Recently, a number of websites criticized a newly written Kansas Chief policy that would make "standing" a form of prohibited conduct at a football game. The Chiefs have amended their policy by changing it three times since more fans learned of the policy on the internet.On Tuesday as illustrated in the NFL Experts Blog, the policy prohibited:
"Standing and/or obstructing the view of other fans."Yesterday, the Chiefs clarified the rule stating that the policy prevented:
"Excessive standing and/or obstructing the view of other fans"Today, as I prepared to write this story, I noticed that the Chiefs policy now prevents:
"Continuous standing and/or obstructing the view of other fans."Congratulations fans and interwebs for making your voices heard. This morning, I spoke with someone from the Chiefs to ask about the clarification of their policy.
Apparently, the NFL asked all 32 teams to put their code of conduct policies in writing on the internet. It was explained to me that the Chiefs encourage fans to stand and cheer for their team, but that fans should do it within the flow of the game. I was told that this has always been the policy, but this is the first year that it is in writing.
As far as I can tell, the only teams in the league that refer to standing in their conduct codes are the Chiefs and the 49ers (who prevent "excessive standing.")
Personally, I believe that if you want to be assured of perfect sight lines to watch a football game, your shiftless cheese doodle finger-stained layabout self should stay at home and watch the game from the comfort of your tattered lazyboy chair. Or maybe you should acquire club or suite tickets so that you can drink your poor quality chardonnay without exerting yourself other than getting up to watch the game by the bar.
I will admit to being particularly sore about this topic because some lady eating a salad told me to sit down at a game when my team was defending third and short. Uh no, thank you.
I commend the Chiefs for being responsive to fan concerns, but I believe that teams would be better served not to mention standing in their conduct codes. It puts ushers in a bad position to determine what is excessive and what is not.
Last year, I wrote about a Texans season ticket holder who got kicked out of the Bull Pen area of the stadium for standing too much even though the Bull Pen policy encourages standing throughout games.
The Texans ended up apologizing to the fan and getting the fan and the usher to talk through the incident. The Texans have decided to increase the training of the ushers in that area informing them of that policy, and sent out an off season letter to Bull Pen ticket holders about the nature of that section. They offered to find new seats for those fans who might feel uncomfortable standing throughout the game.
Ultimately, I believe that teams shouldn't have a policy prohibiting standing in front of their ticketed seat because in the real world you don't want ushers to have to tell fans that they are being too fanatic. The ushers should focus on keeping people from standing in the aisles, but other than that, they shouldn't be policing fan standing.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-03-2008 @ 2:29PM
petejayhawk said...
Between the Chiefs' performance both on and off the field lately (and by off the field I mean the front office) and the economy tanking, in a couple years they'll be too busy trying to avert local TV blackouts to worry about people standing.
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7-03-2008 @ 3:11PM
Johnny said...
This is one subject that utterly pisses me off! With the success of my team rising over the past few years, there are a lot of bandwagon fans coming to Morgantown to witness the games live. There aren't any policies in place yet to ban standing, but their presence has turned a huge home field advantage into something the language filters will surely pick up on.
Nice post Steph!
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7-03-2008 @ 3:31PM
MJ said...
This is the most trumped up ridiculous non-story.
The no standing thing has been in the Chiefs Code of Conduct forever and there has never been any complaint. Its purpose is for when the guy in front of you decides to stand the entire game and if you want to sit in the seat YOU PAID FOR, you can't see anything. It has nothing to do with 80,000 people being on their feet cheering on 4th and 1 or the last 2 minutes of a potentially game winning drive.
This is nothing new and the fans have never had a reason to complain about its enforcment in the past, it is just some idiot trying to stir up trouble amongst disgruntled fans.
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7-03-2008 @ 7:21PM
chron said...
"I will admit to being particularly sore about this topic because some lady eating a salad told me to sit down at a game when my team was defending third and short."
Steph, this is why we bookmark your blog and come back day after day, saying, "Damn, where was this girl when I was in the market?"
Ignoring the fact that the answer is "In the third grade, and only because she skipped one."
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7-03-2008 @ 9:15PM
Jon Y said...
Great article, Steph, but does this necessarily apply to you or does it apply also to disabled people who can't stand up for a full game or small children who can't see above 7'0" basketball players?
I agree that this policy taken in the wrong context can ruin the fun for most fans, but realize that if this policy wasn't already inferred there are a lot of people whose entire game experience would be ruined.
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7-03-2008 @ 9:36PM
Stephanie Stradley said...
@3- The original policy said no standing. Obviously that was silly, so the Chiefs clarified it...twice.
@4-You are too kind. Tons of females love their sports--just most of us aren't foolish enough to spend any time writing about stuff like this.
