The 2011 UConn Soccer Thread | Page 2 | The Boneyard

The 2011 UConn Soccer Thread

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It's unclear if the fans' First Amendment rights were violated. Schools can ban profane t-shirts worn by students. Anyway, I found this article:

But even if it’s not a contract, and even if the purchase of the ticket doesn’t amount to an acceptance of all of its terms and conditions, a ticket to a sporting event constitutes a license to enter and remain at the stadium. The owner of the premises and/or the operator of the event have the ability to place reasonable restrictions on that license, especially when the behavior of one licensee can impact in a negative way the experience of another licensee.

That's assuming it's privately owned. Morrone Stadium is owned by the University of Connecticut, which is a state entity. It's no different than standing outside the Capitol in Hartford and screaming "Down with Malloy. He's an idiot". The owner of the land (i.e. the State of Connecticut) cannot throw you out. In the case of Rentschler Field, it's a bit different, because although the State of Connecticut owns it (directly, not through the University) it is leased to a private company (I believe it's United Technologies). But Morrone is owned and operated by the University of Connecticut, a division of the State of Connecticut government. So I suppose the same laws would apply to harassment as anywhere else, meaning you can't threaten the players, and hard-core profanity might not be ok either. But by hard-core profanity, I mean "duck* YOU YOU duck*ING LITTLE PIECE OF S***. YO MAMA'S A W**** AN A B**** AND I duck*ED HER LAST NIGHT YOU A***HOLE". I know GP isn't that bad (granted, I'm home on medical leave now, but I was there last year, and it wasn't even close to that). If they were, that would probably constitute harassment and could be handled accordingly.

And what's next? At the basketball games, they won't let the student section say "SUCKS" after they introduce the player? Someone's been listening a bit too much to the Daily Campus editorial team. And I highly doubt GP was heckling the St. Francis goalie for 41/45 minutes of the first half, since they probably spent more than 4 minutes doing "Let's Go Huskies", "UC Let's Go", "UConn... Huskies... UConn... Huskies... UConn... Huskies... Huskies... UConn... woo!" and all those things. Unless cheering your team is now considered heckling the other team, in which case I don't doubt that figure is accurate.
 
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The legal analysis is just not right. Students at a state university absolutely can be regulated in non=politicagil speech. If the University tells fans they can only attend sporting events in silence, there is no first amendment issue there that hasn't been long resolved.
 
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