NOT FOR THE PEOPLE

With 56% of television viewers in Los Angeles on Monday night tuned in to Game 6 of the NBA finals, and with an estimated 250,000 fans attending the parade for the new champions Wednesday, it is clear that the Lakers again have become the People’s Team.

Unfortunately, the People, or at least the vast majority, have been shut out of their team’s games at the majestic new Staples Center because of exorbitant ticket prices.

Long before the disturbance after the game Monday night, the scene outside the arena was disturbing.

All season long, a handful of self-appointed representatives of the People have been picketing outside the arena with placards complaining, “The Rich Get the Seats, The Fans Get the Shaft.”

If it wasn’t apparent before how many shafted fans they represented, it certainly was on the night of the Lakers’ Game 6, championship- clinching victory over the Indiana Pacers. While the rich and famous and otherwise privileged (including the media) filed into Staples Center before the game, a crowd estimated at more than 3,000 gathered in front of the arena near the corner of Figueroa and 11th Street.

Breaking with their previous policy of allowing games to be shown on the giant video screen at that location starting late in the third quarter, Staples Center officials turned it on from the opening tip-off for the fans outside.

In retrospect, that decision, although no doubt well-intentioned, has a “Let them eat cake” ring to it.

Let them watch TV!

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It seemed like a good idea at the time.

With the game barely underway, the crowd outside had swelled to an estimated 4,000. Police in the area, asked if they were apprehensive, said they expected rioting only if Staples Center officials reversed themselves and turned off the game.

But, at some point after halftime, the mood became less frivolous. The crowd outside had more than doubled, to an estimated 10,000, and, considering the number who apparently (obviously, from counting the empty beer cans) had been drinking, it seemed more likely than not that the police were going to be challenged.

They since have been criticized for not recognizing that sooner, and, once they did recognize it, for not responding more assertively.

What were they supposed to do?

Any move they made to disperse the crowd before the end of the game probably would have incited it, and if they had been more aggressive in confronting the revelers, the melee--as it is being called--probably would have escalated into a riot.

In comparison to past disturbances in other cities following professional sports championships, which, in some cases, can be classified as riots, this one barely ranks.

Sure, there was property damage. Sure, the city’s image was scuffed. But we should be thankful that no one was killed and few were injured, none seriously.

We should also hope that valuable lessons have been learned. The next time such an occasion arises with either the Lakers or the Clippers (a little levity is needed here), Staples Center officials should adhere to their policy and not show the game on the giant video screen from the beginning, and, if a crowd starts to gather anyway, police should prevent it from becoming larger--and more inebriated--than they can easily manage.

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There are other issues here.

They involve professional sports teams and their responsibility to their fans and arena developers and their relationship to the cities where they do business and the role of local government in assuring that all parties are protected.

I would ordinarily hesitate to suggest to any business owner, particularly one as successful as Jerry Buss has been with his basketball team, how to operate that business. But a professional sports team, particularly one as popular as the Lakers, is not simply another business.

We were told by politicians and media after the Lakers won the championship how important they have been in inspiring a sense of community to a metropolitan area that rarely has any. They are not a publicly owned team, but they are in a sense a public trust.

Boss Buss should take that into consideration when setting ticket prices and make sure that there are more reasonably priced seats so that fans in the middle and lower-income levels do not feel shafted.

Likewise, Staples Center officials should encourage their other partners, tenants and lease holders to do the same. Developers Philip Anschutz, Ed Roski and others spent more than $300 million to build the arena and should not be begrudged for wanting to make back that money (and much more considering that it was their risk), but they should also recognize that there is a danger of Staples Center becoming Los Angeles’ Palace of Versailles.

Granted, we could make a stronger case for greater public access to Staples Center if public money had been spent on the project. City Councilman Joel Wachs led the charge against public financing and won a victory for taxpayers, but the downside is that now the city can make no demands.

I’m not necessarily arguing that tax money should be spent to benefit owners of professional sports teams and the arenas in which they play. Cities, however, should use whatever leverage they have to negotiate provisions to assure that our teams and arenas don’t become exclusive.

If more of the People had been inside the arena Monday night, would there have still been a melee?

Probably. It seems as if most of the perpetrators, like the English hooligans that accompany their national soccer team, were either intoxicated, looking for trouble, moronic (specifically, the radio talk-show caller who said Howard Stern would have been proud) or all of the above.

But it’s possible that many, as in most examples of civil unrest (including the English soccer hooligans), also feel alienated from the society in which they live. Thus, the trashing of police cars and television vans that are seen as representative of the establishment. Being on the outside of Staples Center for a Laker championship while the city’s elite were on the inside probably contributed.

That’s no excuse for violence.

It is, however, something to consider if the conventional wisdom prevails that this is merely the beginning of a Laker dynasty. More of the People should be able to enjoy the People’s Team.

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Randy Harvey can be reached at his e-mail address: randy.harvey@latimes.com.