Would bringing a ref’s whistle to a basketball/hockey/sports game and blowing it at inappropriate times get you immediately kicked out of the event?
Or are the spectators too far removed from the actual field of play that players would be able to tell if the sound was coming from a ref or a spectator?
Loud cheers, screams, taunts, noise-makers all seem to be part of the game but are there any rules that ban ref’s whistles from fans?
Most tickets to sporting events have a disclaimer printed on the back stating that you can be removed from the event for causing anything they deem to be a disturbance to the event. Sitting on the sidelines and blowing a whistle would surely be a disturbance
Not only would you get kicked out, but the home team would probably be penalized, also.
As for the players being distracted, it depends.
In schoolastic wrestling tournaments, they often have four or more mats live at a time. The zone you get into is surreal, all you can hear is your coach, and usually the referee. There are several whistles blowing all around, yet it’s pretty obvious when the whistle has been blown because of something that happened in your match.
In rugby, during forward play, the whistle is rarely a surprise, and the referee is usually warning the player committing the foul right before they commit it anyway. However, during back play, the referee is often playing advantage for something the forwards did, so a loud whistle coming from across the pitch in the referee’s direction could very well be mistaken for the ref’s. It doesn’t seem very likely, though, since there are a lot of times when it’s hard to hear the whistle when it’s relatively close to you.
Seems like it wouldn’t happen more than once, though, because the referees would start tacking on technical fouls, or their equivalent, to the home team (unless the perps are identified as visitor fans, but the timing of whistle blows would be a pretty good clue).
If you didn’t get kicked out by officials, the people next to you would beat the crap out of you. Those whistles (usually the Fox 40 variety) are fucking LOUD. I had one for a while and learned never to blow that thing (no pun) in a small room. My ears were ringing for half an hour.
I will ask the home management to get you to stop blowing the whistle if we can hear it on the field. Depending on the circumstances, you might get 1 free chance to interrupt the game (and we’ll go with inadvertent whistle provisions), but otherwise I will penalize the home team in accordance with the rules. If I can positively identify you as a visiting fan, I might handle it differently - it’s still the home management’s responsibility to shut you up. Whether you are kicked out or not doesn’t matter to me; just that I can’t hear your whistle any more. I will only ask for your immediate removal if you are throwing things on the field, or threatening coaches or players in a youth game.
Whistles are loud and annoying so your nearby fans will be more than happy to point you out.
As a soccer ref for area youth leagues, the coach of your team would have gotten precisely one warning. If it happened again, both would be sent to the parking lot.
It’s always amazed me that in a huge stadium full of screaming fans that everyone can hear the noise coming out of that little device. It’s actually an incredibly impressive invention.
I guarantee it can cause a distraction. At a high school hockey game last year, a home-team fan blew a whistle. The home team, which was on defense at the time, heard it and stopped; the opposing team did not and continued, immediately scoring a goal.
I’m not sure what happened to the fan. I don’t think he was identified by the refs, but I’m sure the fans close to him beat him to a pulp unless he made a quick escape.
It’s not just a little toy device from when we were kids. Oddly enough, there’s a lot of science put into that whistle. As an example, when I refereed football back in the day, we always made sure we bought a Fox 40 brand whistle, because it worked particularly well in cutting through crowd noise. It was pealess so you didn’t have to worry about the pea getting too wet.
Here’s one site that will tell you more than you want to know about whistles: http://www.enotes.com/how-products-encyclopedia/whistle
Just a little comment about Refs ejecting a fan from the game. I don’t know the rules of Hockey, but it’s not usual that the rule book references any action that an offical can take towards a fan. Yes, you can have player interference, etc. but I’ve never seen a rule where a fan could be ejected. I’ve officiated in various sports as high as the college ranks.
Now don’t get me wrong, you can stop the game and have the on site administrator do something… 
It can be dangerous in some sports, too. If someone reacts to the whistle by stopping or hesitating, you could be setting them up for a bad hit from another player if it is football or hockey.
USA Hockey, the governing body for amateur hockey in the US has a “zero tolerance” policy toward abusive behavior. If a fan in the stands is abusive towards players, coaches or officials the referee can point to the person and order them out of the arena. The game will not continue until that person leaves. I’ve seen it happen. I’m sure that blowing a whistle would fall under that rule.
I was at the Western CFL final in Edmonton in 1997, about the second or third row on the 3rd yard line. (Short notice, bus trip, poor seats, etc.) One of the others on the tour with us had a whistle and blew it - was promptly taken away from him by stadium officials.
And then the Riders went on to defeat the Esks - woo hoo!
I don’t doubt you, but do you have a cite to the rulebook where the official has the authority to eject someone who isn’t in the game or inside the playing area?
When they’d show NFL Europe games, there’d always be a ton of whistles from the stands. Apparently this was accepted behavior which would never be tolerated at an NFL game in America. (I think this might have happened in last year’s Giants-Dolphins game too.)
Here’s a link (.pdf) to the USA Hockey Official Rules of Hockey. See page xxi.
This all sounds well and good, but I’ve seen it used to good effect in one game recently.
We went on the last day of the recent Olympic soccer qualifications in Tampa. There was a play at the top of the box and what appeared to be a foul. A whistle blew, and the Cuban players stopped. The Panamanian with the ball shot and scored. Apparently the referee hadn’t blown his whistle, it came from the stands. The goal stood, and Panama ended up winning 2-0, IIRC.
Moral of the story: the ref can probably do something at a small, intimate sporting event, but even with just about 10,000 people in the stands (very small crowd for Raymond James stadium), it is very difficult to find the culprit unless s/he is persistent.
This may well have just been poor officiating, but in my experience poor officiating is not uncommon.
But which Rough Riders?
That was always one of the strangest things.
I’m seeing a subtle distinction there between the referee directly ordering the fan to leave, and the ref ordering the home team to order the fan to leave. From that link: “The game officials will identify violators to the coaches for the purpose of removing parents/spectators from the spectator’s viewing and game area.”
That would suggest to me the referee saying, “Coach, see that dude there in the green wig? Get him out of here.” The implication being that sanctions against the home team will follow if this directive is not carried out.
Possibly this is because in most situations, building management is who actually has legal authority to eject a guest from the premises. I guess I can see situations in which they might bypass themselves as the middleman and let the referee act as their agent in ordering a fan out - but if push came to shove and the fan got frog marched to the door it wouldn’t be the ref or linesmen doing it. (Although the mental picture of that makes me smile…)
The referee may not be the one physically carrying out the task, but he or she can be the reason for the expulsion, so it boils down to them ordering the fan to leave.