Rethinking Sport Event Security: From Risk Management to a Community Driven Approach

Abstract

Sport venue security continues to be an integral planning component of venue and event management, often relying on a best practices approach informed by principles of risk management. That approach is too narrow. The focus on limiting liability and risk related to person and property, both physical and intellectual, tends to be reactive in nature. Additionally, research detailing sport security has shown that, in some instances, the current approach can repress spectators’ and citizens’ civil liberties, and in turn, can act as a catalyst for strengthening the police state approach to safety and security thus undermining the fan experience and sense of community that sporting events are meant to generate. After reviewing some of the shortcomings associated with the current approach, the paper shifts direction focusing on a new paradigm for sports safety and security management that makes use of theories and concepts from environmental criminology. The approach seeks to preserve enjoyment and dignity both for fans attending the game and for the surrounding community while simultaneously maximizing safety and security. How the various theories work and how they apply to the game day sporting event safety and security context are addressed. Finally, the article discusses how the new paradigm will provide a clearer understanding of potential problems that are occurring or may occur in future game day contexts and how these problems can and should be addressed to ensure a more community-centered security management approach.

Keywords:

• Event management
• planning
• security
• sport stadium atmosphere
• risk management

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest has to be reported.

Notes

1 These principles are also recognized, under somewhat different rubrics, in European code jurisdictions. In both the Anglo-American and code jurisdictions, strict liability and insurance have over the past fifty years displaced negligence concepts for several categories of harms such as injuries in the workplace. For purposes of this article, the authors use the term ‘negligence’ as a catch-all for the laws governing harm to persons and property in sports venues.

2 The authors’ personal experience as Basketball Final Four and College Football Playoff Championship volunteers serves as an example of this approach. Volunteers at Final Four, are instructed to ensure that all participants in fan festivals sign waivers, point out suspicious people, assist in halting human trafficking, and prevent anything that might damage the reputation of the hosting organization.

3 This consideration goes beyond discussions and/or consultation with local residents, and includes the analyses of available data that provide empirical evidence regarding the impact of events at a given venue on the local community.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Brian E. Menaker

Brian Menaker (Ph.D., University of Florida), Associate Professor, Sport Business Program Coordinator, Department of Health and Kinesiology, Texas A&M University – Kingsville. Dr. Menaker’s research interests include the impact of sporting events and venues on public policy, security, law enforcement planning, crime and disorder, and event management workers.

Dale Sheptak

Dale Sheptak (D.S.Sc., University of Leicester), Associate Professor, Department of Sport Management, School of Business, Baldwin Wallace University. Dr. Sheptak’s research focuses on the role of sport in education and how and if sport adds or detracts from the education system’s role of preparing young people for life and work. He is also active in researching sport spectator deviance and sport management education methods.

Justin Kurland

Justin Kurland (Ph.D., University College, London). Director of Research for the National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security, and Research Professor at the School of Criminal Justice, Forensic Science, and Security at the University of Southern Mississippi. Dr. Kurland’s research interests include understanding spatiotemporal patterns of crime and disorder, with a particular emphasis on the effects, if any, of sporting and entertainment event on these patterns. He has published in the Journal of Quantitative Criminology, the Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, and Security, among others.

Derya Tekin

Derya Tekin (Ph.D., Queen’s University Belfast), Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure Law, İstanbul Medeniyet University. Dr. Tekin’s research interests include criminal law, medical criminal law, criminology and sports violence.