Tuesday, March 22, 2011

New Location

Now that we have officially launched the Patron Management Institute (PMI) and the Certificate in patron Management (CPM) program we are posting all our new blogs/stories at www.patronmanagement.org.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Several news stories this week

The following news stories came out this week.

On Saturday 25 people were injured outside a bar in San Diego when a cab driving at 2:00 a.m. hit the patrons as they were exiting the bar.

The same day a gun battle outside a bar in Guadalajara, Mexico resulted in six dead and 37 hurt.

Lastly, the Los Angeles Times highlighted that a top administrator for the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission helped plan and oversee security and emergency services for the 2010 Electric Daisey Carnival at the same time he was paid as a consultant for the company that produced the event. the event was marred by a number of drug overdoses and the death of a 15-year-old patron. Around 120 patrons were transported to the hospital. There is a discrepancy as to how many off-duty police were present (75 or 85). The crowd overwhelmed security and scaled two fences. The event was supposed to have installed 25 mobile cameras at a cost of $40,000 to help security, but the cameras were not installed according to the article because they did not have enough time/resources.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Alcohol at sport events

Eight percent of Americans legally drunk after professional sports games
Keywords: School of Public Health, outreach, education
First Posted: January 18, 2011
http://www.ahc.umn.edu/media/releases/stadiumalcohol/index.htm

News Summary
•Researchers conducted breathalyzer exams on a total of 362 adults after 13 baseball games and three football games. Sixty percent of fans tested had a blood alcohol content level (BAC) of zero, 40 percent had a BAC under the legal driving limit of .08, and of that group, 8 percent blew above that legal limit.
•Fans under 35 years of age have nine times greater odds of having BAC levels above the limit of .08.
•Those who drink at tailgating parties have 14 times greater odds of being legally drunk, compared to fans who had not tailgated.
•Nearly one in four attendees who tailgated reported consuming five or more alcoholic beverages while tailgating.
Quotes
“Our sample size was small, partly because of the difficulty of getting fans to submit to a BAC test after a game. But if we assume that our results accurately represent individuals attending professional events, it means that – on average – almost 5,000 attendees leaving one National Football League (NFL) event would be above the legal BAC limit for driving,” said Darin Erickson, Ph.D., principal investigator of the study in the University of Minnesota School of Public Health.

“That’s a lot of drunken individuals who could be involved in traffic accidents, assaults, vandalism, crime and other injuries,” Erickson said.

It appears American's like to imbibe alcohol during sporting events. About half of attendees drink, while eight percent are legally drunk after the event. Tailgaters are most likely to be drunk.


MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (January, 18, 2011) – Nearly half of sports fans leaving professional baseball and football games consumed alcohol during the event, and eight percent of attendees are legally drunk when they leave, according to University of Minnesota School of Public Health research.

Researchers conducted breathalyzer exams on a total of 362 adults after 13 baseball games and three football games. Sixty percent of fans tested had a blood alcohol content level (BAC) of zero, 40 percent had a BAC under the legal driving limit of .08, and of that group, 8 percent blew above that legal limit.

The study is published online today in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research (ACER). The study is the first to measure BAC levels of fans after professional sporting events in America.

“Our sample size was small, partly because of the difficulty of getting fans to submit to a BAC test after a game. But if we assume that our results accurately represent individuals attending professional events, it means that – on average – almost 5,000 attendees leaving one National Football League (NFL) event would be above the legal BAC limit for driving,” said Darin Erickson, Ph.D., principal investigator of the study in the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. “That’s a lot of drunken individuals who could be involved in traffic accidents, assaults, vandalism, crime and other injuries.”

Other results from Erickson’s study found:

•Fans under 35 years of age have nine times greater odds of having BAC levels above the limit of .08.
•Those who drink at tailgating parties have 14 times greater odds of being legally drunk, compared to fans who had not tailgated.
•Nearly one in four attendees who tailgated reported consuming five or more alcoholic beverages while tailgating.
•Those who were in the highest BAC category reported consuming, on average, 6.6 drinks while tailgating compared with 3.7 drinks and 2.8 drinks for those in the mid-range BAC category and the zero BAC category, respectively.
•Night game attendees had higher odds of having a mid-range BAC (not above the legal limit), but they were not significantly more likely to have a BAC above the legal limit.
Erickson said that better training of alcohol servers and increased police patrols around sports stadiums could help deter some of the drinking.

