For decades, British facility managers fiercely but futilely combated the rising problem of soccer hooliganism, which dealt damage, destruction, and even death at events including surrounding large-scale assembly venues. Hooliganism, legally tabbed as a form of organized crime in Great Britain, first appeared as isolated violent incidents at a handful of the 92 British professional soccer stadia. Accordingly, hooliganism and the accompanying fallout of violence became firmly entrenched in British soccer culture.

Glaringly weak stadium security provided an environment in which hooliganism could thrive, including poorly planned, inefficient ticket distribution methods; no efforts to keep fans of heated rivals segregated in homogenous sections; overcrowded terraces that herded testy rival fans together in crowded, dangerous conditions; and a dearth of effective policing and stewarding. Furthermore, parts of dilapidated stadia could easily be dislodged by hooligans and used as weapons. These circumstances became a cultural condition that grew more torrid with time and reiterated the need for both external and internal intervention.

Organized vs. spontaneous terror
Despite numerous smaller-scale terrorist activities before and after the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City, the events of September 11 clearly underscored the sieve-like nature of security plans of various facilities thought to be among America’s most secure. This act of organized terror, which required lengthy periods of planning, organization and rehearsal, caused citizens to think twice about leaving the comfort and security of their homes to attend large-scale entertainment events that could prove to be viable targets for organized terror attacks.

Though incidents occurred in satellite areas at the 1972 and 1996 Olympic Games, large-scale attacks of organized terror have not directly touched events occurring at large-scale public assembly venues. Nevertheless, the events of September 11 typically receive most of the credit for altering facility managers’ approaches to stadium and other large-scale venue security and the ways that they provide comprehensive fan safety and security. The impact of this act of organized terrorism reiterated the need for proactive security, while various acts of spontaneous terror underscore the constant threat of violence.

Along with the increased threats of organized terror, the American sporting scene has experienced a rash of violent outbursts at numerous sporting events, as sports terrorists now regularly traumatize such venues with acts of spontaneous terror. In fact, one could easily argue that patrons of venues hosting large-scale events are far more subject to violent fallout from spontaneous terror than from any threats of organized terror, including such incidents as a 1995 snowball-throwing incident at Giants Stadium that knocked a San Diego Chargers equipment manager unconscious, a 2001 beer bottle-throwing incident at a Cleveland Browns game, and a rash of incidents in 2002 that saw the use of pepper spray interrupt a game between the Washington Redskins and Philadelphia Eagles and severe injuries occur in a goalpost teardown at Clemson University.

In perhaps the most dramatic event that clearly indicated the arrival and permanent presence of the American sports hooligan, a father/son tandem attacked Kansas City Royals first-base coach Tom Gamboa at Chicago’s Comiskey Park (now known as U.S. Cellular Field) in September 2002.

The law: protecting and serving?
Incomprehensibly, until very recently, existing laws proved inapplicable for such incidents or inflicted only standard or weak penalties. Even more baffling, proposed measures of greater strength sometimes fell victims to political wrangling.

Regrettably, despite pleas from Chicago White Sox chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, Mayor Richard Daly feuded with political rival aldermen regarding the nexus of responsibility for controlling the attacks and, despite a similar incident at U.S. Cellular Field just seven months later, the City of Chicago has yet to pass a city ordinance strengthening penalties for spontaneous terror at such events. Until legislation was passed in May 2003 by the Illinois state senate, the penalties for such acts under Illinois law included only minimal fines and little, if any, jail time, which, some experts say, was a small price to pay for those seeking astonishingly high levels of attention for their misdeeds.

In California, Rep. Rebecca Cohen introduced a bill in the State Assembly that would levy fines of up to $250 on anyone throwing objects onto a playing surface during a professional sporting event, while fellow Rep. Ronald Calderon introduced legislation that would allow a six-month maximum jail term and a $2,000 fine for striking a fan or an athlete at any sporting event, whether pro or amateur, and allow a judge to order those convicted to attend up to 12 hours of anger management counseling. Both measures passed overwhelmingly.

This evolution of event security threats into ones that are isolated yet quite dangerous, difficult to anticipate or to contain, and rapidly produce copycat prototypes has placed additional pressure on facility managers across the country.

To deal effectively with the seeming landslide of spontaneous terror at American entertainment events, venue managers in the United States can turn to a wealth of such knowledge compiled by their British counterparts. Constant, ongoing threats of both organized and spontaneous terror have both been managed with relative levels of success in Great Britain. Through the arduous experiences of dealing with many dreadful incidents caused by fallout from Catholic/Protestant aggression, British authorities discovered that procedures used in dealing with these regularly occurring spontaneous acts of violence were also useful in combating the soccer hooligan.

