Protecting major sport venues

“As part of the effort to incentivize security activities across professional sports leagues, S&T approved SAFETY Act coverage for best practices and guidelines developed by the NFL, MLB and NBA,” said Bruce Davidson, Director of the Office of SAFETY Act Implementation (OSAI). “SAFETY Act coverage for best practices programs protects the leagues that develop practices and disseminate the best practices down to member franchises for the franchises to use at their venues. These best practices address most aspects of the venue’s security operations, including: life safety, evacuations, patron screening, security equipment, delivery/loading dock screening, command and control, security personnel, access control, training, and more. The bottom line is: They are doing more to ensure the safety of everyone at their locations.”

“Coverage for these large-scale public venues can be obtained by effectively implementing the league best practices,” Davidson continued.

“It should be noted that submitting an application for a stadium or arena is a significant undertaking. As part of the evaluation process, a site visit is normally required. That site visit should take place during an event where the full venue security plan in operation. We also recommends that any venue operator who intends to apply for SAFETY Act protections should consider submitting a draft application. My office is available to help with this process.”

S&T notes that to date a number of venues have taken advantage of the SAFETY Act’s protections, including:

NFL

· Levi’s Stadium

· Gillette Stadium

· FedEx Field

· Met Life Stadium

· Nissan Stadium

· Lambeau Field

· University of Phoenix Stadium

· NRG Stadium

MLB

· Comerica Park

· Yankee Stadium

· Citi Field

NBA

· Madison Square Garden

The majority of the collaboration to date has been completed between OSAI and the NFL, which began working with the SAFETY Act program in 2008. That initial work was focused on the development of the NFL’s best practices. Since then, OSAI has also worked with the NFL to develop a Matrix for applications from individual franchise stadiums. The Matrix organizes the NFL best practices into a table that allows stadium operators to correlate their stadium operations to the best practices.  The goal is to improve the process for preparing an application. Stadia that elect to use the NFL Matrix receive protections for their implementation of the NFL Best Practices for Stadium Security.

Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots, received SAFETY Act protections in 2017 and stated on their website “Our number one priority is the safety of our patrons, and this certification shows the amount of thought and effort that goes into making sure everyone who comes to any ticketed event at Gillette Stadium is safe.

Doug Collins, with the Lambeau Field, home of the Green Bay Packers stated “Going through the process allowed us to verify we have all the best practices in place to provide a safe and secure venue. Lambeau Field received SAFETY Act protections in 2016.

Though the NFL has been OSAI’s oldest partner, the program’s relationship with MLB and NBA has been expanding over the years.  

“Since expanding into the stadium and arena mission space, we are a dedicated partner with the leagues and individual franchises offering incentives to continually invest in improving security for their facilities and their fans,” Davidson concluded.