Yes. I'm not sure about the earliest example, but there was a riot in the ancient city of Pompeii that was so bad that the Roman Senate banned games in Pompeii for 10 years.
You can read more about it and an ancient fresco depicting the event here.
this post was submitted on 31 May 2026
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Yep! Both the Romans and their Byzantine successors suffered from sports riots from their societies' popular sport of choice - CHARIOT RACING!
The Romans actually had a specialized military unit for suppressing riots in the city of Rome - the Urban Cohorts. Necessary in no small part because of the 'enthusiasm' for the chariot races, and the four teams (Green, Blue, Red, White) which each had their diehard supporters (Roman gladiator games also had the norm of 'team' fans of specific gladiator types, but were generally less riot-happy).
In the Byzantine era, the chariot races took on additional importance as the immense political repression of the Byzantine state meant that sports fans were one of the few areas one could organize in - thus transforming sports fandoms into political parties in addition. Thus Byzantine sports riots could take on multiple dimensions, in that they could be about religious or political or social issues as much as their team winning or losing.
There may be earlier examples, but I can only speak as to my main fields of interest, lmao.