Also quite coincidentally, British soccer clubs discovered a subtle but highly effective tool that could be utilized as a security measure while they simultaneously sought to expand their financial horizons. Though security’s position as a top priority cannot be questioned, the overriding goal of and purpose for staging large-scale public events is to provide patrons with an enjoyable experience. Consequently, by grounding themselves in an entertainment-based philosophy, British facility administrators found various facets of hospitality to be highly effective methods of curbing spontaneous terror at large-scale assembly events.

Hospitality as a security measure
To remain financially viable, these clubs and stadia have embraced a modern sport marketing strategy to position themselves as providers of top-quality, specialized hospitality experiences in game-day comfort to generate additional revenue.

Strong subsequent corporate interests in sport-based hospitality and desires by middle-class citizens to emulate the leisure pursuits of the more affluent have, according to Kevin Roberts of SportBusiness International magazine, created a new corporate/social order that has birthed a more upscale soccer customer for stadia. This new breed of soccer fan is increasingly sophisticated and somewhat choosy, which has provided financial rewards to the facilities and diminished environmental factors that might contribute to violence. Exact hospitality methodology may vary according to the specific needs, revenues, and/or abilities of certain clubs, but the basic premise remains the same: happy, engaged, amused fans are almost always cooperative, manageable, non-violent fans.

Stadia as cogs for urban development
No longer are stadia and arenas planned to sit isolated in some wide-open space on an outskirt of a city. To the contrary, they have become the centerpieces for urban renewal and development efforts. Perhaps the most ambitious effort of its kind, The Dome project in London’s Greenwich section is scheduled for completion in 2005 or 2006. This development, spearheaded by the Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), will be a sport, entertainment and cultural complex that will include a large arena, multiple retail and restaurant developments, office and hotel space, a convention center, a theater and residential developments, combining design elements from other AEG projects such as the Los Angeles Sport and Entertainment District and a new complex in East Berlin, Germany.

Phillip Anschutz, a Colorado billionaire and owner of AEG’s parent company Anschutz Corporation, emphasized one extremely important ingredient in making such an entertainment district work successfully: patron safety. “An arena cannot stand on its own; you need a vibrant surrounding area in order to make an arena work,” Anschutz said. “You need restaurants, people need to feel safe, and so on. The best way to determine that is to have an influence on what’s planned around it.”

Consequently, careful site and development planning for facilities and their surrounding areas has become an important initial security measure that may take one of several hospitable approaches.

Shop ’til you drop: retail and leisure development
One approach to changing the soccer environment from a hotbed for hooligans into an immersion in leisure and an amplified entertainment experience is to directly incorporate into the stadium grounds forms of hospitality that are accessible to virtually every fan, as done with Ibrox Stadium in Glasgow, Scotland, home of the Glasgow Rangers Football Club. This approach includes establishing various unique restaurants with rich ambiance and prestigious dining experiences, along with any number of exclusive shopping venues that cater to practically every spectator need and want while permeating an atmosphere that subtly yet resolutely discourages hooliganism.

Join the club: corporate hospitality
In addition to providing game-day hospitality via substantial upscale retail attractions, British soccer stadia have sought to maximize customer entertainment in a non-violent environment through the careful implementation of high-quality game-viewing experiences, as done by the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales. Though it adjoins to retail and leisure plaza developments similar to the ones housed by Ibrox, rather than engage directly in the retail business itself, Millennium seeks to carve its own niche in the soccer entertainment industry by specializing in exclusive hospitality seating, including luxury boxes, as well as club seats. Millennium’s highly coveted 1,500 club seats provide easy access to concourse areas and combine the lounge amenities of an exclusive restaurant and private bar with an excellent venue view.

Millennium also offers “12-Seater Boxes,” smaller versions of luxury suites that offer the same hospitality amenities as its larger ones. In fact, seats for the matches for the 12-Seaters are located immediately outside the boxes, while full-sized suites are packaged with group tickets in typical stadium seating. The only amenity offered with full-sized box packages that is not offered with 12-Seaters is a celebrity guest speaker. Both types of boxes share complimentary bars throughout the day; four-course luncheons with selected wines, port, or brandy; afternoon tea; match programs; color television; and an event manager and hostess staffing the box throughout the day.

Most venues typically impose strict access limitations to club seating areas, allowing only patrons with club seat tickets through the entrances leading to these ducats. Such a measure restricts freely flowing fan traffic and could prove pivotal in fan segregation if a facility feels such action is absolutely necessary to maintain acceptable security measures.

Alcohol: the double-edged sword
Some experts opine that alcohol frequently becomes the fuel to game-day violence. While alcohol remains a vital component of the hospitality mix and can be an extremely profitable source of sales, malicious acts often spurred by the over-consumption of alcohol may be more effectively curbed by upscale hospitality environments (as described above) that not only explicitly and directly regulate alcohol distribution, but that also implicitly discourages indulgence to volatile levels.

