New Mexico high school warned over fan behavior at games

A New Mexico high school has been told by the state athletic association that it needs to clean up fan behavior at boys and girls basketball games.

Estancia High School received a warning letter last week from the New Mexico Activities Association (NMAA), according to KRQE in Albuquerque. The NMAA told athletic director Stewart Burnett that if there are any more complaints from referees about unruly fan behavior, the organization would consider banning fans from all games for the rest of the season.

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Burnett told KRQE that such a penalty would cost the program $10,000 in gate revenue.

From KRQE:

According to the letter, there have been far too many parents and fans behaving badly at games. The letter says multiple fans have been ejected for being threatening and abusive toward officials. Burnett says the school is taking this seriously, but he wasn’t surprised to receive the warning letter.

…

Burnett says they’re planning to increase administration’s presence at this season’s remaining home games. He also expects that now that fans know they need to behave in a more sportsmanlike fashion, there will not be any more issues because he knows fans want to be there to support the teams.

“I feel very confident like I said that we as a community will rise to the occasion and we’re not going to cross that bridge,” said Burnett.

Read the full story from KRQE.