By Katherine Simone
It’s college football season. You’re in the stands, cheering on your team along with 50,000 of your closest friends. You’ve just witnessed the game-winning catch that sends you and your buddies into a fit of excitement, intense screaming, maybe even some tears. Suddenly, those around you are moving quickly down the rows of seats. You follow because you really don’t have any other choice unless you want to get trampled, you want to be on the field, and be a part of this history-making victory. You want to meet the players who have just given you bragging rights for an entire year. You want to be on TV. You want to see the stands from a player’s perspective. Before you know it, you’re on the field and it’s even better than you could have ever imagined. The lights. The cheering. The sheer monstrosity that is the football arena. You will always think of this as a life-defining experience.
For others, this is not the case. In 1983, Margaret Cimino was injured by a falling goal post while rushing the field after Yale University beat Harvard University. The goal post snapped under the weight of climbing fans. She suffered massive head injuries including a fractured skull and brain damage. Five years later, after Washington State University played the University of Washington, several fans were injured by toppled goal posts after they rushed the field. In 1993, after the University of Wisconsin beat the University of Michigan, over 70 fans were injured after rushing the field.
In fact, the issue is just as prevalent in college basketball. In 2004, after the University of Georgia played the University of Florida, a UGA fan rushed onto the court and took a swing at a Florida player. Just this year, a brawl broke out at the Utah Valley State versus New Mexico State game when Utah students rushed the court and started throwing punches at a New Mexico State player.
Tides took a turn for the worse when, in 2005, a University of Minnesota-Morris student died from head trauma when a goal post fell on him while rushing the field. Fan rushing is becoming more and more frequent. It is no longer reserved for rival games and/or “upset” victories. It is not unusual for it to happen at least once a week in college football and most nights in college basketball. “It is a concern, particularly in basketball, because it seems to be more the norm than the exception,” says Rob Corolla, Big 12 Conference Director of Communications.
Why do fans do it? There are several reasons. It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of a win. It makes fans feel like they are part of the team, not just a spec sitting up in the nosebleed section. Fans get the chance to see or meet the players up close and in person. They simply just want to physically be on the field. Sometimes it’s tradition. Sometimes it’s peer pressure. Carolla describes it as the “SportsCenter Syndrome”: “Kids see it happen someplace else, so they have to do it at their place to show they’re a good crowd.”
The dangers are not hard to see. People can and do get hurt. We’re not just talking about fans. With thousands of people flooding into one area at once, anyone can get caught up in the rush. Athletes, coaches, and officials are all at risk of getting stuck in between fights, getting hit by potential falling goal posts, or getting trampled. The field can be damaged. Goals posts are often uprooted or snap under the weight of the fans that climb them. Which brings us back to people getting hurt: the weight of one goal post alone is estimated at around 600 pounds. Goal posts that have been damaged carry a cost of about $18,000-$25,000 to replace. Schools can also take an additional monetary hit by being fined for fan rushing.
When fans enter the field or court, institutions and conferences are forced to think about the accompanying risk management issues. Game attendees are considered invitees, which are individuals who have been solicited or invited to a function and have paid for the use of the premises or services. This makes attendees legally entitled to reasonable care provided by the facility owners/operators against foreseeable injuries. However, that entitlement does not extend to all situations involving an invitee. When an invitee assumes the risk of a prohibited action, they are no longer entitled to reasonable care. An invitee is considered to have assumed the risk of potential harm when he or she knowingly and willingly enters into a dangerous situation.
Courts have determined that three essential elements must exist for a successful primary assumption of risk defense related to a sport environment: 1) risk must be inherent to the sport; 2) the participant voluntarily consents to be exposed to the risk; and 3) the participant must know, understand, and appreciate the inherent risks of the activity. To know, understand and appreciate risks, one must 1) know the nature of activity; 2) understand the activity in terms of one’s own condition and skill; and 3) appreciate the type of injuries that may occur.
Taking that legal approach and applying it to rushing fans, it seems to rest heavily on the actions of the specific institution and its respective conference. The question to be answered is: did the institution put the fans on notice that rushing is either prohibited and/or dangerous? By simply posting warnings around the arena and finding other ways to communicate that rushing is prohibited and that there are dangers associated with it give the fans that notice. Should they disregard that information, well, they’ve been warned. Additionally, implementing adequate safety precautions may fulfill the institution’s duty to provide reasonable care to its invitees.
What have universities and conferences been doing to manage these risks? The Southeastern Conference has the most concrete rules regarding fan rushing. The SEC implemented this policy in December 2004:
“Access to competition areas shall be limited to participating student-athletes, coaches, officials, support personnel and properly credentialed individuals at all times. For the safety of participants and spectators alike, at no time before, during or after a contest shall spectators be permitted to enter the competition area. It is the responsibility of each member institution to implement procedures to ensure compliance with this policy.”
Additionally, the SEC imposes fines for institutions that violate this policy. Upon the first violation, an institution is fined $5,000. The second violation carries with it a $25,000 fine. If the institution commits a third violation within three years of the second violation, a $50,000 fine will be imposed. Any additional violations carry with them another $50,000 fine if committed within three years of the previous violation.
