Homophobic abuse at the Stadium
September 2010
A member witnessed an outbreak of homophobic abuse at a match at the Stadium a few months back. She observed that, whilst warnings were posted about racial abuse, there was no mention of homophobic abuse. We duly wrote to the Manager of the Wellington Regional Stadium Trust, and received a response.
Their operations manager, Mark Nunn, apologises for the incident, and states their policy of discouraging abuse, and of removing patrons if they “are verbally or physically abusive, or behave in a disorderly or offensive manner”. He confirmed that a number of people were evicted on that day, but that the particular incident in question was not noticed, as it went unreported. He encourages feedback, and requests that “in future, if you or your associates observe any behaviour that concerns you, to help us resolve the situation we would appreciate it if this was reported to security on the day. We have three security booths placed around the concourse (aisle 12, 18 and 25) to provide help and assistance where needed. We have also introduced a new security text service this year allowing people to text their aisle, row and seat number and a brief description of the problem to 5454 to receive assistance”.
Further details are on the entry conditions page on the Stadium website: http://westpacstadium.co.nz/entry-conditions . We would advise all our members and readers to remember the points made above in the case of any future similar events.