Tuesday 10 June 1997
HAMILTON -- No beer from home. No picnic baskets. And now, no bare chests.
For women. Or men.
At Sunday's season opener, male Tiger-Cat fans were surprised when security officers climbed up and down the stands politely requesting that bare-chested men cover up. Everyone did, with a little grumbling.
From now on, if football fans want to cheer on the Ticats, they'll have to do it with their shirts on, for the first time in the team's 128-year history.
No shirts, no ... spectating.
Anew stadium policy, launched at Sunday's game, prohibits fans from doffing their shirts in the heat, a common sight during sweltering summer games.
It's by no means coincidental that the stadium's new shirts-on policy comes on the heels of Hamilton city council's debate over women baring their breasts in public pools, parks and beaches.
Tiger-Cats general manager Neil Lumsden said men taking their shirts off wasn't an issue until the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that women can go top-free in public places.
"I guess the city was relatively sensitive to what's been going on -- people taking their shirts off, especially women," said Lumsden.
He says the stadium wouldn't have allowed women to go top-free at games, and so created an overall policy outright banning going shirt-free , no matter what your sex. A preventative measure, if you will.
"We're trying to solve this before people waltz in with their shirts off with their gals," he said.
"We don't think (women top-free) in our environment is the right thing to do. We're trying to create a family environment where people can come and have fun," Lumsden added.
"We talked about it before the season began and we didn't want to discriminate: let men take off their shirts and not women."
Some might say the policy goes too far, arguing that an outdoor football game is as public a place as it gets.
But Ross Fair, director of culture and recreation for the city, says the Tiger-Cats have every right to enforce the tops-on policy, because the stadium is considered a private space.
"In an open public place going top-free is not an indecent or criminal act -- city parks, the street. With Ivor Wynne, the city has a private contract with them, they charge admission for entrance, so it becomes a private space."
Those who own the facility make the rules, and those who come through the door must follow them.
Fair said the team didn't want to have to deal with the women-going-top-free issue, "so their only option was to do like restaurants, no tops, no service."
Lumsden concedes the policy is tough, but says it's fair, and that the stadium as a city facility has to "control what goes on."
"I understand wanting to peel the shirt back on a hot sunny day, but it's like a restaurant. Some restaurant patios say you have to put a shirt on to be served."
So the shirts-on policy is now painted on signs posted in the stands and at the stadium entrances, along with other rules about how to conduct yourself during the games. And if fans refuse to keep their shirts on, after a few warnings, they'll be kicked out.
"We would have to deal with it as if someone was drunk and disorderly or had broken rules É if someone refused to put on a shirt, they'd be escorted from the stadium," said Lumsden.
The city takes care of security at the games, and guards have been instructed to "negotiate compliance," said Fair.
"But it's not going to be the case that we walk away and let someone sit there top-free."
'We don't think (women top-free) in our environment is the right thing to do. We're trying to create a family environment.'
Neil Lumsden Tiger-Cats general manager |