Redmarsh Hostage Crisis
| Redmarsh Hostage Crisis | |||||||
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| Part of Saint Augustine Crosstown Rivalry | |||||||
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| Broadmoore FC | Saint Augustine FC | ||||||
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The Redmarsh Hostage Crisis is the tongue and cheek name for a massive sports riot which occurred during (and resulted in the cancellation of) a 1979 regular season football match between Broadmoore FC and Saint Augustine FC. The event has been characterized as simultaneously the most notorious and destructive incident of drunken hooliganism and the most ill-conceived publicity stunt in the history of Maximusian football. In their first head-to-head regular-season match of the 1979 football season, a cadre of inebriated Broadmoore FC fans rushed their home-pitch (Redmarsh Stadium) after it was revealed that a Saint Augustine FC supporter had kidnapped "Big Red," the duck mascot of Broadmoore. In response, visiting Saint Augustine FC supporters took the field to defend their players, leading to a massive brawl. Despite over a hundred arrests and numerous hospitalizations, no lives were lost during the fight and, surprisingly, Big Red was returned unharmed to the Broadmoore locker room. Following police investigation, it was revealed that Broadmoore and Saint Augustine managers had conspired to stage Big Red's kidnapping in order to revitalize the rivalry between the crosstown teams. Both teams were given a one year suspension by the Maximusian League of Association Football for the conspiracy and both teams' GMs were fired, but no club officials were indicted criminally.
Background
Broadmoore and Saint Augustine are twin cities in northern Libertas Omnium Maximus, separated by the Marshal River. Both cities also host their own MLAF clubs, Broadmoore Football Club and Saint Augustine Football Club, two of the oldest teams in the MLAF. A twin-city rivalry, naturally emerged between the two teams in the mid 20th century. In the late 1970s, consistently poor performance by both teams seriously eroded attendance. By the end of the 1978-79 season, Saint Augustine and Broadmoore languished at the bottom of the league, suffering humiliating defeat after humiliating defeat and narrowly avoiding relegation. By April, both teams played in nearly empty stadiums. In order to boost attendance, Redmarsh, Broadmoore's home stadium, instituted major discounts on beer at their concession stands for the 1979-1980 season. The team also adopted a portly merganser duck, nicknamed "Big Red," as their official mascot.
Match and Brawl
On Sunday, September 30, 1979, Saint Augustine and Broadmoore met to play their first regular season head-to-head match at Redmarsh. Generous discounts on booze and concessions, paired with the usual buzz of a rivalry showdown, brought in around 30,000 spectators, nearly filling the stadium. A speculated 7 or 8 thousand of these spectators were Saint Augustine supporters, who made the short drive or bus trip across the metropolitan region to Redmarsh. Wildly underestimating the turnout, Redmarsh did not bring on any additional security staff to handle the anomalously large and rambunctious crowd.
Shortly after kickoff, two spectators were ejected from the stadium for attempting to bludgeon a security guard with a dislodged bleacher railing. Despite a number of admirable plays on the pitch, the match's first half was remarkably unremarkable. Tensions heightened as supporters grew increasingly frustrated by their teams' respective poor performances, bored, and drunk. As the half drew to a close, a number of players began roughhousing and engaging in unsportsmanlike conduct, for which three bookings were issued. Stalemated with no goals on record for either team, both teams dejectedly retreated to their respective lockers after the half time whistle blew. It was during this intermission that the levy finally broke.
Interrupting a prerecorded rendition of the Broadmoore fight song a few minutes before players returned to the pitch, on-site announcer William Brandt noted a slew of incoming reports indicating that Big Red had been abducted and that beloved duck's fate might well rest on the outcome of the match. Naturally, Broadmoore fans interpreted this to mean that a Saint Augustine supporter was responsible for the kidnapping and planned to harm Big Red if Broadmoore did not throw the game. The stadium immediately flew into an uproar upon hearing the announcement. A number of families, recognizing that the situation was about to dissolve into chaos, reportedly fled so quickly that many portable radios and hats were left behind. Just as players reemerged from their lockers, a contingent of about thirty Broadmoore fans rushed the pitch, ostensibly in order to rescue Big Red, charging at the Saint Augustine squad with an assortment of weapons ranging from chunks of mortar to switchblades. The Broadmoore squad, along with a few intrepid security guards, attempted to stop their own supporters from advancing on the Saints, but were scattered by the growing mob.
Within minutes, complete anarchy reigned across the entire stadium. Most of the Saint Augustine squad were able to retreat to their locker room and barricade the doors, but several players were caught up in the mob, receiving merciless beatings, contusions, and blunt force trauma injuries. Hundreds of Saint Augustine fans also took the field, either to defend their own players or simply to throw a few punches, and were countered by an onslaught of even more angry Broadmoore supporters. Fearing a crowd crush would occur, an assistant stadium manager had arena workers open a number of service gates and loading docks, allowing fleeing spectators to escape through employee only access points. As the brawl escalated, Brandt attempted to end the fighting by reassuring fans that Big Red had been found in good health, but his recovery attempt was far to little, far too late.
The first wave of police arrived around five minutes after spectators rushed the field, but were outmatched by the swarm of belligerent rioters. The stadiums's lights were shut off shortly thereafter, but even this measure was unsuccessful. Crowd control devices, including tear gas, were ultimately used to pacify the crowd. As the dust settled, nearly an hour after the start of the fight, hundreds were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries and 103 were arrested. In response to the brawl, a number of bars and clubs reported fighting among patrons throughout the evening. From the arrival of the first officers until around 5 AM the next morning, the cities of Broadmoore and Saint Augustine were placed under states of emergency. Then-Broadmoore Mayor, Edward Caraway, delivered a televised and radio-broadcasted address at 10 PM that evening, explaining that he had personally received confirmation that Big Red was safe, and suspected that the kidnapping of the duck was a hoax.
Investigation
Cultural Impact
In 1987, director and satirist Andy Waterson released a mocumentary memorializing the event entitled "Operation Big Red." Parodying the then-popular Maximusian film trend of releasing cheaply made, gory biopics based on Great War narratives, the film follows the fictional account of a Broadmoore supporter and his two adolescent sons as they attempt to fight their way through the massive Redmarsh brawl and secure Big Red from the Saint Augustine locker room. The film released to critical acclaim.
By 1999, both teams were reinstated and made their way back into the MLAF's top league. To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the brawl, a charity exhibition rematch (benefiting Broadmoore emergency services) was hosted on September 30, 1999. Saint Augustine won the match 2-3, and the entire Saint Augustine roster reportedly feasted on curried duck that evening to spite Broadmoore.