The SEC has had ample opportunities to implement its policy. This year, Louisiana State University was fined $5,000 for fan rushing after their win over Ole Miss. The University of Kentucky was fined $25,000 after beating the University of South Carolina in football. UK had been previously fined in 2006 and 2007 but, since that was more than 3 years before, the penalty was kept at a “second-time” rate. Ole Miss was fined $50,000 after their win over the University of Alabama because it had also been fined in 2012 and 2013
The PAC-12 Conference is also taking steps toward regulating fan rushing. Several coaches have urged the conference to adopt legislation to stop rushing. The University of Arizona, specifically, is pushing for the conference to issue a technical foul for basketball fans storming the court before the game is over.
While conferences may have rules in place regarding fan rushing, they largely leave it up to the individual institutions to decide what procedures to implement. Recently, there has been the installation of hydraulic goal posts, which are built on hydraulic hinges and can lower onto the ground mechanically. Hinged goal posts are another option. They allow the goal posts to be drawn down flat on the field. The problem with both hydraulic and hinged posts, however, is that they do not collapse faster than the time it takes fans to reach them and likely will not prevent damage to the posts.
Many times towards the end of a football or basketball game, officials may line up on the edge of the arena, facing the stands. Or there might be additional officials present. Schools aim to use these officials to create a sort of wall against the ever-so-mobile fans trying to rush. Schools also build higher retaining walls that separate the fans from the field or court.
Distractions can also stop fan rushing. At the end of the game, players and coaches may run to the student section to sing the school’s fight song. Punishment is another deterrent. Students may have scholarships taken away, be suspended, or expelled. Season ticket holders may have their tickets taken away or be banned from the stadium.
Schools also use communication as a deterrent. Preseason pizza parties are held where safety videos are shown. Students are granted early entry to the arena where pregame safety briefings are given. The communication can also be very simple. Last year, Duke University’s head basketball coach, Mike Krzyzewski, held up his arms and yelled for fans, who were preparing to storm the court, to return to their seats after Duke defeated rival University of North Carolina; the fans obeyed.
It has even been suggested that schools hold closed or partially closed-door games (as imposed in European soccer). The game would be played only in front of the friends and family of the players and the teams’ staff. The problem with this is that the income lost may exceed the cost of the penalty for rushing, especially with high-volume games like college football and men’s college basketball.
On the other end of the spectrum, some schools and their coaches appreciate fan rushing. “The spontaneity of it makes college basketball what it is,” admitted Mike Montgomery, basketball coach at the University of California, Berkeley. When Harris Pastides, President of the University of South Carolina, saw his students rushing the field after the basketball team defeated the University of Kentucky, he decided to join them: “Once I realized I was paying [the fine] anyway, I ran down…I enjoyed every dollar.” However, when schools encourage fans to rush, it can become legally detrimental. Ball State University was found liable for injuries sustained by a fan that rushed the field and was hit by a goal post that snapped under the weight of climbing fans. Before the fans rushed the field, university administrators allowed the scoreboard to read, “the goal posts look lonely”. According to the court in that case, this constituted an invitation to fans by the university to tear down the goal posts.
The obvious issue with trying to stop fans from rushing is, simply, that it’s very difficult. You have the issue of the officials being largely outnumbered by the fans. As stated by Jeff Hurd, the Western Atlantic Conference Commissioner, “…whether it’s 500 people or 5,000 people who decide to come out of the stands, there’s not enough security to stop that from happening.” The number of people, coupled with the spontaneity of rushing, makes enforcement very difficult. Another issue is that it can be more dangerous to try to stop fans from rushing. Patrick Nero, Athletic Director at George Washington University, spoke to this point:
“While storming the court brings safety hazards, it can at times be equally dangerous in trying to stop the rush if your building is not set up to stop the crowd. Historically, venues have seen safety issues when they have tried to stop the crowd, and many feel it is safer to allow the crowd onto the court.”
The NCAA has taken some steps to bring attention to the issue of fan rushing and to help schools design regulations. In 2006, the Association hosted a meeting on postgame crowd control for representatives from all three divisions. It held the NCAA Sportsmanship and Fan Behavior Summit the same year in part to address the issue of fan violence at collegiate sporting events. The NCAA has also created a self-audit instrument designed to help campuses identify strengths and weaknesses in their current emergency procedures and create emergency procedures for schools based on their size.
Katherine Simone is a lawyer licensed in the state of Ohio. She earned her J.D. from the Northern Kentucky University Chase College of law. katasimone@gmail.com
Further Reading:
Avoiding a Storm by Allie Grasgreen (2014).
Storm Fronts by Paul Steinbach (2006).
Bourne v. Gilman, 452 F. 3d. 632 (7th Cir. 2006).
Why and How the NCAA Should Ban Court Storming by John Infante (2014).
Settling a Storm: How Schools Should Address Fans Storming the Court by Katherine Tohanczyn (2014).
Fans’ goalpost celebrations pose safety risk by Riley Blevins (2014).
A move by twice-burned Arizona to curb court-storming? by Bud Withers (2014).
Sport Law: A managerial approach. Sharp, L.A., Moorman, A.M., & Claussen, C.L. (2007).
Ole Miss facing $50,000 fine for fans rushing the field, athletic director seeks donations by Cassie Fambro (2014).
Implications of Toppling Goal Posts In College Football: Managing Institutional Risk, by David Lavetter and Yun Seok Choi (2010).
Law for Recreation and Sport Managers (4th), by D. J. Cotten, and J. T. Wolohan (2007).
