Security at sporting events since 9/11

If you went to a sporting event after 9/11 how would you rate the security? I went to the Colts v Bills game today and IMO, security was poor. Some people were patted down but most were not they didnt search through bags or pockets. A lot of people smuggeled in their own beer too.

Steve

I've been to several Bengals' games since 9/11. Security is tighter, but still if some one was hell-bent on doing something there would be little to stop them. What they did at Paul Brown Field was to create bottle-necks where people can only pass two or three abreast about 20 feet from the ticket-takers. There are four to seven "security" personnel watching people as they go by the bottleneck. When one of the security people see someone that they want to search or has a bag or whatever their criteria is, they have them step aside where another plain clothed security dude checks the person out. Then once you get past the ticket takers, there is a smaller contingency of other security personnel that are also scoping the place out. It's a real PITA, since the bottlenecks cause a back-up from hell from 12:45 to 1pm when the final rush to get to see the opening kick-off happens.

Also, they way these bottlenecks are set up, it creates a pen for anyone that wants to bolt! They can't turn against the onslaught of humanity to run and if they try to crash the gate, they have the security on the other side to deal with.

However as I mentioned, this is no deterrent for a determined soul. If, say, a suicide bomber was caught at that point, if they detonated at that point, the bottleneck would ensure an enormous body count! So really the whole exercise is a little ridiculous for the mass casualty threat.

See ya
Tony

I wanted to add a little to my comments about Paul Brown Field security. Yesterday (Saturday), I went there with a volunteer crew from Waycross Comminity Media (a Cable access facility) to produce the TV coverage of two state divisional semi-final high school games. I'll spare you the drama and just plain stupidity to get the games played at Paul Brown Stadium in the first place, but the fact that the U.C. Football Bearcats were in town and the Bengals were not this week made it necessary to hold the games there instead of U.C.'s Nippert Stadium. It's a good thing since the combined attendance for the games exceded the number of seats available at Nippert. (Total attendance for these high school games, 47,763!!! More than some Bengals' games!)

Anyway, the facilities people at Paul Brown Field were very helpful. They really helped us out quite a bit. I can't say enough to thank them. However getting inside the stadium was something very different! It took some of our crew over 45 minutes to get the press credentials and find their way to the production truck (two security checks beyond the point where you get credentials). Some people in the crew were saying, it's okay because it's making things "safer". Of course they all looked at me very wide-eyed when I pointed out that the truck was never checked out. No one looked inside and if they did, would they know that the contents weren't disguised explosives? This production truck is about the size of the one that took down the Murrow building in Oklahoma.

After a while some one pointed out to me that the truck was not allowed inside the garage (as is the CBS production trailer). We had to park outside. We were parked just outside and right in front of the garage door. Overhead was the pedestrian skirt of the stadium. I asked him what the difference in blast damage would be if a bomb was set off where we were or 20 feet further inside the facility. He thought about it and shrugged, "I guess not much!"

If we were terrorists, that stadium would have been rubble right now. As I mentioned yesterday, all the security is reactionary garbage that is in place to make people feel better. It's definitely not there to really MAKE it safer.

This is not an indictment on the stadium or its personel. As I mentioned earlier, there was a lot of red tape, but they were quite willing to help us through the red tape and accomodate any requests we had.

See ya
Tony