MSG Brawl Spells Trouble For Future PSAL Games

After Sunday night's melee that started at a high school basketball game at Madison Square Garden and spilled into Midtown Manhattan streets, MSG and Department of Education officials are examining the incident. The Garden may no longer host the Public School Athletic League's events, especially due to previous incidents of violence during PSAL games. The NY Times reminds us that there was a chair-throwing incident during a 1994 game (200 people were involved) and a whiskey-bottle-throwing fight in 1964, which led MSG to ban the tournament for 20 years.

WCBS 2 had footage of the fight, which caused 400 to be ejected from the arena. You can also see the police running through the subways to stop fighting kids as well. The mounted police were called in to control the situation around Times Square, and twenty-one people were arrested. In addition to the arrests, 73 knives, "stinging spray" and brass knuckles were confiscated, but police are still looking for the person who fired 5-6 shots outside MSG.

The Post says there's some question about whether MSG security was overwhelmed by the crowd of over 13,000, but MSG's statement said there were 500 security personnel, plus spectator screening. The Department of Education may restrict ticket sales to students and families, and officials have canceled all night PSAL games.