Basketball, people would say isn't a sport that contributes to a lot of crowd violence. However, the 1992 LA Riots following the Lakers and Clippers games in the playoffs went down in history as one of the worst modern day sports riots. With a total of 58 people dead, 3,767 buildings burned, and over $1 billion in property damage (AR Staff), one has to ask how can people become so barbarically stimulated from spectating a basketball game. .
One of the leading correlations between spectating sports and spectator violence can be linked to team rivalries. Die hard sports fans get almost more worked up about their team blowing out their biggest rivals than their team's seasonal performance. The baseball rivalry between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants started in the last 19th century and has produced its fair share of notorious fan violence incidents. An incident that occurred on March 31, 2011 involved the beating of a 42-year-old Giants fan Bryan Stow by two Dodger fans left Stow in a coma and with several other near fatal injuries (sports.yahoo.com). Another incident that occurred on September 25, 2013 left a Dodger fan, Jonathan Denver, dead after he had been stabbed by a Giants fan after the game (sports.yahoo.com). Sports rivalries are only one situational factor that contributes to fan violence. .
Imagine a sports fan yelling and cheering and possibly upset from his teams performance. Now imagine the same angry fan with a half-drank large cup of beer in his hand. I would be much more intimidated by the latter fan, and rightfully so. We all know that alcohol consumption has been scientifically proven to lead to radical changes in behavior. Beer drinking has been an integral part of sports since the late 1870's. Chris Von der Ahe noticed that his saloon did well when the St. Louis Brown Stockings were in town. As a result, he decided to sell beer at the games. On February 12, 1880, Ahe signed a contract with the Browns allowing him to sell alcohol on their property (Egenriether).
