'More games may not have officials' because of poor fan behaviour, says referee

Todd Messer has seen it before. A parent or fan sees something happen on the basketball court that they disagree with, and they direct their anger toward the officials. Sometimes, it gets out of hand.

"We've had many situations over the years where we've had to eject a parent or fans from the gym," said Messer, zone president for Fredericton area basketball officials. "Sometimes they've been banned for the rest of the year from the gyms. It's not uncommon."

The problem called for an extreme solution in Halifax over the weekend, when a minor basketball association banned fans from attending games. 

The Metro Basketball Association's league manager said incidents of abuse toward officials had become too common. Since then, Canada Basketball posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, saying it supported the association's decision, and that abuse has no place in the game. 

Messer says that if it isn't addressed, it could have a large impact on the sport, and how many games will be able to have officials.  

Messer says that there are bad actors across all levels of the sport, but he most often sees bad behaviour among the parents of players at the younger levels, usually from ages 11 to 13. 

"Typically, younger levels, the games are very disorganized and the kids are going a mile a minute and they're always on the ground or running into each other," said Messer. 

On top of that, it's often the first experience a parent has watching their kid play competitively, so they may not understand what's happening, and don't know how they're supposed to act. 

"They're not used to it. So when their child is running in the kids are falling down, they react to it negatively, thinking that … officials can control that kind of play," said