Though a terrorist attack in the immediate aftermath of Osama Bin Laden's death is unlikely, both Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association are stepping up security measures at their teams' venues just in case. Neither league is long on details, and for good reason.
"They don't want to alarm fans who are entering an environment where they are supposed to have a good time and have fun," sports venue expert Ben Goss, professor of business management at Missouri State University, told the New York Daily News. "And they don't want to tip their hand to someone intent on coming in to cause trouble."
Venue security may not reach the levels seen in the wake of 9/11, but one measure taken for the NBA's Eastern Conference semifinals this week at the United Center in Chicago will subject fans to handheld metal detection. The Atlanta Hawks beat the Bulls in the series opener Monday, the day many people first became aware of the news that U.S. armed forces had killed Bin Laden during a targeted raid in Pakistan. Game two of the best-of-seven series takes place tomorrow night.
The NBA's metal-detector mandate applies to all of the league's remaining post-season games.
Brian Jackson, terrorism analyst for the Rand Corp., told Daily News sports writer Michael O'Keeffe that Al Qaeda targeting a stadium or arena with an attack this close to the death of the terrorist organization's leader is improbable. "If a plot was already planned, we could see something, but otherwise this could take months to happen," Jackson said, adding that diligence is still required now, given the fact that small-scale Al Qaeda sympathizers could try to infiltrate sports crowds with the intent to maim or kill as many people as possible. "We need to implement security in case something is attempted. And we need to implement security to make people feel safe. Public reassurance is important."
