ACLU Hoists Free-Speech Banner in Stadium Sign Ban

On Friday, Sept. 1, during the San Diego Chargers’ final preseason game against the Phoenix Cardinals, a banner was removed from the loge level of San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium.

The banner read: “Fire Ortmayer.”

Steve Ortmayer is the Chargers’ director of football operations, whom many fans see as the reason for the team’s lackluster showing. He has been criticized for making trades that have hurt the team and for not being able to sign veteran players.

Whether fans are right or not in their opinion of Ortmayer, the American Civil Liberties Union believes they have a right to express such views in a publicly owned stadium, either verbally or through the use of banners.

The Chargers say they have a policy of removing banners of a “disparaging nature.” They include in that category banners critical of team management.

The ACLU says the Chargers may have stepped out of bounds.

“By allowing banners, they’ve created a public forum which requires that all views be aired,” said Linda Hills, executive director of the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial counties. “And they can’t just ban the views they don’t agree with.”

ACLU to Investigate

Hills said the local office will look into the matter.

The ACLU has recently filed complaints against the Cincinnati Bengals and New York Yankees, whose stadiums are owned by the public, as is San Diego’s.

“Selective confiscation, based upon the content of banners, cannot be tolerated in a free society,” said Norman Siegel, executive director of the New York chapter of the ACLU.

Siegel said he will encourage San Diego’s ACLU office to take action against the Chargers. He said the issue of banners being removed from stadiums because of so-called negative content “may start to crop up all over the place. . . . New York and Cincinnati--and, from the way it sounds, San Diego--are just the start.”

Siegel is involved in a controversy with Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, who, although playing in a city-owned stadium, maintains that he has the right to order the removal of banners uncomplimentary to himself or the Yankees.

Jack Teele, director of administration for the Chargers, said his club has the same right.

“And why?” Teele said. “Because we pay the rent.”

Deputy City Atty. Allisyn Thomas said she isn’t sure that merely leasing a public facility gives a tenant the power of selective confiscation of banners.

“Obviously, it’s a public property,” she said. “And certain constitutional requirements concerning free speech and freedom of expression have to be adhered to by tenants. I intend to look into this further.”

Teele said the Chargers maintain four criteria governing the display of banners at the stadium:

* They must be germane to the game.

* They must not contain profanity.

* They must not block the view of other fans.

* They must not be disparaging.

What does he define as disparaging?

“Oh, you know, if it said, ‘Screw the L.A. Times’ or ‘Fire Ortmayer,’ ” Teele said. “We rent the hall, and the person buys a seat. I don’t know that the person buys the right to do that sort of thing. That’s the kind of thing that people don’t have any business doing. We won’t tolerate that sort of thing.”

A Consumer Issue

Countered Siegel: “Look, you ought to be able to have signs at the ballpark. Fans have a lot of power--they just don’t know it. What we have to understand is that, politically and economically, fans pay for professional sports. Without us, they aren’t in business.

“Owners have to be reminded periodically that we are the consumers. We should see this as a consumer movement as well. It seems as though owners would like fans to sit there and be bland and homogenous, but that’s not what the sports themselves are all about. They’re about diversity and conflict, winning and losing. This attitude in professional football of trying to silence the fans is abhorrent.

“In a publicly owned stadium, the lessee cannot censure a fan based upon the content of a banner. There is no legal way to defense that--none whatsoever. And to do so is entirely inappropriate in a publicly held entity such as (San Diego) Jack Murphy Stadium.”

Teele said that, rather than tussle in a controversy, the Chargers might consider banning all signs and banners. But he added that such an action would be “a last resort” and one he would take “regretfully, but out of necessity, if I’m pushed up against a wall.

“Rather than have somebody tell me how to run my business, or pay lawyers to do battle with the ACLU, I’ll take ‘em all away,” Teele said. “We pay the rent, and it’s a sizable sum--10% of the gross. Why should we rent a place, put on a football game, and just sit back and let some idiot put up a disparaging sign?”

Raiders Fair Game

From time to time, however, banners are put up that disparage the other team. Anti-Los Angeles Raiders banners are not uncommon at the stadium.

“Well, the Raiders don’t rent the hall,” Teele said. “We do.”

Bill Adams, vice president of business operations for baseball’s San Diego Padres, said that his club permits no banners at the stadium, unless they’re germane to a particular team promotion.

“It’s all part of the issue of crowd control, and besides, we think banners detract from the game,” Adams said. “Some cities tolerate a lot of banners regardless of the message, but we don’t believe in that here.”

Siegel of the ACLU said the banning of all banners “would constitute a stronger case than any of these teams presently have.” Even so, he said, “that would seem antithetical to what sports in America are all about. As long as they don’t interfere with a fan’s ability to enjoy the game, I don’t see why anyone would mind.

“To not be able to express yourself at a game with a banner or with your own mouth, well, it’s nothing less than un-American.”