An analysis of student perceptions on fan violence and crowd control at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville

The current awareness of fan violence in intercollegiate athletics has the attention of administrators, coaches, players, and fans. Fan violence at sporting events is not a new problem but the frequency continues to increase. The Southeastern Conference (SEC) has attempted to prevent fan violence by establishing crowd-control policies.

It was the purpose of this study to determine the level of fan violence and perceptions of fan violence legislation among students at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Sub-problems included:

1. How many UTK students have been a victim of fan violence while attending home or away UTK football games?

2. What are the students' reactions/perceptions toward crowd-control legislation? For the study, participants completed a 30-question survey. The questionnaire was administered by the researcher in February 1994. The participants completed the questionnaire in approximately 10 minutes.

Results of this study indicate a significant difference in the number of home UTK football games attended by white students than any other race. Freshmen were more likely to attend a home game than any other class; however, no profound difference was found among the sexes and home game attendance.

Females were more likely to be victims of fan violence than males. there was a profound difference in the number of freshmen who had friends who were victims of fan violence. Male students were more likely to witness fan violence. Results indicate that UTK students feel current crowd-control policies are adequate. According to sex, race, and year in school, there was a definite agreement for crowd-control policies, and the SEC is addressing fan violence with adequate crowd-control policies. There was significant agreement among UTK students that fan violence awareness is increasing; however, there was a difference in opinion about fan violence awareness increasing among SEC fans.

Recommendations for further research include replication of this study in three years to determine if UTK students' perceptions change. Educate security personnel on better methods to search and confiscate alcohol from fans. Security and university personnel should conduct more in-stadium inspections for alcohol during the games. Monetary fines should be enforced for persons found to have brought alcohol into the stadium. These policies should be enforced by university personnel and also by city police at all SEC schools. SEC schools should conduct surveys on fan violence among their fans, especially season-ticket holders, and report the results to the SEC. This could help develop more extensive and improve crowd-control policies.