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Sixers fans say they were ejected from preseason game for 'Free Hong Kong' signs (ftw.usatoday.com)
68 points by secraetomani 2439 days ago
4 comments

This isn't uncommon though -- even 30 years ago MLB would kick people out for any kind of signage they found off-brand, not even political in nature.

Unless is extremely typical of what you normally see at a game, you're not going to be allowed to show it.

Political speech doesn't seem to be banned:

https://www.nba.com/sixers/nba-fan-code-conduct

According to the 76ers, it was a venue decision:

The Wells Fargo Center’s event staff is responsible for the security and comfort of all guests at arena events, including 76ers games. At last evening’s game, following multiple complaints from guests and verbal confrontations with others in attendance, two individuals were warned by Wells Fargo Center staff about their continuing disruption of the fan experience. Ultimately, the decision was made by Wells Fargo Center personnel to remove the guests from the premises, which was accomplished without incident.

Nonetheless, it doesn't look good in the wake of the recent China censorship scandal

According to the 76ers, it was a venue decision

Very rarely does a venue make a decision like this. The team leases the arena for the event, the venue does what the team wants.

If "verbal confrontation" were a blanket policy of the venue, then it could never hold another rock concert, monster truck rally, or other high-energy event.

This sounds more like, "We didn't throw anyone out, our hired goons did. We're clean!"

That may be. I'm just quoting the statement, not necessarily saying that I agree with their assertion.

Given the subject matter, you can bet this will be part of this rapidly growing conversation about China and Hong Kong.

Thanks. "Multiple complaints from guests and verbal confrontations with others in attendance" makes it seem pretty defensible to me.
I don't actually have a big problem with this. The issue with punishing people for their tweets or comments about Hong Kong is that you are taking action against them for an opinion they have. In this case, they are just preventing people from expressing their opinion in a privately owned place. Now I would prefer that the fans not be ejected, but I also think it isn't that terrible to prevent people from putting up political banners in a televised arena. It also depends how consistently this is applied - would they also eject someone for holding a sign supporting Trump?
Likely the first of thousands more.