Seattle Reign's #1 fan is banned for saying "free palestine"
the NWSL prides itself on activism. so why can't their fans be political?
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Elaine is a huge fan of the Seattle Reign and the National Women's Soccer League. She and her partner are season ticket holders at Lumen Field and last year she traveled to San Diego to watch her team play in the NWSL Championship Game. She loves the team for being so vocally pro-queer and pro-trans, the long-time soccer home of Megan Rapinoe, who paved the way for what athlete activism could look like, especially in U.S. women’s soccer.
On March 17th, Elaine went to the team's season opener against the Washington Spirit and took her usual seat at Lumen Field. She had a cardboard sign with her: one side said "Sticky Dickey," a play on the name of the Reign's goalie, Claudia Dickey, while the other said, “It's a beautiful day for a free Palestine.”
“It was 65 degrees and sunny and—I don't know if you know about Seattle, but if it gets above 55 degrees and it's sunny, everyone is outside,” Elaine says. “So it was a beautiful day to support a free Palestine and a beautiful day to support the Reign.”
Elaine had been going to games for years and had never had an issue and she says her sign wasn’t flagged by security when she entered the arena. But during the game, the “alcohol enforcement” security team at Lumen Field kicked her out and banned her from the stadium for an entire year. Her sign was apparently against Lumen Field policies for being “political,” but there was no information on either the Reign website or Lumen's website saying the signs weren't allowed. (Neither the Reign or Lumen Field returned multiple requests for comment.)
As seen above, despite Seahawks games and Sounders games specifying that no political signs or items related to I/P were allowed into the stadium, the Reign website was sparse and unclear.
Multiple witnesses were horrified by what had happened. “Security personnel escalated a situation that was not causing harm,” a fan by the name of Becky said on X. Emma, another fan who witnessed the incident, said on X that security personnel told Elaine that there were no flags allowed in the stadium and indicated that was the issue with Elaine’s sign, but “there was no flag on the sign.” This was backed up by another fan named Israel.
“She covered up the Palestine part but held the sign back up after a great save by Dickey and she was then kicked out,” Israel continued. “Can't emphasize enough, the entire Palestine part was covered up.”
Elaine tried to appeal to people in the Reign's ticket office but was told the one-year ban stood. “I lost my safe space,” she says.
It’s worth noting that very few NWSL players have spoken publicly in support of Palestine—a few, like the Spirit’s Anna Heilferty, Angel City’s Christen Press, and the Reign’s Tziarra King have reposted stories but not made direct statements themselves—and none have singed the Athletes For Ceasefire letter.
Fan issues with the way the league has handled Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza began back in October. The NWSL released a statement that mimicked many other leagues’ language about mourning the loss of life in Israel without mentioning Palestine or Palestinians in any capacity and MLS wholesale banned flags from their games. Shortly after that, ahead of its first home game after October 7th, Angel City FC announced that only signs or swag related to the two teams playing that day would be allowed in—this was done to ensure that no flags would be brought into the arena and security at the arena told fans that the directive was handed down from the team’s founders (Angel City’s largest shareholder, Alexis Ohanian, recently compared the pro-Palestine protesters at Columbia to the white supremacists at Charlottesville, and co-owner Natalie Portman was born in Israel and, while she has tepidly criticized the apartheid state in the past, she’s remained mostly quiet on the current situation aside from pleas for Hamas to release Israeli hostages in the immediate aftermath of the October 7th attack).
A large Palestinian flag had been flown in the supporters section at nearly every Angel City home game since the team’s inception, alongside a trans flag and a flag for the PodeRosas ACFC Supporter Group (SG). Supporters groups are exactly what they sound like—a place for like-minded community members and fans to come together around their favorite team. They have roots in the historically working-class fan bases for futbol and ACFC has a vibrant SG culture.
“PodeRosas is very unique because it is a representation of its members but also the community where the team plays,” a PodeRosas member named Alma tells me. “South Central LA is a community of color, some of us grew up there. We are the families (people) that have been displaced, we are the families (people) that have been criminalized by law enforcement.”
Tiff, another PodeRosas member, adds: “PodeRosas is a queer women of color-led supporter group within ACFC SGs. We make no qualms of who we are, we are very principled in our belief that the way we show up in the stands is the way we show up in the streets and our everyday lives.”
