The team is leasing the building during the game and can set attendance limits accordingly. The same laws that let them set ticket prices let them ban people. It’s their event and for management purposes it’s their venue during the event.
Ok...but how much power does that lease give them? They certainly can’t violate the civil rights act, and ban blacks from attendance.
“discrimination based on race, color, religion or national origin”
But how about women? Could the NBA ban women from a game? Are they any more or less protected than Sterling?
And what is Sterling’s real misdeed? What action on his part got him banned from the arena? Being recorded (most likely illegally)? Being disliked? He sure hasn’t done anything in the arena, at the game, that caused a disturbance.
Lets take it a step further. Maybe the Clippers will have a “ban global warming deniers night”. How would that be any different than banning Sterling?
Or even further. Maybe the NBA will ban President Bush - not because he got drunk and spilled beer on people in the stands...but because some owner thinks he’s a ‘war criminal’.
I think its a slippery slope.