How safe are Michigan football games?
I know there will be people who will think this is pretty reactionary to the Boston Marathon. Those events did prompt me to post this, but I've always thought that this topic should get some conversation.
So how safe are Michigan football games?
We all know that on any given Saturday, our favorite stadium holds more people than any other facility in the country. It's announced every gameday. Now, I'm not one to get shaky before going to the mall. I think that parents who see school shootings have reason to be concerned, but that it's hugely unlikely anything would happen to their local school. But Michigan Stadium is different. Large crowds accumulate all the time, but ours are scheduled and frequent and really, really large.
As evidence that something could happen, I give a specific example. My uncle has season tickets to Michigan football games. He also has Asberger's. He is a very smart, kind person, but also prone to erratic and very offputting behavior. Like the time he smuggled a sack of potatoes into Michigan Stadium to taunt Notre Dame fans. He shouted obsenities about the potato famine for the duration of the game. The ticket scanner wouldn't have let him in with a sack of potatoes. No problem. He just pushed them through the wrought iron fence and collected them afterwards. You can connect the dots with where I am going.
So I pose this, is it ridiculous and inflammatory to have some concern about going to football games? Will something happen? Unlikely. But could it? I guess by begging the question, I am asking for some dialogue on the subject. Should security by heightened at Michigan Stadium, not as a knee jerk reaction to current events, but as an admittance that the world is offering many more risks that it has in the past? Or is this just increased awareness of a very real but probably minimal threat?
EDIT: After going 0-5 on the the voting, I vowed not to look at this thread. I suppose I'll just throw on my tinfoil hat and take my lumps...
April 18th, 2013 at 10:55 PM ^
April 18th, 2013 at 11:03 PM ^
YOLO baby
April 18th, 2013 at 11:55 PM ^
You got that right.
Also a sad fact is that I know what yolo means.
April 18th, 2013 at 11:14 PM ^
Or a cat.
in fear is a life half lived. I'll be damned if I'm not going to UTL part deux because I "think" there might be a chance I get blown up. And hey, what better way to go than in the Big House?
April 18th, 2013 at 10:56 PM ^
The stadium is as safe as you can get. its outside the stadium that can never be really safe. if someone crazy enough to plant a bomb or wrse be a suicide bomber,there really is little that can be done.
April 18th, 2013 at 11:23 PM ^
agree the stadium may be secure but the large areas around the stadium are not possible to secure.
be vigilent but choose to live free and not in fear.
April 18th, 2013 at 11:34 PM ^
April 18th, 2013 at 11:48 PM ^
If it alleviates any concern, I'm not? And if I was, sharing my secrets would make me the worst terrorist in the world. As would spending so much time here.
April 19th, 2013 at 12:05 AM ^
April 19th, 2013 at 12:06 AM ^
I think about that when crossing at Main And Stadium where there can be several thousand people at the busiest times. But its not going to make me go a different route now.
April 19th, 2013 at 10:38 AM ^
I really don't understand the irrational fear people have of terrorists / crazy gunmen. The chances of you being hurt by either of those is miniscule. Obviously, preventative measures should be used to try to prevent terrorism, but I hate that people actually change their lives to suit their stupid fears. Buying your children bulletproof backpacks? I'm amazed by the idiocy.
How many people die driving to college football games every year? Five, ten, twenty? How many Americans have been killed by terrorists in the US from 2001 to now? Twenty? If everyone wore their seatbelts while driving, more lives would probably be saved than implementing every safety measure possible.
Don't let the media scare you. They're doing as good a job, if not better, than the terrorists of convincing Americans to be afraid of everything.
~Herm
at the Big House at UTL. Thank God the police was there to stop anyone from seriously being injured.
Apparently, someone dressed in ND gear injested large amounts of a toxic drug and tried to smuggle this into the stadium. I was directly behind this guy and his girl.
The guy was stopped before entering so he unleased his posion and sprayed as many people as he could. There were large objects being hurled through the air. I could have been killed myself. There was some bits of corn, chucks of potatoe chips, and gallons of the poision the was made from barely and hopps, then topped off with yeast.
I was so lucky not to get hit by shrapnel. However, I was a hero to my woman and saved her from any harm. This caused a chain reaction and other terrorists started to hurl their poison as well. The smell was aweful.
I will not be detered. I will not allow terrorist to win. I will sacrifice myself if I have to. This is Michigan. I am MgoSoftball and I am Michigan Man. I will protect everyone.