“That flag has always been there at Angel City and has never caused an issue,” a fan named Moon, who was ejected from the stadium on October 15th for flying his flag, told the Los Angeles Times last fall. After seeing the team’s pre-game announcement, Moon was conflicted. “I immediately stopped thinking about how this was the last opportunity we had to make the playoffs,” he told the Times. “My thoughts were only about what I was going to do. Am I going to live up to my morals and wave the Palestinian flag like I had with every game?”
One SG brought a banner that said, “The founders don’t speak for all” and some Angel City supporters decided as a group not to cheer or drum for the first five minutes to protest the statement and flag policy change. “For us, it’s never been just about sports,” the Angel City supporter group PodeRosas wrote on Instagram. “We borrow from futbol’s radical roots and traditions as we use our collective voices and the space we’ve built to amplify the voices of the unheard and most marginalized. We will not be silent in the face of injustice and inhumanity.”
Moon was approached by security and told his flag would be confiscated or he would have to leave. “The choice was to be there but not as myself,” Moon told the Times about his decision to leave the game rather than put away his Palestinian flag. “They wanted a quiet version of myself, a censored version of myself, a silenced version of myself that I wasn’t willing to be.”
In November, several Angel City FC supporter groups, including PodeRosas, met via Zoom with club founder Julie Uhrman to read a statement demanding a public apology, public accountability, and no further censorship.
“The conversations with Julie Uhrman were very dismissive. Our SG, PodeRosas, was accused of being violent and making the stands unsafe,” says Alma. “Basically, we were blamed. The use of law enforcement and censorship was used against us, we were peaceful, we were enjoying and chanting for our team like we always do. Our families were put in a very unsafe situation, our children were not enjoying the game, they were worried about why some of our members were asked to leave the field for flying a flag that they have seen at every game.”
Those conversations remain ongoing and PodeRosas says most of their demands have still not been met, with the club citing “NWSL guidelines.” At the Angel City home game against the Kansas City Current on Friday, April 26th, numerous Palestinian flags, watermelons, and banners in support of Palestine over the center section of Supporters were visible on the Amazon Prime broadcast following Claire Emslie’s goal in the 34th minute. No SGs report anyone being asked to leave for bringing those visuals—which at least partially meets the demand for “no further censorship” from the club.
It’s a stark contrast from the public image that the league—and Angel City itself—has curated for itself. Coverage of Angel City when it was new proclaimed that “Angel City FC Brings Intersection of Sports and Politics to Los Angeles.”
The NWSL has built their brand on their political activism. Many of their star players were part of the USWNT's successful equal pay lawsuit. And following the league's high-profile sexual abuse scandal a few years ago, they've been working on re-branding under their new commissioner, Jessica Berman. Their "key marketing strengths" include being a "beacon for social and political activism" and their "community impact."
The Reign themselves sold "protect trans kids" shirts, and have Pride Nights. Angel City posted in support of Transgender Day of Visibility. Meanwhile, a fan at last year's championship game was stopped at security for having a sign about the teams being gay, which she called “humiliating” and the Orlando Pride were forced to apologize for telling an SG that they could not fly a banner with the word “gay” on it after the passing of the “Don’t Say Gay” legislation in Florida.
Fans feel it is hypocritical for a league to market themselves as progressive and take political stances while punishing their fans for doing the same. It begs the question of how much of their progressive branding is just for show and profit, and what it says for the fans who show up to support a league they feel shares their values—only to be punished for doing so.
“Understand that diversity, equity, and inclusion are not just ‘a brand,’” PodeRosas said in their November statement to Uhrman. “We must be free to continue our advocacy and expressing dissent, as we had previously been encouraged to do, even when the advocacy and that dissent makes you feel uncomfortable.”
Some fans are more cynical. “I'm not sure I can say I know what the leagues politics and values are,” says T.L. Pavlich, a supporter of yet-to-be-named Boston NWSL team. “I assume the league's primary beliefs are in advertising dollars and not getting sued or investigated...again. The league's general vibe seems to be to say as little as possible and let us assume they have values or morals. Personally my support of soccer, and sports in general, is despite the governing bodies, rather than due to them.”