@5 Jon! So good to see you. Personally, I do not think that football games are great for small children. It's a little loud and expensive for an event where most are more interested in eating popcorn.
And I understand, a number of stadiums are working on ways to create better quality, unobstructed views for disabled people...a great deal of improvement could be made in this area, but that is something for another topic.
But yeah, fans need to use good manners if they believe that they are blocking someone who for physical reasons would be unable to see the action otherwise. Even so, I'm not sure that this needs to be put in a policy because that often gets messed up by overly aggressive ushers. And apparently, the Chiefs have come to that realization but changing the policy to read "continuous standing."
Watching an NFL game in person means that people stand up. Or at least it does if you team is doing well. Teams should be celebrating their homefield advantage instead of creating policies to turn football into an event akin to going to the theater.
Thanks all for reading and commenting,
Steph
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7-03-2008 @ 11:21PM
Dave said...
"Congratulations fans and interwebs for making your voices heard."
UGH. This story is the absolute worst example of what happens when fans and the internet get a hold of something.
As post #3 alluded to, this such a non-story that it's downright laughable. Anyone who's actually attended a game at Arrowhead Stadium in the last 10+ years has heard a rule loudly announced over the speakers against excessive standing, right along with the other rules in their code of conduct.
Has that rule done anything to stop fans from cheering on the Chiefs? I didn't think so.
The policy is in no way "new". The only thing that has changed, as this story said, was that teams were asked to put the rules in writing. Then a few morons who've never been to a game in KC in their lives picked up on it and it turned into some huge controversy.
Of course the Chiefs changed the policy 3 times. They had to figure out something that would be understood by the COMPLETE AND UTTER MORONS who continue to spread this non-story.
Anyone who contributed in any small way to this story being spread should be signed up for mandatory sterilization on the grounds that they're too stupid to breed.
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7-03-2008 @ 11:30PM
Stephanie Stradley said...
@7 Dave-
But what do you really think? I think the real concern was that when the Code of Conduct came out, it said no standing, as in you know, being on two feet. Obviously, for fans not accustomed to seeing such an insane thing in writing, there were concerns. It didn't say "excessive standing"--it said no standing, like you know, behaving like a biped.
Now that it was brought to the Chiefs' attention, they clarified the language.
You think that this is no big deal, but tell that to the fans who have been asked to sit down by more casual fans who are more inclined to eat their nachos than watch the game. Or what would happen if a overzealous usher took the policy too literally--as what happened in Houston.
Thanks for reading and commenting. Really, a story like this is no reason to freak out. You should be thankful that there exists a means for fans to get silly policies changed--this time it is just words in a policy, maybe next time it is something you actually care about.
-Steph
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7-04-2008 @ 12:17PM
Fran said...
The PSL ticket holder in front of me usually sells his four tickets to out-of-town, other-team fans.
They usually stand at the wrong time, and cheer for the wrong team, and some are downright nasty.
Some PSL seat owners are only in it for how much they can make during the year. I sure wish they could stop this by allowing the seats to be sold only at ticket value. Then, maybe PLS ticket holders who do not want to attend the games would sell them to some real Texan fans!
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7-04-2008 @ 8:29PM
StigmA said...
we got yelled at by steelers fans for standing 10 seconds too long after the opening kick off last year...
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7-04-2008 @ 8:34PM
StigmA said...
and Fran.. why shouldn't all the fans of other teams be given the same right as you to stand up and cheer their team on, growing up in Seattle & now living in Pittsburgh, when I go see the Seahawks play here, i'm not going to think twice about cheering for what happens. I actually became a Browns fan because of how the fans were, so sure I get a lot of bad looks because as I've always said to people, i will never be a Steelers fan and the fans are a big part of it. Seeing them live & just sitting there like they are watching the game on TV is pretty stupid in my opinion.
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7-05-2008 @ 12:19AM
George B Vieto said...
I would rather games on television where I don't have to be concerned at another person is blocking my view of a game or getting into a fight with another fan because I don't cheer for his/her favorite team.
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7-07-2008 @ 9:24AM
James Martin said...
#9 Fran, I agree with you, my section of 335 East Club has been overrun with STUBHUBBERS. And as you said earlier they can be down right nasty. They are always rooting for the other team, and get mad at us when we cheer the TEXANS. The funny thing is that rows u and v which is next to the glass is still pretty solid with TEXAN fans, and we have built up a relationship with the ushers over the years. So when the STUBHUBBERS complain to the ushers, we usually get them removed.
Go TEXANS
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7-11-2008 @ 12:55AM
the Chiefs Don said...
im jsut taking a wild guess here, but i bet 805 of the people in here are fairweather fans, get a life, ill standn the whole game and if u tell me to sit down i will spit in ur face. trashy as kc fans, fat and all u want to do is eat and sit.
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