April 18th, 2013 at 10:58 PM ^
No, because if someone wants to kill hundreds, thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of people, it wouldn't be hard to do.
The world isn't offering any more risks than in the past, crime has been dropping for centuries, you're fabulously safe, and life expectancies are at record highs.
TL;DR - You're about a million times more likely to die from a car accident our your own self-inflicted diet than any type of attack or murder, so stop worrying.
April 18th, 2013 at 11:17 PM ^
April 19th, 2013 at 12:57 AM ^
Seriously, if you are not risk-averse enough to get in a car and drive to the stadium, then you should not care about whether or not the stadium is safe. Hell, there is a greater chance that you are going to get hit by a lightning than dying from a terrorist attack. Worrying about it is pretty pointless. It is almost like worrying about Kate Upton asking you out.
(1) Why would you worry about, as opposed to hoping that Kate Upton will ask you out? (2) I guess I should be really worried about my safety at games because Kate Upton is totally going to ask me out in the future, and nothing you can say or do will convince me otherwise.
You can't have Kate until Spike is done with her.
I'm oddly fine with that
April 18th, 2013 at 10:59 PM ^
April 18th, 2013 at 11:01 PM ^
Or, you know, a Hummer with a brush guard to drive down any crowded street/shopping area/outdoor mall/football game.
April 19th, 2013 at 12:10 AM ^
Why anyone thinks that making things a hassle will prevent a criminal from doing criminal things is beyond me.
April 18th, 2013 at 11:01 PM ^
It's increased awareness of a minimal threat. How many sports events have had a problem? Or public gatherings in general?
April 18th, 2013 at 11:01 PM ^
/S!!!!!!
April 18th, 2013 at 11:03 PM ^
Ehh if im gonna die better to die at the big house on a saturday afternoon watchin the wolverines than doing anything else!
April 18th, 2013 at 11:04 PM ^
No but seriously i do feel safe. Security is on every gate plus they do look at you and everything your carrying and they check your bags if u bring one into the stadium same with Crisler
April 18th, 2013 at 11:08 PM ^
I think you had it right the first time. You have to go sometime. What better way?
April 19th, 2013 at 12:42 AM ^
banging a babe during a game?
April 18th, 2013 at 11:03 PM ^
April 18th, 2013 at 11:15 PM ^
April 18th, 2013 at 11:19 PM ^
Snipers on the roof of the press boxes have always made me more nervous. They have them there for some if not all of the games though.
April 19th, 2013 at 12:21 PM ^
here a minute. Is this common knowledge? There are snipers at every game? I've been to a bajillion games (round number) and I've never seen/heard/known this. This isn't some urban legend? I feel I've used my ? key too much in this post.
Confirmed: there are always snipers on roof of the press box/suites at each corner. They've been posted there since the new structures went up.
that about 3 years ago, a national guardsman who didn't want to pay to get in showed up in uniform with an M-16 and was allowed on the field before anyone figured out he wasn't supposed to be there.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/21/m16toting-fan-got-inside-_n_771369.html
April 18th, 2013 at 11:06 PM ^
April 18th, 2013 at 11:24 PM ^
Well, hypothetically, no you couldn't say that. I guess someone else could say it for you, though.
April 18th, 2013 at 11:09 PM ^
If I stop going to Michigan games, the terrorists most certainly and completely have won.
April 18th, 2013 at 11:17 PM ^
Just like Kyle Broflovski convincing the Family Guy staff to air the episode showing Muhammad
April 19th, 2013 at 12:20 AM ^
Always thought this was a ridiculous movie until I sat down and watched it once. Pretty good. All about the buildup to the event really.
April 18th, 2013 at 11:15 PM ^
April 18th, 2013 at 11:15 PM ^
Notre Dame Stadium, or Ohio Stadium, or Beaver Stadium, or .......
Security is pretty darn good at all these stadiums, but it's not perfect. Unfortunately, it's tough to bat 100% in this respect (something could have happened at the K-State @ Oklahoma game on October 1st, 2005).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_University_of_Oklahoma_bombing
April 18th, 2013 at 11:26 PM ^
(I'll see myself out.)
April 18th, 2013 at 11:38 PM ^
"Stadiums" is more common in English. When I hear "stadia" I think unit of measurement.
I dunno man, Ohio Stadium and Spartan Stadium don't look very safe in this video:
April 18th, 2013 at 11:15 PM ^