A fan named Tim not only attended the Sounders’ game about which I blogged, he also reads LRC. And he sent me an eyewitness account of the fury greeting the security-circus; it seems the mainstream media’s report on which I based my observations was “not entirely accurate,” as Tim put it. Gee, why am I not surprised?
At any rate, my correspondent writes, “As I stood in line (was there early enough that it ‘only’ took 20 minutes or so rather than the usual 2 minutes), I was pleasantly surprised by the number of fellow fans that were very vocal about their displeasure. … Many cited the TSA, the constitution, and liberty-based themes. I smiled …
“When this policy was announced a few days prior there was, of course, no reason given as to ‘why.’ Sounder message boards were somewhat mixed but were alive with debate. Following the game I was heartened to see it was nearly unanimous that this outrageous policy was nothing more than ‘security theater’ that was not only inconvenient but dangerous.
“… If ‘Democracy in Sports’ is to exist, this will be a test for the Sounders front office. They will either end the shake-down immediately or tell us that they just don’t care about their customers.”
I hate to grieve Tim, but given all the subsidies professional sports receive, I suspect it will be the latter. The fascist police-state’s corporate “partners” seek to please politicians, not patrons.
6:46 am on July 9, 2013
