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One of these days . . .

By Rick Karcher, Michael McCann, Geoffrey Rapp, Greg Skidmore, and Howard Wasserman

one of these lawsuits will finally work and hopefully stadiums and owners, especially over-officious guys like this one, will just stop doing stupid things like this.

Three New Jersey high-school students have filed suit in federal court, alleging that they were berated by a team President/Owner and ejected from Newark's Riverfront Stadium for failing to stand during "God Bless America" at a Newark Bears game. According to the lawsuit, the owner went up to the three (one of whose father is a lawyer) and said "Nobody sits during the singing of 'God Bless America' in my stadium," . . . "Now the get the (expletive) out of here." When the students pointed out that they had a right not to stand, he responded that they were underage and he could do whatever he wanted to them. The GM and co-owner met with one kid's father and apologized and offered free tickets, but the owner at the center of the events was not at the meeting and has not apologized.

The story does not indicate the status of Riverfront Stadium, which obviously is key to the First Amendment claim. They also have claims under state public accommodations law; New Jersey actually has a pretty strong one.

Full post as published by Sports Law Blog on September 13, 2009 (boomark / email).