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Protect sports officials
from injurious attacks

THE ISSUE The Legislature is considering a measure that would make attacking a sports official a felony.

VIOLENCE is erupting on the nation's high school playing fields, where youths and fans seem to be emulating raucous college and professional athletes. Game officials are concerned about being placed in harm's way and deserve the same protection in Hawaii as that afforded to school officials.

The problem gained local attention when television cameras caught a Big Island 18-year-old try to tackle a referee in a high school basketball game earlier this month. The youth was thrown off the team and barred from other sports activity for the rest of the school year.

If the referee had been an on-duty teacher or other school official and had been injured, the assailant could have been charged with a felony and, if convicted, faced a prison term of up to five years. It is now a misdemeanor. Bills in the Legislature would provide that enhanced protection.

Temple University suspended men's basketball coach John Chaney last week for the season's final three games for ordering one his players to play rough, resulting in what may be a career-ending fractured arm of an opponent. His misconduct followed the appalling Indiana Pacers-Detroit Pistons brawl.

At the high school level, players and spectators duked it out during a girls' basketball game in Akron, Ohio, prompting that state's sports governing board to approve a minimum one-year suspension for such conduct by student athletes. Numerous other altercations have been reported at high schools across the country.

Barry Mano, president of the National Association of Sports Officials, says his members have been discussing ways to prevent and diffuse violence during games. Meanwhile, Hawaii, Connecticut and Indiana are considering measures to better protect umpires and referees.

"It's a serious situation," said Connecticut lawyer Bruce Brenia, who referees football games. "More than half the states in the nation have some sort of enhanced penalty for attacks on officials at sporting events."

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Selling alcohol at parks
is bad idea

THE ISSUE A City Councilwoman has proposed allowing vendors to sell liquor at three parks.

LOOKING for ways to save taxpayers the cost of maintaining three city parks, a City Council member proposes allowing businesses to sell liquor at the facilities in exchange for doing the work. It's not a good idea.

The parks -- Central Oahu Regional, Hans L'Orange and the Waipio soccer complex -- are widely used by children and young adults. Drinking at sporting events can produce an environment conducive to fighting. None of parks have structures that can accommodate the restaurants envisioned for happy hours and building them will require money the city can ill afford.

Police officials don't like the proposal. Community groups, health authorities and parents object. Mayor Hannemann seems lukewarm to the suggestion.

However, he -- like Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi, who "floated" the plan -- are casting about for strategies to cut expenses at the parks, two of which were constructed on unfulfilled promises from the Harris administration that private businesses would take over operations and pay for upkeep.

Kobayashi's plan would have vendors selling liquor in restaurants at the parks during large sports tournaments and bear the expenses of mowing and grooming acres of fields, taking care of soccer goals, batting cages, tennis courts, spectator stands and lights, providing janitorial services, security and much more.

These activities cost the city plenty, about $1 million at Central Oahu alone. A restaurant business would have to sell a lot of beer, wine and martinis to clear enough profit to make the venture worthwhile. Whether there would be a sufficiently large and consistent customer base to draw in such amounts is questionable.

The mayor is considering increasing fees at other city facilities, such as the Blaisdell Center, to increase revenue and while suggestions should not be rejected outright, selling booze at parks ought to be at the bottom of the list.