Vancouver Canucks fan gets shamed for cheering at game

A Vancouver Canucks fan says she was belittled and intimidated by a man at the Anaheim Ducks game on Thursday, while she was cheering for her team.

Haley Montes had lower-bowl seats at Rogers Arena for the game, but she says a man sitting in front of her began harassing her.

“When Anaheim scored, and the score was only up by one, he turned around and he looked at me, and we made eye contact, and he told me, ‘Listen, I’m going to need you to shut the eff up for this period…because I need to focus’,” Montes told CityNews.

She replied to the person explaining, “‘We’re here at the game together, we paid to be here, I’m cheering for the team, and I’m not bothering anybody. So I don’t know what your problem is.’ And he kind of looked at me and scoffed.”

Later in the game, after a Canucks’ hat trick, Montes says the man put his hand on her leg, and she told him to move it, but he only did so after she pivoted in her seat.

“He grabbed my leg, and I was immediately taken aback,” she said. “I was like – ‘don’t touch me!'”

“He was like, ‘Listen, are you done?’ And I was like, ‘What do you mean?’ He’s like, ‘I’m trying to apologize to you.’ And I said, ‘Are you serious? I don’t want to hear it from you, because what you said was out-of-pocket.’”

Montes says the man eventually tried to apologize before the end of the game.

“Before he turned around in his seat to face the game again, he was like, ‘I just wanted to tell you that I really think that, you know your hockey.’ And I was like, ‘I already know that. Thank you,'” she said.

“I think that people have the right to express their passions, and people should feel safe enough to be able to say, ‘Hey, I love this team. I support them just as much as you do – let’s go Canucks.’”

Female sports fans face more criticism

Co-host of a female-led sports podcast in Vancouver, Georgia Twiss, says Montes’ experience reflects a long-standing social assumption that sports are inherently masculine.

“Sports, for time immemorial, basically has been seen through the male gaze. When they see a woman at a sporting event or whatever, and they just go, ‘they’re either here with their boyfriends or they can’t actually be invested,’ which is pretty gross,” she said.

Twiss says more often than not, women experience doubt in their knowledge of the sport they’re watching.

“The experience for people who are non-cishet men tends to be: You have to have a higher standard that you have to meet in order to prove that you can support this team, or that you’re a fan, or that you’re able to take up any sort of space,” she said. “I think that’s what Hayley experienced – it’s not fun to be a fan then if you have to constantly prove yourself.”

“The NHL has done a really poor job of recognizing female fans and career fans,” Twiss added. “It’s only been really in the last, maybe five years, that there’s been kind of more of an attempt to reach out to those fans.”

Montes says the interaction on Thursday made her unable to enjoy the game, and she felt unsafe leaving the arena.

Spokesperson with the Canucks Fan Experience, Wynn Moody, issued a statement in regard to the incident, saying they have tried to reach out to Montes.

“We take these matters very seriously, and firmly believe all fans have the right to express themselves and show their support for the team in a respectful manner without incident,” the statement said.