel, I think I would have pulled the trigger.

Why? Don't go looking for trouble.

Taunting and racism come to mind. What I can't convey here is the tone he used. It was one that said, to me, hey your team sucks you all have no business being on the same court as our far superior team.

Before every game I've worked that has a PA announcer, an announcement is read that strongly encourages sportsmanship to all present. How can we justify their reading the statement if we're not willing to enforce it?