Fan Segragation at USA vs Mexico: Is a good thing or not?

segregation? there was such a thing yesterday?

i was in section 117, row B and I was within 3 rows/6 seats of dozens of Mexico supporters...

the idea was GREAT, but the practice was poor...

 

I think segregation is a positive in these situations. Makes for a better atmosphere on both sides and fewer (serious) verbal confrontations between fans and FAR easier to police. Question is... in last night's situation, how do you ration the tickets? Give the US fans a 20% "away" allocation?

And I think that segregation is absolutely necessary in the NFL. Nearly as much as it is in other parts of the world for soccer.

 

It is good for the reasons above. Yes it wasn't strict segregation, fans were allowed to buy tickets anywhere but it was obvious to me that the US fans sections had less green than the comparable sections on the other side of the stadium..

 

During our National Anthem I had an el Tri fan give the finger to our Flag and Anthem....he was standing 4 feet away from me. That didn't go over to well with me.

I promised my wife I wouldn't go to jail last night so I handled it with more mindfulness. Yet if you ever want to know if it is a bad idea to put arch rival soccer supporters right next to each other, then my answer to you is yes! It is a very bad idea. Segregation, ie the lack there of over the years, is the clusterfuc{ legacy of our USSF. They want to charge adult prices but then pawn the game off like it is a girls U-10 match. They love the money from these matches but don't get it that its patriotic men going to these International football matches.

I lack the words to describe how dangerous the situation is. It will go real bad real fast one night for U.S.A. soccer and it will probably be only then that our USSF head honchos get their collective shit together.

 

Last night was much more hostile than the last US-MEX game in Houston in 2003. There was a powder keg-type feel to the crowd, especially if the US had won.

Leaving the game, it doesn't take too much imagination to see how things could go very very bad sometime at one of these clasicos

 

To be fair, I think the US fans are too heavily outnumbered to try something crazy.

If a small brawl breaks out in to fisticuffs between maybe 5 US fans versus 5 Mexico fans, it could quickly turn in to 5 US fans versus 50 Mexico fans and security would have no way of breaking it up before the US fans are severely battered from being outnumbered.

 

first of all I sincerely doubt that was a USA fan that shot those people.

I went to the game last year and was really impressed with the Mexico fans, i was mentally prepared to have to fight people after the Osama thing and stuff like that but the Mexico fans were passionate about the game but not over the line or anything. (meaning they were real loud when they had chances to score or had a positive play but if Americans stood up and cheered they wouldn't throw stuff and yell at them). The ones we sat by were real nice and we shook hands after the game, so i don't think it has gotten to that point, where seg was needed, but for US fans it would be better and make you more comfortable

 

That's the real problem - anything little can spin out of control quickly. And Reliant had nowhere near enough security on hand last night. The cops didn't seem too interested in doing much other than collecting their off-duty wages. The checking of bags and people coming in was a joke -you could have brought any number of weapons in as long as your ticket barcode scanned properly.

 

The possibility of something bad happening is a very big reality during any US/Mex match. We don't want a freaking Middleborough incident at one of those matches. The backlash from that would just be endless.

I am all for segregating the fans. They do it for many international venues and we need to strictly enforce segregation at the games. You know that the mex fans are going to come out in droves to see their boys play. I'd say split the ticket sales to 30% US and 70% Mex. If we can't sell all of the US tickets by a certain date, then allow the remaining tickets go into general sale.

There needs to also be more security at the games as well to keep their eyes on people since people do some extremely rediculous things when drunk.

The bottom line is that the US/Mex rivalry will one day grow to become the biggest rivalry in any sport here in the US. As it gets bigger, it'll draw more fans, and even more idiots. It's just good practice to try and organize the fans and security as much as possble to reduce fights and shootings outside of the match.

 

I like segregation just because it puts like-minded people together. If I am a U.S. fan, I would like to sit with other U.S. fans; if I was a Mexico fan, I would like to sit with other Mexican fans. Kind of like how college football is organized. There aren't any barriers between the teams but, for the most part, they have their own sections of the stadium.

As for the violent aspect in regards specifically to U.S. vs. Mexico soccer, I don't think it really is going to help or hurt. There are pluses and minuses to each, but I think segregation may be better because the fewer single Americans in the middle of Mexican sections the better (and vice versa).

 

Segregation based on fan allegiance will never happen. Unlike college stadiums who control ticket sales, USSF has to abide by public law. There's no way they'd be able to limit tickets to Mexicans. The ACLU would be on top of it in a millisecond, as they were for qualifiers in 2001 at RFK. It's not right, but it is what it is. The solution is for more US fans to get off their lazy arses and buy all the tickets before the opponents can.

