MATT CALKINS: Why are flagpoles allowed at Portland Thorns games? Alleged attacks raise serious questions

Ari Laureano is a detransitioned man who sported an XX-XY Athletics T-shirt at a Portland Thorns game Friday. Moments after opening his coat to reveal the logo, he said he was attacked by members of the emphatically pro-trans Thorns crowd.

Laureano said fans struck him twice in the face with flagpoles, then used trans-pride flags to conceal themselves while poking other women in his group — most of whom were holding up a sign reading “Save Women’s Sports.” And while this unhinged reaction prompts a multitude of questions, one of them has to be: Why do they let attendees bring flagpoles into the stadium?

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Most sports venues have strict rules about what fans can bring inside. 

The NBA prohibits poles and sticks, while Major League Baseball stadiums such as Seattle’s T-Mobile Park explicitly ban flagpoles. Yet at Providence Park, fans were apparently able to wield objects that, according to Laureano, were used as weapons.

Why is that? Well, spokespeople for the Portland Timbers and Thorns — Providence Park’s primary tenants — did not respond to emails inquiring about the policy. The likely explanation is that American soccer clubs have embraced the traditions of their European counterparts, where fans routinely wave flags, sing chants and unfurl massive banners.

But Friday showed the risk associated with allowing said flagpoles into a stadium. And there is no immediate sign that any rule changes are coming.

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So what exactly is the policy?

According to the stadium’s guest guide, flag and banner poles “must be hollow PVC pipe and no longer than 6′ in length.” Wooden and metal sticks or poles are prohibited. The guide also says that a flagpole “cannot be used as a projectile, and must not be constructed of wood, metal or other materials that may cause harm to others.”

I can’t say whether any of the poles Friday violated those specifications. But if Laureano’s account is accurate, they were used as weapons regardless of their size or composition.

And that raises a question the Thorns and Timbers should have to answer: Is preserving a soccer tradition worth putting spectators at risk?