Officials ramp up stadium security

This southern town of 50,000 people is also the home of the University of Southern Mississippi, where some of the most cutting-edge research in sports stadium security is under way at the National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security. The center is bringing together all the major professional sports leagues, the NCAA and government security agencies for a first-ever sports security conference in August in New Orleans.

"Do stadiums and arenas today have the best physical protective measures, cameras, access control, proper credentials? Have they put up the right outer perimeter? There's a whole array of checklist procedures and policies that have to be in place," center director Lou Marciani said. "Does everybody do that? Research tells us we don't." Marciani added that college stadiums expose the biggest gaps in vulnerability.

The center has developed training programs for everyone from police officers patrolling concourses to the hot dog stand worker who can keep an eye out for odd behavior. But Marciani said technology really holds the key to stronger security.

The ideal scenario would be a walk-through scanner that is able to detect explosives, chemicals and weapons and would flash either red or green to indicate whether a fan can enter the gate, he said. "That's the dream of all the vice presidents for security of the major leagues," he said. "Better technology at the gates, better sensors away from the stadium, back in the tailgating area, back at the train station, bus station, parking lot. That's the future."

The goal is to "harden the target" -- that's anti-terrorism speak for improving security -- through technology without turning game day into a trip through the Transportation Security Administration line at New York's LaGuardia Airport.

"Sports people are sensitive to that," Marciani said. "It's not going to be LaGuardia. We don't need LaGuardia for Yankee Stadium."

Yet the Department of Homeland Security -- the same folks who run those TSA lines -- is heavily involved in sports venue safety, providing about $5.1 million of the center's $7.8 million in government grant money.

On Monday, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano and her crew toured Sun Life Stadium and met with other law enforcement agencies at the appropriately named "JOC," or joint operations center. With her was Todd M. Keil, assistant secretary for infrastructure protection.

When Keil sits down in a stadium, even as a fan, his eyes stray from the field to the stands, where he tries to pick out the hidden cameras and scans the crowds for anything suspicious -- often catching the eye of his wife instead, who has to remind him to watch the game.

From a fan's perspective, Keil is also sensitive to the inconvenience that fans experience when security slows them down or becomes too intrusive, which is one reason he's interested in innovations that would weed out security threats far from the gates.

Devices that can detect chemicals and explosives at a distance, license-plate scanning and facial-recognition software are all in the works, he said. One of the high-definition video surveillance packages tested at the National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security last fall can identify suspicious behavior in vehicles from 1,000 feet away. It can also positively identify someone's facial features at 300 feet.

Keil added that newer stadiums are being built with special security features such as shatter-resistant glass or structural supports that would mitigate the effects of a bomb blast designed to cause a progressive collapse.

"The tip of the iceberg is what fans see," he said. "What is going on underneath the surface is much larger and much greater."

It's unclear exactly how much of a benefit fans will see through new technology in terms of shorter waits at the gates. Ahlerich, the head of NFL security, said he hopes someday that screening devices will eliminate the need to conduct pat-downs, which some fans find intrusive and time-consuming.

Checking vehicles for explosives is also a lengthy process that requires individual stops in which a security officer has to open up the trunk and run a dog around each car, he said. "Technology will catch up there," Ahlerich said.

Whether better vehicle screening would have let the NFL loosen up its parking restrictions for Super Bowl XLIV is unknown. Officials have limited some parking and curtailed tailgating in the lots around Sun Life Stadium for Sunday's game.

Steiniger, the uber-fan from Detroit who scored a free ticket to Super Bowl XLIV, said he knows people aren't happy about having to leave their grills and kegs at homes, but most of them understand.

"9/11 has really put us into a state where we comply rather than complain," he said. "We're ready to comply."

And if that means scoping out a local bar to hang at before the game instead of toting a six-pack around a parking lot, Steiniger figures so be it.

Paula Lavigne is a reporter in ESPN's Enterprise Unit. Her work appears on "Outside the Lines." She can be reached at paula.lavigne@espn.com.