 

Even with a divided 70% allocation to Mexican fans and 30% to US fans? This recognizes the fact that there will be more Mex fans and therefore, they get more of the allocation.

After a certain day, it would just go to general sale and when that happens it would not directly segregate anyone.

Lastly, correct me if I am wrong, but I don't think that the US soccer is a state entity. If not there should be no restriction as to how many tickets that can be allocated to visiting teams. The ACLU can protest here, but the bottom line is that Mexico is a visiting team and allocating 70% of the presale tickets is more than fair for them.

 

It just amazes me when mexican fans buy tickets in the US supporter section, knowingly.

There were two mexican fans who went and got security to kick everyone out of their row so that they could have seats. I asked why they bought tickets in the US section, and their response was because they can.

Well we really need to figure out a way so that they cant.

I felt the tension at the stadium also . Last year I was at the US - Mexico games in both phoenix and Chicago, and I didnt have any problems in either of the venues. last night in houston, there were countless groups of mexicans before, during and after the game who were trying extremely hard to start fights with my group, by throwing beer at us, running into us, and yelling in our faces. It's a dangerous situation, so we kept our cool. They had no class at all.

I thought it was ridiculous how they have a bunch of security and cops in our section trying to get fans into their right seats, when we are getting pelted with beer the entire game, and they do absolutely nothing about it.

 

Reliant Stadium security and the Houston cops working off-duty are there to collect a paycheck and go home. They didn't seem to care too much about anything on Wed.

They are woefully understaffed and unprepared should an incident larger than a fistfight take place.

As I said in another post - there was a powder keg-type atmosphere at Reliant the other night.

 

I didn't see anything thrown into our section, then again I was in the front row.

My experience was good natured between US/Mexico supporters.

When someone complains for their seat there is nothing security can do other than check the seats that are taken and move the people that don't have the proper seats. This will continue to happen until the sections are general admission. I ended up having to kick people out of my ticketed seats. I didn't want to but after having my seats asked for by the ticket holder on two different occassions I wasn't about to play this game all night. The first claimed to be Texans season ticket holders, the second were Mexican fans, who insisted on having their seats. I'm not about to start a fight over them.

 

I think the problem with the RFK qualifier was that away tickets were only allowed in the upper deck. I think so long as they at least allow equal or better tickets in one half of the stadium then I'm sure USSF is fine. Not sure if they can restrict even further but at least half equal should hold up in court.

 

Given the confrontational nature of Mexico fans at Reliant, I think we're lucky there wasn't any violence in the supporter's section. The only way to stop this in the future is to make the supporter's section not only general admission, but restricted to U.S. fans. I'm sure this is too much to expect of Ticketmaster and stadium security, but as rivalries grow and El Tri fans become more and more classless, it may be the only way to avoid violent incidents in the future.

 

How do they do it in Britain? From following English and Scottish football thousands of miles away, it appears that the games are pretty segregated. Do fans often get into the other team's fan territory and, if so, do conflicts occur very often? Why or why not? Is there anything they are doing over in Britain that can be done here?

 

Would it help if it were 100 percent based it on who people were rooting for? In other words, if a Mexican fan is found rooting for his/her team, but sitting in the U.S. fan section, he/she could be kicked out. And vice versa.

 

There was no segregation. This was the first time they tried a 'neutral' section which just turned out to be way more mexican fans buying tickets which is a disgrace.

I was in a section completely surrounded by mexican fans and I was louder than any of them. I had no problems save one mexican that told me to sit down at one point, U.S.A. scored shortly after and I turned around and in so many words told him to sit down and shut-up, I didn't hear from again after that.

I was personally embarrassed by my fellow U.S.A. fans lack of enthusiasm. They seemed to be scared. That is ridiculous and unacceptable in my opinion. It was a U.S. home game and I don't care how outnumbered we were to not support fully out of fear is sad.

Walking out I continued U.S.A chants and talking to mexican fans. None of them were hostile. They were all friendly about it and commented that it was a good game which I reciprocated. It's truly sad that U.S.A. fans exhibited such a lack of passion. I even commented on that to one singing mexican fan after the game and he said it'll come in time. I hope so.

 

This is a good thing but it will make everyone feel like the 1940's, it will all be segregated. But in my opinion I guess its a good thing for all of those very fiery fans out there that take a game like its a life and death situation, I don't know if anyone heard of the two Mexican fan's that got shot after the game but that is a good example of why fans should be segregated, in Mexico (I don't know if they do it here) after a game the visitor fans leave first then the home team fans leave 45 minutes after.