Local stadium security issues to be reviewed

Steve Addy

Friday, Sept. 14, 2001 | 9:42 a.m.

The director of Sam Boyd Stadium said he'll review security measures at UNLV football games and other stadium events to ease any fan discomfort resulting from terrorist attacks upon the nation.

Daren Libonati, two months into his job as director of the Thomas & Mack Center, Sam Boyd Stadium and the Cox Pavilion, said the UNLV venues are not on "terrorist alert." But he said he'll meet with campus police Tuesday to ensure adequate security staffing and safety procedures.

"We'll address it first as a university, second as a facility and then as to the future of how we run our events," Libonati said from Miami, where he was stranded this week after the air travel shutdown. He hoped to fly to Las Vegas late Thursday.

"When I return, I'll get a better idea of what's been going on in the city. The campus police are in contact with Metro and other bodies. We'll discuss everything and make decisions about how to approach (future events)," he said.

With the postponement of tonight's UNLV-Colorado State football game, the next big sporting event in Las Vegas will be Sept. 29 when the Rebels host BYU.

Especially if BYU fans attend in force, it will likely be the biggest UNLV crowd of the season. The teams drew 30,599 to Sam Boyd Stadium in 1999.

UNLV is scheduled to play next Saturday at Arizona, and Libonati said he and fellow stadium operators will learn much from next weekend's games.

Amid great national anxiety, stadiums that routinely draw 70,000 or more may need to assuage fans who are jittery about spending four hours among a large -- and largely anonymous -- crowd in a concentrated area.

In fact, a terrorism expert said this week that sporting events are potential targets due to the massive crowds they attract.

"The problem is you have to be lucky all of the time. The terrorist has to be lucky once," Yonah Alexander told Scripps Howard News Service. He is the director of the Potomac Institute's International Center of Terrorist Studies.

Citing the Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta in 1996, Alexander said another terrorist incident at a sporting event "is not a matter of if, but when."

But Libonati believes sports stadiums are unlikely targets.

"There are stadiums every Saturday with 100,000 people," he said. "But the World Trade Center was a specific target with a lot of international impact. I don't think (terrorists) know who the Michigan Wolverines are, no matter how big the crowd might be."

UNLV's venues receive and share security information with other arenas and stadiums, including the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, via a network of 40 arena managers who meet by conference call every week.

Libonati also belongs to the International Association of Auditorium Managers. He was in Miami attending the IAAM Arena Management Conference, which ended Tuesday.

"We all communicate very closely," Libonati said. "Two weeks before a concert gets to our building, we know what's going on in the other cities. Tuesday or Wednesday before the BYU game, we'll have good information on what the other (stadiums) do next week."

For last Friday's UNLV-Northwestern game, there were about 130 "T-shirt" security staffers and 30 uniformed police officers to oversee the crowd of 26,721.

The police staff was divided evenly between campus officers and Metro police, and allocated with half of the officers inside the stadium and half outside.

Police presence could be increased to more than 40 officers, Libonati said.

"Our (volumn of) security traditionally is based on attendance," he said. "We usually have a good estimate of what the crowd will be, and we staff appropriately for any scenario that might arise. If we need to extend that body, the campus police contact Metro and do that."

Before this week's Southeastern Conference football games were postponed Thursday, there was talk of undercover security personnel, bag searches and the removal of offensive or insensitive signs.

But metal detectors were not mentioned, and Libonati said he doesn't envision those being installed at UNLV venues.

"The only times we've brought in metal detectors was for extreme concerts, traditionally in the rap area. It was requested by the bands and the tours because sometimes there was adversity between some of the bands on the bill," Libonati said.