For fan safety and security, facilities serving alcohol to patrons must make every effort to promote responsible alcohol consumption and actively seek to establish an event culture that discourages unacceptable behavior. In corporate hospitality suites and club seating areas, stadium operators can effectively keep a tight rein on amounts of alcohol served, restrict areas in which it is served, and/or gently impose environmental restraints or restrictions on customers by de facto confinement to constrained areas (the suites) with a controlled amount of patron access.

As demonstrated by numerous bottle-throwing incidents, facilities should carefully examine the types of containers in which they serve alcohol to patrons. Bottles or cups that have heavy, reinforced portions or that are large enough to weigh a significant amount should be abandoned in favor of ones that are lightweight and extremely flexible, such as plastic cups.

To curb irresponsible pre-game alcohol consumption that could lead to in-game violence, facilities, perhaps in conjunction with municipalities, may seek to enact prohibitive measures for tailgate parties held in parking areas. Before the 2002 season, the City of Cleveland enacted a ban on outdoor drinking, fireworks, open-pit fires, and disorderly conduct in city-owned parking lots adjacent to Cleveland Browns Stadium.

Observations of effectiveness
According to P.K. Marsh, the concept of hospitality has driven growth in interest in the British national game more than ever before, which, in turn, has led to an increased commercial interest in the game. Accompanying the increased commercial appeal is an upsurge in hospitality facilities, to the detriment of the hooligan. According to Henry Winter, soccer correspondent for the London Telegraph, “There are now more women, children, and ‘corporate,’ which makes crowds less likely to see incidents escalate.”

Hospitality: not the lone ranger of security
Though it can quite naturally be the most patron-friendly facet of security, hospitality certainly cannot stand alone as the sole element of a venue’s security plan. In fact, venue patrons are likely to be much more inclined to enjoy their entertainment experience if they are reassured of their safety and security, which is something the amicable nature of hospitality cannot provide. In no way should a facility consider hospitality as a replacement for active, highly visible security elements.

Oiling the machine: other security elements enhanced by hospitality
The concept of facility access is one key component of security planning that could be effectively enhanced by hospitality. At certain times, large-scale venues must have sizeable portions of their facilities in lockdown mode for various reasons. However, those lockdowns do not stop the pilgrimages of some fans who may eagerly anticipate merely touring or viewing the facility briefly. Providing leisure/retail developments aside from the main functional areas can both pacify such pilgrims and provide a surprisingly lucrative revenue stream aside from a facility’s mainstream business. Further hospitable supplements to the security mix might involve an immediate pleasurable immersion after a customer clears the often-aggravating experience of venue entrance security. A small token of thanks in post-security areas could alleviate negative post-checkpoint mindsets of irritated customers who might otherwise remain that way throughout the entire event.

Even the technological aspect of security can be softened through hospitable uses. Though they may be primarily used for security monitoring purposes and event recording, high-tech video cameras are often used to entertain patrons by capturing up-close images of various crowd members periodically throughout the event and displaying them on scoreboard monitors. Though the realization may not dawn upon patrons immediately, misbehavior might be thwarted when patrons with malicious intentions realize how many cameras are typically present at large-scale events and exactly how sharply those cameras can focus upon virtually anyone in the facility.

Too much of a good thing: balancing hospitality with risk management
To prevent hospitality from unwittingly becoming a tool in the hands of hooligans, it must be effectively assessed through the lens of risk management. As discussed previously, the element of alcohol consumption can be a multifaceted risk. This risk does not disappear after events are over; in fact, the alcohol risk cycle is only partially completed when events conclude. Legal action can be pursued against venues that over-served patrons to their detriment or the detriment of others, regardless of whether the detrimental actions occurred on venue premises or not.

Certain promotional events can also unintentionally provide items that could prove harmful to event security when misused or abused. For example, though the attendance promotional giveaways of “ball day” and “bat day” at baseball games are among the most popular, the premium gifts provided possess the potential for direct misuse to the detriment of event participants and spectators alike. In fact, facilities should thoroughly examine the risks entailed by all promotional premiums and items sold as part of retail ventures.

As stated previously, event/facility security’s most important function is to reassure every patron that he/she is safe and secured while attending the event. Therefore, effective security can be accurately defined as security that is enacted quickly and efficiently. While each venue must determine its unique path to efficiency and how far it must go to reach the needed level of security, the concept of providing quality elements of hospitality can prove to be a crucial part of making the security plan unfold efficiently. To aid with the conclusions uncovered by this determination, facility managers in the United States should carefully examine the ways in which security approaches conceived by their British counterparts were supplemented by hospitality to provide more effective security, leading to positive entertainment experiences for patrons.