Metal Detectors Are Getting Installed At Ever More Sports Venues
If the last time you attended a sporting event you thought it was swell but wished the experience could more closely resemble the hallowed security wait of an airport, you’re in great luck. Toronto’s Air Canada Centre, home of the Raptors and Maple Leafs, will be adding metal detectors this year (the arena no doubt saw the long lines caused by the new security measures at the Rogers Centre for the Blue Jays’ home opener and felt that was something of which to aspire).
Every MLB ballpark except Wrigley Field has metal detectors this season. Bruce Schneier of the Washington Post called shenanigans last week:
There’s no evidence that this new measure makes anyone safer. A halfway competent ticketholder would have no trouble sneaking a gun into the stadium. For that matter, a bomb exploded at a crowded checkpoint would be no less deadly than one exploded in the stands. These measures will, at best, be effective at stopping the random baseball fan who’s carrying a gun or knife into the stadium. That may be a good idea, but unless there’s been a recent spate of fan shootings and stabbings at baseball games — and there hasn’t — this is a whole lot of time and money being spent to combat an imaginary threat.
It feels like this will be standard operating procedure across all major sports by the end of the decade.