FRISCO, TX–Wednesday night’s match between FC Dallas and Nashville SC at Toyota Stadium marked the first match in any top five U.S. sports league (Major League Baseball, the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League, and Major League Soccer) since the pandemic to have fans in attendance.
With MLS entering Phase 1 of restarting its regular season, the allowance of fans at the match is dependent on local guidelines. Per Texas guidelines, open-air stadiums are allowed to have up to 50% capacity, and, before Wednesday, FCD had planned to allow 5,110 fans or a little under 25% percent. At 11:30am CT, FCD announced they had reduced capacity to 3,000.
In the end, 2,912 attended the match which went 1-0 to Nashville on a David Accam goal. It was Nashville’s maiden win in Major League Soccer and the first match for both teams since having to withdraw from the MLS is Back Tournament due to COVID-19 tests among both clubs.
Both teams and officials took a knee during the National Anthem to continue awareness of the Black Lives Matter campaign and a few fans responded with boos. One fan threw a water bottle onto the pitch and was reportedly removed from the premises. FCD’s Reggie Cannon (no pun intended) blasted fans who booed the players during the anthem.
“You’ve got fans booing you for people taking a stand in what they believe in when millions of other people support this cause,” Cannon said after the match. “We’ve got fans booing us in our own stadium. How disgraceful is that. Honestly, for a lack of a better word, it pissed me off.
“We had someone chanting U.S.A., but they don’t understand what kneeling means,. They don’t understand why we’re kneeling.
“They can’t see the reason. They think we’re the ignorant ones. It’s incredibly frustrating. I’m sorry to have this tone, but you have to call it for what it is.”
The Dallas Morning News reported that Cannon said players were in talks with not only Nashville SC, but also the league about their plans for the national anthem. In fact, they requested for the national anthem not to be played, but that wasn’t done.
The league has stated publicly that if fans are in the stands, the standard pregame procession, including the national anthem and new MLS anthem, would take place.
FC Dallas released a statement following the match:
“FC Dallas supports our players and fans in their right to express themselves in a peaceful manner,” the statement reads. “The National Anthem was played before last night’s match while the players were on the field which Major League Soccer requires when fans are in attendance. While we understand the decision to stand or kneel for the National Anthem is a polarizing issue, we hope that FC Dallas can be a leader in helping our community accept diverse viewpoints in a respectful way as we all work together in the ongoing fight for racial equality.”
Major League Soccer also released a statement on Thursday after abusive statements were made on social media after the match:
“During the playing of the National Anthem at last night’s match between FC Dallas and Nashville SC, the players from both clubs and match referees chose to kneel.
As we have stated consistently over many years, Major League Soccer supports players and staff who protest peacefully on behalf of equality and social justice.
Some of the comments made on social media following the match were appalling. We want to be very clear that MLS will not tolerate any abuse or threats to any individual player or team who decides to exercise their right to peaceful protest during the playing of the National Anthem or any other pre-game ceremony.”
OPINION: If you think that kneeling during the national anthem is somehow meant to disrespect the flag or the country, then it should be assumed that you wish to look the other way while Blacks are being killed due to overzealous policing. If you are hurling abuse at players for taking a knee on social media, then you won’t mind if we ask you to abuse in person at the stadium (if they let you in in the first place) and we can see how big you are away from your computer, tablet, or smartphone.
If you find a problem with athletes taking a knee to support the Black Lives Matter campaign and yet not find a problem with a police office putting a knee to the neck of someone for nearly eight minutes all because he merely tried to pass a counterfeit bill, then you’re part of the problem. I would also suggest you not attend sporting events because it’s too easy to verbally abuse at someone through social media and not nearly as so in person at a sporting event. Sports would be better off without your presence.
While we do not feel that kneeling is a metric as to whether one supports the cause of Black Lives Matter, booing, hurling abuse, and throwing objects because players and official chose to do so during the anthem is a metric on whether you have a sense of decency. A metric that you would most certainly fail at.
