Patron Management Institute
Suicide Bombing Kills 41 at Iraq Soccer Stadium
by Stuart Goldman March 2016 A suicide bombing at a soccer stadium in Iraq killed 41 and injured 105 last Friday, according to multiple reports. The Islamic State, or ISIS, has claimed responsibility in the bombing, which took place at a small stadium in the city of Iskanderiyah, about 25 miles south of the capital of Baghdad. According to a report, one official said 17 of those killed were boys between the ages of 10 to 16. Gianni Infantino, who was recently elected the new president of FIFA, said he was “shocked and terribly saddened” and offered his condolences to those killed in the attack. “Around the world, football unites people,” Infantino said in a statement. “It is a very sad day, when people, going to a match together, become the victims of such violence.” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also offered his condolences on Saturday, adding that “the international community stands with Iraqis in horror and outrage.” The attack occurred three days after ISIS-claimed bombings in Brussels, Belgium, killed at least 35 and injured more than 300. http://www.athleticbusiness.com/stadium-arena/suicide-bombing-kills-41-at-iraq-soccer-stadium.html
Fans Thrown From Malfunctioning Escalator After Flyers Game
by Phil Helsel An escalator sped up after a Philadelphia Flyers game Saturday, sending fans tumbling to the ground in a pile, according to a witness and video that captured the incident. “We heard the escalator rev up a little bit. It started going faster and faster. People couldn’t get out of the way fast enough,” Meghan McGreevy told NBC News. No injuries were reported, the company that owns and operates the Wells Fargo Center said. The mishap occurred after the Flyers’ 3-2 win over the Ottawa Senators in Philadelphia, and the escalator was crowded with fans leaving the game, McGreevy said. A representative for Comcast-Spectacor said the escalator was immediately closed and was not in use when the basketball team the 76ers played later Saturday. “The comfort and safety of our guests is our number one concern,” Ike Richman, vice president of public relations for Comcast-Spectacor, said in a statement. “Immediately following today’s game an incident did occur involving one of our escalators. We immediately closed it down to protect our patrons and notified the operator,” Richman said. “We are working with the operator on investigating this incident.” http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/fans-thrown-malfunctioning-escalator-after-flyers-game-n549831
Lugnuts make change to ballpark with fan safety in mind
James L. Edwards III, Lansing State Journal 1:36 p.m. EDT March 29, 2016 There will be a new look to Cooley Law School Stadium next time you go to check out the Lansing Lugnuts, and fan experience and safety are the reasons. The minor league baseball team is in the process of installing a new safety net behind home plate to protect its supporters from the action on the field. The new net, which is roughly 32 feet tall, will span seven seating sections of the ballpark, from home plate to the edge of each dugout. The previous net protected five sections. The changes come after Major League Baseball recommended that all nets cover any seats that fall within 70 feet of home plate. “It’s all about safety,” Lugnuts General Manager Nick Grueser said. “Our ballpark is very intimate, which is nice from a fan perspective, but, also, you have to pay attention. A lot of our fans don’t always pay attention to the game — they come for (other) stuff that we do. This really protects them.” Grueser added that the net is ”more durable and stronger, but not as thick” as the previous one. The goal was to increase fan safety while not taking away from the experience. “The Keep Reading
Super Bowl 50: The Most Intense Security at a Sporting Event in U.S. History
A lot of people are going to show up to watch Peyton Manning and Cam Newton square off in the highly anticipated Super Bowl 50. When I say a lot, I mean a lot. Upwards of 75,000 people will be able to buy a ticket to the game and even more will be crowding into Santa Clara restaurants and bars to catch the big game. The immense size of the event coupled with the recent terror attacks on soft targets, including Paris and San Bernardino, California, has made Super Bowl 50 one of the most highly guarded sporting events in U.S. history. The Super Bowl is considered the second-highest threat environment under U.S. federal guidelines, a notch below what is called a National Security Special Event. That includes summits of world leaders and presidential inaugurations. Despite the fact that there is currently no specific or credible threat against the Super Bowl, security officials are doing everything possible to ensure that the game goes on without a hitch. Federal U.S. security officials are tight-lipped about how exactly their plans differ for this year’s NFL championship game from previous Super Bowls, where security is always tight, but hundreds of U.S. law enforcement Keep Reading
Inside the Super Bowl cyber-ops headquarters
Inside the Super Bowl cyber-ops headquarters Harriet Taylor | @Harri8t Friday, 29 Jan 2016 | 5:00 AM ETCNBC.com At an undisclosed location in the San Francisco Bay Area, a team of public and private security experts is assembling a pop-up intelligence operations center for Super Bowl 50. The goal of the multi-agency operation, led by the FBI, is simple: thwart the “bad guys.” “The Super Bowl is one of the few civilian events that gets to be considered a national security event, so it pulls in the full capability of the U.S. government,” said Rich Mason, president and chief security officer of Critical Infrastructure, a boutique security consulting firm. “They bring a lot of resources into play.” Others involved include the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Customs and Borders Protection and state and local agencies The man coordinating those efforts on the ground is Mike Sena, director of Northern California Regional Intelligence Center (NCRIC). “I am not sure I will be able to sleep during this whole thing,” he said. “My biggest fear is we are going to have something break or not work. There’s always that Murphy’s law — what can go wrong will go wrong.” With more Keep Reading
MLB recommends clubs extend netting in effort to improve fan safety
