Homeland Security Issues Warning on Sports Arenas

Richard Esposito
ABC News
March 4, 2008

As the spring sports season moves into high gear, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI today issued an assessment, called “Potential Threats to Popular Sports and Entertainment Venues,” that said arenas and stadiums are attractive “potential targets during events.”

The assessment repeatedly noted that the FBI and DHS have no “information on any credible or specific current terrorism plots to attack stadiums or arenas in the United States.”

The report, however, said “operational planning and surveillance against sporting facilities are often difficult to detect,” and college and professional basketball playoffs, the stock car racing season, hockey playoffs and horse racing’s Triple Crown are among the events that “regularly bring tens of thousands of fans…into large open-access facilities.”

Prepared at the request of the private sector with input from federal agencies, the report is intended to provide “decision makers with the broad, analytically-based threat information necessary to inform investment priorities and program design.”

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This article was posted: Tuesday, March 4, 2008 at 6:51 pm

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