MLS updates security

MLS updates security measures at all 20 stadiums

Image courtesy of Thefirsteleven.com

Major League Soccer announced on Tuesday that it will bring security measures at MLS events in line with those of other North American professional sports leagues, with new individual screening methods upon stadium entry beginning Saturday, April 23 at all Major League Soccer matches, Soccer United Marketing games, or United Soccer League matches played at MLS venues.

Under the new policy, all guests will be fully screened, either by use of a magnetic search wand or by a pat down. Each venue will make its own decisions regarding what protocols will be used at events to reach this baseline level of security. ...

See the whole announcement here, courtesy of MLS.

Kicking Back Comments: While this should have been policy from BANG! there are a couple of recent incidents that may have brought this forward. One significant one may be from DC United.

In this case as the story goes, a smoke bomb was set off in a tunnel outside the stadium. Ultimately as a result, at least one fan(atic) was suspended for a year by MLS. Now, this apparently was a fan who would drive (3) hours to see a DCU match and has substantial fan spirit to lead and take part in organized activities for DCU.

MLS has been roundly called out on this, using such images such as smoke bombs, flares, and confetti streamers thrown into the pitch to advertise how "global" the US game is. The above article and those linked do an excellent job of spelling out how hypocritical MLS is with respect to its advertising. There is even an open letter to MLS citing how capricious and arbitrary (my words) such bans are.

I can see this one both ways. You can't reasonably do something that can endanger another (e.g. ignite a smoke bomb in a tunnel) but at the same time MLS can't stand on the backs of these folks they are suspending to forward their marketing campaign to make MLS look more like the global game.

This is the US ... The Game may never have that type of flair in my lifetime .. sadly.

Here is the DCU updated security notice.