By Chris Cwik Big League Stew 12/9/15 NASHVILLE, Tenn — Fan safety has become an increasingly important issue for Major League Baseball. In the past year, there have been multiple incidents where fans have been injured or hospitalized due to errant bats and balls. Commissioner Rob Manfred has indicated in the past that he would look into new procedures to ensure fans feel safe at the park, and he rolled out some new recommendations concerning fan safety Wednesday. The main focus of that message involved Manfred encouraging clubs to add more protective netting at their parks. Here is the relevant passage from the press release: Clubs are encouraged to implement or maintain netting (or another effective protective screen or barrier of their choosing) that shields from line-drive foul balls all field-level seats that are located between the near ends of both dugouts (i.e., the ends of the dugouts located closest to home plate, inclusive of any adjacent camera wells) and within 70 feet of home plate. The Commissioner’s Office has retained a consultant specializing in stadium architecture and protective netting to assist interested Clubs in implementing this recommendation. On top of that, Manfred has recommended each club continues to find Keep Reading
Safety Changes and the Fan Experience
IAVM, December 08, 2015 by Nathaniel Stahlecker It started with a sign and grew to an act of terrorism. Security protocols and prohibited items lists across the country went under review when a couple of activists decided to send a message to Bank of America at a Carolina Panthers game. Eleven days later, the first ever terrorism attack on a stadium and the equally horrible acts that followed in Paris. Now most venues are looking at the entire scope of their security plans. The activist group that decided that repelling at a NFL game would be a good idea was very misinformed. No matter the message they were trying to send or how skilled they are at repelling, they still put their lives and others’ lives at risk. It is not my place to speculate on how they pulled this off, but reading current events is what keeps us sharp. This led me to look at the prohibited items lists for stadiums across the country. Nothing I have found to date mentions anything about rope or climbing gear, however most do include that the stadium has the right to prohibit any items they consider a security risk. The one thing Keep Reading
University of Houston launches probe into football game security
By Ruthy Munoz December 6, 2015 8:56 PM HOUSTON (Reuters) – The University of Houston launched an investigation into how security guards reacted to fans who rushed the field in celebration after the school’s football team won its conference championship game, the university said on Sunday. Several online videos show security guards striking and tackling fans who were running onto the field after the University of Houston beat Temple University 24-13 in the American Athletic Conference Championship game on Saturday. “I am alarmed and extremely disappointed by the unprofessional performance and offensive behavior of some of the” security guards, Tillman Ferttida, the chairman of the board at the University of Houston, said in a statement. Ferttida said the university will investigate to determine whether it will seek criminal charges or civil actions against Contemporary Services Corp, a California company that is contracted to handle security at the school’s football games. “Any actions by CSC personnel that contradict our training, CSC’s other requirements, or the law, are not condoned by CSC and will not be tolerated,” the company said in a statement, adding that it will conduct its own investigation. Company officials were not immediately available for comment. (Editing by Brendan Keep Reading
Plans for explosions cancel Netherlands-Germany soccer match
‘Serious plans for explosions’ cancel Netherlands-Germany soccer match By Mark Morgenstein and Jason Hanna, CNN Updated 5:13 PM ET, Tue November 17, 2015 (CNN)“Serious plans for explosions” forced the evacuation of a stadium in Hannover, Germany, on Tuesday night before a Netherlands-Germany friendly soccer match, the police chief for Germany’s Lower Saxony region told Germany’s public broadcaster NDR. Chief Volker Kluwe told NDR that authorities “had concrete intelligence that someone wanted to set off an explosive device inside the stadium.” The two tips forced officials to cancel the Netherlands-Germany match about 90 minutes before kickoff. “We do take this intelligence seriously. That is why we proceeded with this protocol. We did not take this decision lightly, but it was in accordance with the seriousness of the intelligence,” Kluwe said. However, no explosives were found at the stadium, regional Interior Minister Boris Pistorius said at a news conference Tuesday night. German media outlets Der Spiegel and Bild Zeitung reported the tips came from France’s intelligence agency. The French alerted German federal police to an “Iraqi sleeper cell” with plans to stage an attack. CNN has not independently confirmed the report. The German national team tweeted that the game had been canceled, Keep Reading
Quick thinking may have averted massacre at Paris stadium
AP, By JOHN LEICESTER and SAMUEL PETREQUIN, 11/16/15 SAINT-DENIS, France (AP) — The suicide bombers’ explosive belts, packed with shrapnel, had been designed to kill and maim the crowds at the national stadium. But while their terrorist associates in the city center of Paris killed 128 people in gun and suicide bomb attacks, the three assailants who blew themselves up outside the Stade de France added just one more body to the overall count of 129. A combination of solid security at the huge arena, quick thinking in a crisis, modern stadium infrastructure and apparent mistakes in the attackers’ planning appears to have averted a massacre. That suggests the host of next year’s European soccer championships, which are expected to draw millions of fans from far and wide, is as well-equipped as any nation can be against such viciousness. The stadium, much loved because it was there that the national team won the World Cup in 1998, was the first target hit on Friday night. It was packed with 79,000 people watching France beat Germany at soccer. Had the suicide attackers gotten inside or, failing that, blown up outside among crowds before and after the game, they would have been Keep Reading