Three Lessons From Vancouver's Post-Stanley Cup Riots

"Why do these riots happen? Why do sports bring out the worst instincts in otherwise reasonable people? Why do we take moments of civic unity and turn them into uncivil idiocy?" asks Sports Illustrated's Michael Rosenberg. In total, almost 150 people received hospital treatment and close to 100 were arrested after the Canucks lost to the Bruins in Game 7 Wednesday night. "I don't understand how a mob perverts otherwise decent folks, but it's mean in its intent and its intent is to destroy," says Dean Broughton of the Vancouver Sun. Pundits weigh in on what might have helped fuel the destruction:

Vancouver didn't take precautions:

"The key mistake that Vancouver made was trusting its own citizens far past any reasonable point," says Cathal Kelly in the Toronto Star. "You cannot pack 100,000 people with a single rooting interest into a few city blocks, fill them with alcohol and then trust to their better natures when things don't go their way. Nobody else in the world does it this way. Nobody."

Violence and hockey go hand-in-hand:

"Violence is implanted deep in the game's DNA. But it doesn't have to be, and it shouldn't be," says Adam Gopnik at The New Yorker. The "brutality" that players must endure "is one of the worst things about the game now." It's time to get rid of the fighting once and for all. We must accept that "the future of the game we love depends on whether anything is done to change the circumstances that make it so."

Let's get rid of sports altogether:

While these other suggestions might help, says David Berreby at Big Think, I'd like to offer another suggestion: Outlaw professional sports. "Big-time sports franchises waste resources, screw up urban life, and trigger violence. Society would be better off if the whole apparatus didn't exist. (I know; we'll sooner see world peace and the end of human hunger before we get rid of all these bowls and cups and pennants, but being hopeless isn't the same thing as being wrong.)"

 

Comments

[Whistlejackett]

09:54 PM on 06/16/2011

Danny, this riot was not caused by hockey fans period. Every game in Vancouver has 18, 867 fans attending. They also serve alcohol at the games without problems. This problem was caused by people intent on destruction only. There are now over 68,000 pictures uploaded to assist the Van. City Police taken by the fans. Mistakes were made yes, but please understand the difference between the fans and the thugs.

[canadagirl76]

10:41 PM on 06/16/2011

perfectly said

[Danny Groner]

11:32 PM on 06/16/2011

Good point. I accept that distinction.

[HockeyGirl74]

08:26 AM on 06/20/2011

Exactly Whistle. I just wish more people understood that, before making generalizations about ALL Canucks fans. I am a Bruins fan, and I know, and I think most hockey fans know, that this does not represent a true Canucks fan. Sad that they are giving the REAL fans a bad name.

[Whistlejackett]

11:49 AM on 06/20/2011

Thanks for your support, I appreciate it.

[Whistlejackett]

11:58 AM on 06/20/2011

Congratulations on your "Stanley Cup" win. Boston really played well.