It’s good to know that many older San Diego sports fans could reminisce on Saturday afternoon, thanks to the post-match fisticuffs among futbol fans in west Mission Valley who’d watched San Diego FC defeat the LA Galaxy. They tell me the haymakers brought to mind when football fans punched each other at Chargers-Raiders games in the same basin.
Ah, the sweet warmth of nostalgia.
But the comparison isn’t great.
The festive fan environment Saturday among the announced soccer crowd of 30,144 lacked a fierce undercurrent of malevolence, distinguishing it from the fan experience at more than a few Raiders-Chargers games on the same general plot of land from 1967 through 2016. In-game brawling was infinitely worse during a few of the notorious afternoons or nights in which the AFC West rivals squared off. The fights and the profanity in the stands led numerous NFL fans to sell their season tickets to the annual contest here.
Saturday’s ambience at SDFC-Galaxy was spirited but well-mannered in comparison, at least prior to the final whistle that secured San Diego’s 2-1 victory.
It helped that the crowd didn’t number 45,000 to 65,000. And each soccer club was smartly preemptive, acting on the reality that fans who aren’t near each other may not be able to incite each other.
The Galaxy’s official ers group was confined to the upper southeast section at Snapdragon Stadium, about as far away as possible from SDFC’s flag-waving, drum-banging ers who occupy the central-north stands closest to the field. Security staff surrounded the Galaxy fans throughout pregame warmups and the 90-minute match.
There’s another ingredient to consider when it comes to fan behavior, whether the home team is San Diego FC, the Padres, or San Diego State’s football team.
Alcoholic beverages being served at major sporting events, not only in San Diego but throughout the country, are both tastier and stronger than the watery beer that was served all-but-exclusively at the huge multi-sports stadium in Mission Valley before the craft-beer revolution added heft to the beverage menu.
Among the beers SDFC and Galaxy fans bought Saturday at Snapdragon Stadium’s beverage markets was this rocket fuel: a 19.2-ounce can of India Pale Ale with an alcohol content of 8.2%.
Popular, too, judging by the full garbage cans at the stadium’s beer markets, were 24-ounce cans of a 5.4% lager.
Cost of each item in these markets was about $17. Some fans certainly drank brews they’d brought to the parking lot, where stacks of empty beer cases were visible before and after the match.
Say a fan downs a cold one or two before entering the stadium. During the game, the same fan drinks one of the 19.2-ounce IPAs, or multiple 24-ounce lagers, or canned vodka drinks available at the stadium markets.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have liftoff.
“Alcohol has many well-studied effects on a person’s mind,” writes Alcohol.org. “Through changes in mood and cognition, a person may engage in behaviors they would not consider when sober.”
With few exceptions, SDFC’s crowds have been well-behaved. And their enthusiasm has made the game-day experience more enjoyable. The same applies to Padres crowds.
But, for a while now, if a sports fan desires to consume a high level of alcohol at the stadium or ballpark, the options have skyrocketed.
To preserve its appealing game atmosphere, San Diego FC may need to become more vigilant when hosting Los Angeles-based teams. At both matches here, one against LAFC and the other against the Galaxy, some fans fought in the stands. Stadium security may need to become more vigilant even after matches, when fans may be more inclined to provoke one another.
Unless things were to get much, much worse, though, Raiders-Bolts fan redux isn’t upon us.
