Nats OK To Discriminate Against Phillies Fans
Updated: Tuesday, 07 Feb 2012, 2:33 PM EST
Published : Tuesday, 07 Feb 2012, 2:30 PM EST
Fox 29 legal expert Amy Feldman rules on the Washington Nationals decision to discriminate against visiting Phillies fans.
According to Feldman, the Nationals can legally try to block fans from Philadelphia from going to games in Washington – for a limited time.
Feldman says the Nationals are within their rights to block fans outside of the Washington metro from buying tickets for a brief, defined time period.
A longer boycott would get into interstate commerce issues, she says.
Feldman says discrimination pertains to race, color, religion, national origin, and disabilities, not to geography and even gender.
In fact, Feldman said if the Nationals wanted to get picky, they could impose a dress code at the park and ban Phillies T-shirts and hats from the stadium.
However, Feldman does question the business acumen of Nationals officials, since Phillies fan brought a huge amount of income in the stadium and city last season.
She also said that fans will just go to Stub Hub if they want presale tickets for the Phillies visit to the Nationals in May, and you can’t keep Phillies fans from figuring out a way to get into the Nationals’ ball park.