You might also consider this report (which is actually in English!) Pat-Downs At Bucs Games Questioned
By ALAN SNEL [EMAIL PROTECTED] Published: Sep 1, 2005 TAMPA - The chairman of the Tampa Sports Authority board on Wednesday questioned whether it is legal to perform security pat-downs on Tampa Bay Buccaneers fans when they enter Raymond James Stadium. The National Football League recently mandated that all 32 teams initiate security pat-downs of fans entering stadiums during the upcoming season. The Bucs' regular-season home opener is Sept. 18 against the Buffalo Bills. Patrick Manteiga, chairman of the 11-member board of the agency that manages the football stadium, also said the NFL does not have a contract with the sports authority, so the league is not empowered to force the authority to pat down fans. Manteiga also wants the Bucs to pay for any extra security costs. ``It's not a done deal. I don't know whether they're legal, and I don't know if we'll do them if we don't get paid'' by the Bucs to hire additional security workers to perform the pat-downs, Manteiga said Wednesday. ``Searching people without probable cause on public property is a pretty big step,'' Manteiga said. The pat-downs, aimed at preventing terrorist acts, require security workers to ask fans to put their hands out to allow a physical check for prohibited items on the torso and spine, said Henry Saavedra, the Tampa Sports Authority's executive director. The authority board, after hearing from local police that it was not necessary, has twice refused the Buccaneers' request to pat-down fans. That was when the NFL suggested the pat-downs. Now the league is mandating them. The sports authority's attorney, John Van Voris, was unavailable for comment. Van Voris will offer a legal opinion at a Sept. 13 authority board meeting. NFL officials are expected to attend, Saavedra said. At least seven NFL teams already have pat-down procedures. The NFL maintains the pat- downs are legal because they are ``done with the consent of the patron,'' said Greg Aiello, league spokesman. Besides the legal issue, there is also a feud between the Bucs and the sports authority over who should pay for extra security needed to execute pat- downs. Saavedra estimated that it would take 50 to 60 extra workers at four gates and cost less than $10,000. He said that he will have better numbers by next week. Saavedra said the Bucs already owe the sports authority $250,000 to $300,000 for past security upgrades. The Bucs, in an Aug. 29 letter to the sports authority, insisted that it is the authority's job to pay for security. ``There is nothing in the Stadium Agreement that would require the Buccaneers to indemnify the Authority for such pat-down searches,'' wrote Roxanne Kosarzycki, the Bucs' attorney. Aiello said it is up to the sports authority and the Bucs to resolve the security payment issue. The possibility of long lines concerns the stadium's new concessions operator, Levy Restaurants of Chicago. ``It could mean we lose revenue because it takes longer to get into the park,'' said Bruce Kaplan, Levy's regional vice president of operations. Bucs spokesman Jeff Kamis said the gates will open 30 minutes earlier than last year, which could help shorten the lines. In the end, if pat-downs are legal, the success of the security measure will rest with fans, said Rick Nafe, a former authority executive director who oversees Tropicana Field. ``The fans will have to have an extreme amount of patience for not just standing in line but also going through the pat-down the first few times. The success will depend on the fans themselves [being] willing to make the changes,'' Nafe said. Reporter Alan Snel can be reached at (813) 259-7850. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tanya&Mark" <Mark&[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "SUCom" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "SU US" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "SU No" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "SU NI" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "SU IE" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "SU" <[email protected]>; "RedDevils" <[email protected]>; "IMUSA" <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, September 05, 2005 9:11 AM Subject: [SU Committee] A must read from the Tamp Tribune > NFL Pat-Downs Not Sporting To Spectators > DANIEL RUTH > Tampa Tribune: Sep 5, 2005 > > A hem, indulge a simple question for just a moment. > What do you think the chances are, upon entering Helloooooo Sucker Stadium > to watch their football team lose to the Holy Name > Academy, Tampa Bay Bucs owner Malcolm Glazer and his imps, Dragnet and > Untouchables, would submit themselves to a security pat down? > > Really now, before Glazer and his bouncing bundles of joy, Law and Order, > start assuming the position along with the peasants, the > Baron of Palm Beach will cough up his long ago welshed upon promise to > pony up half of the cost of Wanna Buy A Duck Field. > > This might be a first. The head of a public body has essentially told the > Bucs and the National Football League that they can take > their unilateral policy to treat paying customers as if they were suspects > and shove it up their goal post. > > > Deadbeat Bucs > > La Gaceta publisher Patrick Manteiga, who also serves as the chairman of > the Tampa Sports Authority, argued if the NFL wants to > impose a mandated security pat down of fans entering stadiums, that may be > very nice but the TSA shouldn't do the dirty work. > > And besides, since the deadbeat Bucs have a worse credit history with the > sports authority than Willie Loman, Manteiga was hardly > moved to incur an additional $100,000 expense uselessly patting down > people for no good reason when the team already owes the > taxpayers $250,000 to $300,000 for past security costs at the Kato Kaelin > Coliseum. > > After all, fans (both of them) aren't subjected to pat downs entering > Tropicana Field to watch the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. > > Nor are hockey devotees treated like criminals when attending a Tampa Bay > Lightning game at the Granma Ice Palace. > > Customers aren't confronted by rent-a-cops patting them down when they > enter a shopping mall, or a theater, or a restaurant, or > other sporting events like golf tournaments, or soccer matches. > > Why, then, should patrons, already paying obscene amounts of money to > enter the rarefied air of Teapot Dome Park, be obliged to give > up their Fourth Amendment rights merely to watch the Bucs lose to the > Cambridge School? > > > Clipboards > > The average Bucs fan (that poor, Sad Sack of a soul) is already treated > like a used Derrick Brooks jockstrap every time they attend > a game, consigned to parking in Ocala, charged a small fortune for team > gee-gaws, forced to pay a king's ransom for a beer only to > sit and watch their heroes lose to the Baywinds Learning Center. > > It's just a cockamamie football game, not a lineup. > > Adding insult to insanity, according to Manteiga, Tampa's swells making > their way to their luxury suites will be able to avoid the > indignity of a pat down if they slink into Three Card Monte Field through > the players entrance. > > Especially since Sept. 11, society seems to have been taken over by people > with clipboards, rent-a- whistles and a paranoid > preoccupation with - oh dear, not that! - policies! > > Indeed, there are few other institutions in American culture with an > almost obsessive/compulsive preoccupation with order and > attention to detail than the National Football League, which can fine > players if their shirttails hang out. > > Now the NFL wants to sanitize the fans, treating game attendees as if they > were, well - pirates. > > Memo to NFL Czar Paul Tagliabue: Why don't you just cut to the chase and > issue every customer passing through a turnstile a paper > surgical gown? > > In the meantime, if Malcolm Glazer and the NFL are so fearful of their > customers that they feel compelled to treat them like Pablo > Escobar, why not assign the task of patting down the great unwashed to the > lads, Code and Orange? > > After all, it's not as if these chaps have real jobs. > > [I]You can hear columnist Daniel Ruth from 9 a.m. to noon Saturdays on > WFLA 970 AM. he can be reached at (813) 259-7599.[/I] > > > > > > Yahoo! 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