The study was funded by the Substance Abuse Policy Research Program (www.saprp.org) of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. SAPRP has funded research into policies related to alcohol, tobacco and illegal drugs. The study is available online and will appear in the April 2011 issue of ACER.

Last names

People with last names at the end of the alphabet are more likely to be impulsive buyers according to a new study. The implication for crowds is that people are conditioned when they are young to be called in order. Those closer to the top are not as anxious. However, those with a last name starting with a u, v, w, x, y, or z are tired of waiting to be called. Thus, when they are older they replicate the behavior when doing other activities.

Here is the press release: https://www.jcr-admin.org/pressreleases/011711135142_Carlsonrelease.pdf

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Falling down

At least four fans have been injured/killed in the past year from falling over walls or railing at various stadiums. A 23-year-old died in Chicago when he fell over a ledge at Soldier Field. Then a 2-year-old fell from a luxury suite at Staples Center. Also a young boy fell at Sun Devil Stadium and a 34-year-old fell over a railing at the Jacksonville Jaguars EverBank Field. These incident were highlighted in a recent article in Athletic Business (January 2011). The article indicated that a wall at least 42 inches high would be better than some walls/railing that are only 30 inches high.

Possible stadium attacked stopped in Israel

Five members of Hamas were charged with planning to fire a rocket into a Jerusalem stadium during a soccer game.

According to a statement from Israel's security service, the Shin Bet, the two main suspects were identified as Mussa Hamada of East Jerusalem, and Bassem Omri, an Israeli citizen living in Beit Tzafafa.

Both are members of Hamas and the "Muslim Brothers" movement in Jerusalem, the Shin Bet said.

One of the possibilities they considered was possibly firing a missile into the soccer stadium in Jerusalem during a game. The stadium sits around 20,000 fans and is home to a team that has a strong right wing following.

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Cincinnati Bengals sued by injured woman

CINCINNATI — A woman says two increasingly intoxicated fans at a Cincinnati Bengals game fell on her, breaking her nose and finger and causing other injuries.

The woman and her husband are suing the Bengals, the beer vendor and the county-owned football stadium for negligence, alleging they continued to serve alcohol to "noticeably intoxicated" fans at a 2009 NFL game.

Bengals spokesman Jack Brennan said Tuesday the team wouldn't comment on pending litigation. Neither would the stadium vendor, Philadelphia-based Aramark Corp., company spokeswoman Dave Freireich said. Hamilton County officials didn't immediately return an after-hours phone call Tuesday seeking comment.

Rebecca Dunn and husband Curtis Dunn of Owensboro, Ky., say the two men sitting behind them were served several drinks at Paul Brown Stadium before they fell on her, breaking and gashing her nose, breaking her finger, and causing bruises, sprains and other injuries. Their lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages for past and future pain and suffering and medical treatment that they say has cost $20,000 so far.

The couple also are suing the fans, identified only as John Doe and John Doe II. The lawsuit accuses them of battery.

"As a direct and proximate result of their intoxication, (the two men) lost control and fell" on (Rebecca Dunn), causing "catastrophic injuries" that required nose surgery and continuing orthopedic and other medical treatment, the lawsuit says. The incident also broke her $700 Oakley sunglasses and caused the couple to incur other expenses – they had to spend the night in a downtown hotel because the stadium garage closed after the game before they could retrieve their car, the lawsuit states.

The Dunns also are seeking punitive damages. A court hearing on the lawsuit, filed Nov. 29, is scheduled for next month.

The Bengals and other NFL teams have tried to control unruly fans through such efforts as the Bengals "Jerk" line, which fans can call during the game to report bad behavior.

From the Huffington Post.