Periodically you will here about professional teams permanently banning fans from an arena or stadium due to some inappropriate behavior. My question is how do they effectively enforce that ban? Teams don’t generally check ID’s at the gate, and it seems ridiculous to think that teams have security personnel at every game scanning the crowd with a photo of the fan in their hand! It seems it would be easy enough for the banned fan to simply purchase a ticket on the secondary market and, assuming he doesn’t call attention to himself at the game, have a very low risk of being caught. Are such bans generally recognized as unenforceable then, and simply a PR move on the teams part to show that they will “not tolerate” such behavior? Or am I missing something?
Facial recognition is one possibility. See this website for a provider of such technology. It specifically mentions the use of the technology to recognize banned fans.
And the old-fashioned way to do this is to circulate photos of the banned fans to all of the security staff at the entry gates. My guess is that the troublemakers are few enough that their faces can be memorized.
Well, even if you’re right, if the banished fan’s dastardly plan to exact revenge requires spending money on tickets and behaving unfailingly politely while in attendance, I think the team has still won.
If the fan behaves, then nobody cares. If the fan misbehaves after being banned he/she can be arrested for trespassing. That isn’t possible without being banned.
Such a ban is customarily accompanied by a formal document that the fan, if they enter the premises again, will be arrested and charged with trespassing. The bans usually work not necessarily because the fan is really likely to be caught, but because if they ARE caught, the penalty is way harsher than most people would be willing to risk.
Is the banning team specific or venue specific? If you get banned by your local NBA team, could you still go to hockey games, concerts, etc at the same arena?
Several of the news stories talk about being banned from/by the venue, not the particular team. So they’re banned from any and all events at the venue.
The NFL also bans you from attending any NFL game if you’re banned from one venue.
thanks for the good information. So it seems like the possibility of getting caught, in hand with the harsh penalties that would accrue, probably serves as enough deterrence to make the bans effective in most instances. And, in those instances where a banned fan disregarded the ban and was able to attend a game without getting caught, as long as he was on his best behavior (which is likely since, again, he would not want to call attention to himself and get caught), then the downside to the team is really negligible.
Yeah, but no. They* could* do that, but they don’t (AFAIK). What they do is tells someone they are banned and that if they come back they will be arrested for trespassing. So if the fan does come back and does something stupid, they wont just eject him, they will have the police arrest him.
According to the Fox Sports article linked above, “To help catch banned spectators, ballparks, stadiums and arenas will often distribute images of banned fans to security staff.” The same article also mentions the use of facial recognition technology.
Madison Square Garden has used face scanning technology on event attendees. There are others who have confirmed that they use it to control access to players’ locker rooms. And there are others who are suspected of using it, but the stadiums haven’t confirmed it.
This isn’t a hypothetical; it’s happening now and will probably be ubiquitous in a few years.
Sure, they hand them out. But so? Tens of thousands of people are pouring thru, wearing hats, sunglasses and what not. You are gonna stop each and every one have them take off the headgear, stand in front of a line up and compare?
They say that, but show me a time where facial recognition technology was actually used to locate a banned fan. It’s expensive and doesn’t work like TV. They say that to scare the banned fan from trying to come back in.
Speaking as a former (UK) football ground security guard, at a smaller ground, the banned fans tend not to be the brightest sparks. They don’t show up trying to disguise their looks and sit quietly in the seating area, behaving themselves. They either show up weekly to yell at the staff outside about not being allowed in; skip a few of the less important matches, then turn up after a few beers, then if they get in, head to the terraces (standing area, where approximately 95% of the trouble starts) with the same bunch of friends they always came with, then glare threateningly at the stewards or even attempt to taunt them. That, or they try to ‘act nonchalant’ with all the acting talent of a kindergarten play. There are cameras on the crowd, as well as regular staff, who really do get to know who usually stands in their area, as well as police onsite (at least one police spotter, who could call for serious backup if it looked like things were getting heated).
Away fans deemed likely to cause a problem with often arrive with a police escort from their own area.
Here at least, most fans who care enough to cause trouble are likely season ticket holders, and the threat of their season ticket being confiscated or declared invalid is a real threat, at least until late in the season, when they tend to forget that they’ll want to apply for a season ticket next year as well, for which a name and payment will be required.
The venue I worked at only seated approximately 16,000; I’m sure it’s more complicated at the larger venues.
“Peter Trepp, the chief executive of FaceFirst, said “very, very few” stadiums and arenas were using facial recognition technology.”* and *“Although security is the most obvious use of the technology, some independent experts say it is less effective as a security measure for private businesses because they do not have access to various watch lists held by law enforcement agencies. In fact, some vendors and team officials said the customer engagement and marketing capabilities of facial recognition are even more valuable than added security for sports facilities.”
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It is illegal in two states.
Now sure, controlling access to a locker room is one thing, scanning every fan and knowing which fan is banned- that’s another.
They may be using it for marketing but keeping out one guy in a crowd of tens of thousands- who might be wearing a hat, sunglasses and beard? That’s the stuff from TV cop shows.
If you want to move the goalposts and argue that it isn’t used frequently and has privacy concerns, then go for it. I would agree with you there. But stop arguing that it’s only TV cop shows.
I don’t think it matters much if the stadium/arena security doesn’t have access to law enforcement watch lists, since they’re mostly interested in those on their own in-house watch lists.
And there’s a difference between using it and using it effectively. It’s possible that Madison Square Garden does use it, but doesn’t catch many folks with it due to hats, sunglasses, and the like.