It might be easy to argue that leagues want to avoid certain political stances because if they allow, say, a pro-Biden sign then they also have to allow a pro-Trump sign which means that there will always be someone in the fandom unhappy or uncomfortable with the political expression. But the league’s actions don’t match up here, as teams quite publicly expressed support for Ukraine after Russia invaded in 2022. The Portland Thorns even teamed up with MLS’ Portland Timbers to play in a charity match benefitting relief efforts in Ukraine, with teams wearing the colors of the Ukrainian flag. Now-former Racing Louisville forward Nadia Nadim, a refugee who fled Afghanistan as a child, helped launch the Humane Ukraine charity platform.
Meanwhile, the NWSL+ streaming platform is playing a commercial for the “Stand Up To Jewish Hate” campaign, which is funded by New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and intended to fight the supposed growing antisemitism following the Israel/Palestine escalation. But, as a fan named Sar pointed out on X, the commercials are actually “designed to drum up fear of antisemitism at a time when antisemitism is being used as a distraction from the Zionist-led genocide in Palestine.” It’s the same ad that ran during this year’s Super Bowl to in an attempt to convince the audience that Zionism is aligned with the goals of the Civil Rights Movement, as Dave Zirin wrote at the time. Kraft recently pulled his support from Columbia, his alma mater, among the ongoing protests against Israel’s war on Gaza.
“I love this sport and I love the players, I am a huge Seattle Reign fan and a Gotham FC season ticket holder,” Sar told me. “I’m also a proud anti-Zionist Jew who feels failed by the league, I watch the league take ad money from campaigns designed to drum up support for Israel’s genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people while teams kick out fans with Palestinian flags and I have to wonder if the values of justice and equity for all that I thought the league was beginning to embrace were anything more than lip service.”
In Seattle, the way the Reign has handled this incident has soured Elaine on the team. She’s currently looking for a new team to root for, despite having dedicated so much of her time and money towards rooting for the Reign.
Last week, she ran into Quinn, one of the Reign players, at the grocery store. According to Elaine, Quinn had not heard about her situation and was upset to hear that she was banned from Lumen. “They told me they had no idea I was kicked out and banned and the team stood by the decision because of a Free Palestine sign,” Elaine posted on X. “They said it was NOT OKAY. And you know what else isn't okay? 610,000 orphans trapped in Rafah while being bombed!”
Whether or not this will move the needle for Elaine remains to be seen (Quinn did not respond to a request for comment). But it meant a lot to Elaine to know that one of her favorite players supported her and that, despite the league and clubs being corporate entities with capitalistic priorities, the players on the field are largely people whose values align with her own.
The Reign are having a terrible start to their season, winning just two of their first seven games after playing for the championship just last year. They lost the five games following their home opener, when Elaine had been kicked out and banned. Perhaps it was karma, perhaps it is a team that is restructuring and coming into a new identity in a post-Rapinoe, post-Lavelle era.
Most fans understand that most organizations will prioritize money over values and that’s part of the deal when you root for a professional team. “It’s important to distinguish between the club as a community of supporters, fans, and players––not just the players on the team, but also young people and kids of all genders who play football and are inspired by the [players]––and the club as a capitalist, corporate project,” says Jeremy, a PodeRosas member. “What drew me to [ACFC] was the opportunity for my family to support a professional women’s team in Los Angeles just a couple of miles from our home in South Central. It was exciting to be part of building an active supporter culture for the women’s game from day one.”
But that doesn’t mean those fans can’t push leadership to do more, or to do better, or to do something as simple as condemning a genocide. Or, even more simply, to not punish their fans for speaking up in the face of injustice.
“I hope that league commissioner, Jessica Berman, remembers the Jewish value of pikuach nefesh (the sacredness of every life),” says Sar. “And, though too late, [I hope she] leads the league with a firm stance against genocidal killing of over 41,000 Palestinians.”
This is so upsetting. I knew about the Angel City nonsense last year but hadn't heard about this most recent issue with the Reign. People truly are escalating and making up policies on the spot just to stop people from speaking out about a genocide.
This is so disappointing. Thank you for the excellent reporting! I am paying attention to this story now.