Did you know that…
· Major League Baseball had 73 million fans at their events in 2009
· The National Basketball Association had 21 million fans at their events during the 2008-09 season
· The National Hockey League had 21 million fans at their events during the 2008-09 season
· The National Football League had 17 million fans at their events in 2009
· NASCAR can have up to 400,000 fans at a single event
The focus on safety and security for commercial facilities, sports leagues, arenas and large gatherings is particularly important to our homeland security mission. For your consideration in your print or Web publication, attached is a blog posting by
Rand Beers, Under Secretary of the National Protection and Programs Directorate, Department of Homeland Security, concerning a DHS-Sports Leagues Conference and Table-Top Exercise held on April 27-28. The blog can be accessed at
http://blog.dhs.gov.
Coordinating to Improve Security Practices:
Sports Leagues and Public Assembly Representatives Participate in Exercise with DHS and Other Government Partners
Conference and Table-Top Exercise Highlights:
- Representatives of professional sports leagues, industry associations, academia, private sport event security companies met with the country's top homeland security and law enforcement agencies April 27-28 to share information, establish protocols, and conduct an intensive table-top exercise (TTX).
- Approximately 200 individuals participated in the event held in Northern Virginia. The session was sponsored by the DHS Office of Infrastructure Protection.
- The two-day session provided an opportunity to exercise the critical infrastructure protection public-private partnership model and information sharing protocols, engage participants in open discussion and identify appropriate metrics for future reporting to document progress and effectiveness of protective programs.
- The exercise challenged participants to delineate roles and responsibilities, and examine effective practices, sector communications capabilities and processes for sharing and disseminating information regarding threats, warnings and protective actions.
- Participants included representatives from organizations such as the National Football League; Major League Baseball; U.S. Tennis Association; National Basketball Association; National Hockey League; Indy Racing League; Major League Soccer; National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing; the
National Collegiate Athletic Association; and the International Association of Assembly Managers
.
- As part of this outreach initiative, the Office of Infrastructure Protection - through the Protective Security Advisors will conduct outreach to nearly 300 Sports Leagues Subsector facilities throughout the U.S., and coordinate site visits to provide facility security directors and owners and operators with information and resources to enhance protection. The visits will also serve as a gateway to increased relations and future collaboration.
- The Sports Leagues/Public Assembly Subsectors initiative is the second of a series of engagements with private sector partners within the Commercial Facilities Sector. The first was with the Retail and Lodging Subsectors in November, 2009. The DHS Office of Infrastructure Protection plans to continue the effort in the future with focus on the remaining Commercial Facilities sub-sectors -- Real Estate, Outdoor Events, Gaming, and Entertainment and Media Subsectors, the rest of the Public Assembly Subsector and Cultural Properties partners.
-The collaborative engagement demonstrated the value of our public-private partnership – borne out of DHS’ National Infrastructure Protection Plan (NIPP) and our shared commitment to secure these venues and other critical infrastructures that are so are vital to the safety and security of the American people.
Additional information about the NIPP and other important critical infrastructure initiatives currently underway at DHS,please visit
www.dhs.gov/criticalinfrastructure.
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