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Bucs fans, you'll be searched on Sunday

Everybody at the team's home opener will be patted down. The question is, who will pay for the added security?

By JUSTIN GEORGE
Published September 14, 2005

TAMPA - For the first time Sunday, the 65,000 fans expected to pour into Raymond James Stadium for the Buccaneers' home opener will have to undergo pat-down searches for bombs.

Approved on Tuesday by the Tampa Sports Authority, the security measure will affect everyone entering the stadium, including players, and officials say it will be quick and painless.

But the fight over who will pay for the added security - the sports authority or the Buccaneers - figures to be a long and possibly litigious battle.

Raymond James was the last of 32 NFL stadiums to agree to pat-down searches, which will take no more than five seconds, according to a demonstration.

When a fan turns in a ticket, a security guard will make three or four quick pat-downs of the upper torso - front, back and sides. The searches will be done only above the waist and will not require removal of clothing. Male security guards will search men and female guards will pat down women.

To make sure fans won't miss kickoff, Raymond James, which usually opens two hours before kickoff, will open a half hour earlier.

Board members wrestled with the question of what to do if illegal drugs are found on fans during pat downs. Like weapons, drugs would be confiscated, stadium operations director Mickey Farrell said.

But no arrests could be made, sports authority attorney John Van Voris said, because the evidence collected would not have been legally obtained.

The NFL's goal is to stop "large improvised explosives" from entering the stadium.

"The intelligence community tells us it's only a matter of time before it happens in this country," said Milton Ahlerich, NFL vice president of security.

The league hopes the pat-downs send a message to suicide bombers and other would-be terrorists to stay away from the turnstiles.

But it is the nearly $80,000 price tag to hire an additional 87 security and seven uniformed officers for the screening this season that neither the Buccaneers nor the Tampa Sports Authority want to touch.

Buccaneers attorney Roxanne Kosarzycki has said the taxpayer-backed sports authority, which runs the stadium and other major sports facilities in the county, should pay for security, as stipulated in a stadium agreement.

Sports authority board members and their attorney say that same agreement limits their financial responsibility to security measures required as of 1996, when the contract was negotiated.

In strong words, the board unanimously said the Buccaneers should pay the $9,597-per-game needed to pat down fans, as well as another $237,500 the sports authority says the Buccaneers owe taxpayers for footing post 9-11 security measures that the NFL has mandated since 2001.

The Buccaneers have repeatedly bucked collection attempts in past meetings between the sports authority and Buccaneer Executive Vice President Joel Glazer, sports authority officials said.

Using the comparison of facing down a "schoolyard bully," board member Bob Buckley said Tuesday it was time to draw a line in the sand.

"I think the Buccaneers need to understand that we are serious about this and we will pursue it by legal means," he said.

The sports authority will try once more to negotiate with the team, board members said, but their position will not change.

Team spokesman Jeff Kamis said he could not comment on past security bills. But he said the Bucs staunchly believe the sports authority is responsible for paying for pat-downs.

"We feel strongly that the terms of the contract are very clear about who should be responsible for those costs," he said.

The team did agree to pay for the cost of security during the extra half-hour the stadium will be open, Buccaneers security director Andres Trescastro said.

Although the fight over the check has just begun, nearly all sports authority board members voted to implement the pat-down policy before the Buffalo Bills came to town Sunday. They said they didn't want to face criticism for being the lone NFL holdout city or - worse - watch a terrorist attack without a policy in place.

But questions remain about its legality. Becky Steele, regional director for the ACLU and a Buccaneers season ticket holder, opposed the pat-downs and cited cases in which judges have ruled "blanket searches" to be illegal.

She mentioned as an example the 1998 "Zen fest" concert in Pasco County, where the Sheriff's Office illegally searched at least 10,000 attendees.

Searches may be legal if people allow them through "implied consent," sports authority attorney Van Voris said. But the Buccaneers didn't forewarn season ticket holders that searches loomed before they bought tickets.

As part of the motion to approve pat-downs, the sports authority called upon the Bucs to give season-ticket holders a grace period during which they could get refunds if they objected to to the pat downs.

As a policy, the Bucs don't offer refunds, and as of Wednesday they had no plans to change that.

"We will not," security director Trescastro said.

Unless the team, which collects all ticket, concessions and parking revenue, changes its mind, Van Voris said, the authority, as well as the Buccaneers, could face a lawsuit by fans who claim the policy violates their constitutional rights.

Sports authority members urged the Bucs to reconsider.

Ahlerich, of the NFL, tried to assuage concerns by saying the league would probably stick by the sports authority if the league policy is challenged. It hasn't been yet, he said.

Regardless Tampa police Major Mike George, who leads game-day enforcement at Raymond James, said there was no choice but to pass the pat-down policy.

"I don't think you want to be one of the only ones not doing it," he told the sports authority board.

[Last modified September 14, 2005, 06:48:14]