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[QUOTE="Townie72, post: 659861, member: 780"]
I have seen at least one place where the problem was addressed and fixed.
 
For several years I was one of those who ran a club in the DC area's Beltway Football League. It was a "select" league in which all the teams and the league itself were private entities.
 
At the beginning of every year, we sat all the parents down in the stands next to the field and told them how it was going to be. We had two rules. The first was that parents should not talk to coaches about playing time or the lack of it. The second --- and most important --- was that we would not tolerate poor parent behavior. No hectoring of referees. No yelling at opponents or opponent coaches. No verbal criticism of our coaches or teams from the sidelines.
 
Listening to the rules some of the parents sat shocked and slack-jawed. They had been led to believe from previous experience that they could do just as they pleased and no one was going to challenge them.
 
The penalty for parental bad behavior was expulsion of the kid from the program. We would take the kid off the field and write a refund check for the parents immediately.
 
The key was that we actually did what we said we were going to do. And we only needed to do it once a year or once every other year. The word spread like wild fire that we were serious. Besides, it really was just a few knuckleheads. The great majority of the parents appreciated our handling the out-of-control minority. And our coaches were relieved from a nasty part of their job.
 
Its a hard thing to do because you are punishing the kid for the act of the parent. But it had the affect of making the experience much better for 99%. It just takes some adults with guts. And it won't work where the local government is involved.
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