ST. PAUL, Minn. (KTTC) – Tuesday Morning, lawmakers in St. Paul took up legislation that would require good fan behavior at youth and high school athletic games.

Rep. John Huot (DFL- Rosemount), who’s been a referee for 19 years, proposed this bill. In Tuesday morning’s session, he said he considered not returning to officiating next year due to unruly fans.

An unruly fan was described in the session as “someone who oversteps the bounds by going on the court and grabbing the referee, player or coach.”

Any of this behavior would result in a $1,000 fine.

Huot shared a personal experience to put into perspective the importance of this bill.

“I didn’t expect the next person that came at me was the person that identified as the associate athletic director at the high school. [They] wanted to do a show on the middle of the floor with me,” Huot said. “And that’s my protector. That’s the person that gets me out of the gym when all else fails, and my protector was gone.”

Erich Martens, Executive Director of Minnesota State High School League, said negative fan behavior makes it difficult to keep officials or even recruit new ones.

Martens said if you take the five sports in the state: hockey, basketball, volleyball, soccer and football; there are about 40,000 contests in a year.

Huot said maintaining his referee license is more challenging than his EMT or realtor license.

The bill is being laid over, meaning it’s postponed until the Minnesota Amateur Sports Commission can do more research on the impact.

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