Some parents support next home games being invite only

By La’Nita Brooks and Katrenia Busch

Click here for updates on this story

    FLINT, Michigan (WNEM) — The next two home games for the Flint Jaguars’ will be invitation only.

On Tuesday, Sept. 20, a decision was made to only allow fans that are personally invited by players to attend the upcoming home football games after incidents at the last football game on Friday.

Each student-athlete can personally invite up to five people.

Some parents and educators have expressed support for the decision.

“Football is a competition thing, but it’s to where it should get to a rival thing,” said Delois Jackson, a Flint parent.

The next two Flint Jaguars home games are on Friday, Sept. 23 and Friday, Sept. 30.

“It is the best thing, for the safety of the parents, the real fans and the students,” another Flint parent told TV5. “I have a son who plays for Hamady, certain games I wish he did not even have to attend because I know there’s going to be trouble. If it has to be invitation only then that’s just what it has to be until one school or the other can get control of their fans, parents and students.”

Attendees will still be required to purchase a ticket as a protocol to limit the number of attendees and monitor who is in attendance.

“I do think it’s a good philosophy, a good practice, a good policy not to invite everybody to the game and to do it by invitation only but that’s just for a temporary period,” said Beverly Brown, a Flint teacher. “That will pass. For now, we just need to really show our students that we care and give them lots of constructive activities to do so that their minds don’t gravitate towards fighting.”

Names of the people invited must be submitted by 5 p.m. on the day before each game.

TV5 reached out to Flint Community School Superintendent Kevelin Jones to speak about the policy, but he was not available for a comment.

Please note: This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.