Facility Notes

SportsBusiness Journal’s Don Muret reports in a special to THE DAILY that Centerplate has retained the Metrodome’s regular concessions contract. The new six-year deal expires in 2012. Centerplate has had the concession contract since the building opened in ‘82 (THE DAILY).

FAN INTERFERENCE: The N.Y. City Council passed a law “that raises both the fines and jail time” for sports fans who “interfere with players or throw things onto” the playing surface. N.Y. Mayor Michael Bloomberg “is expected” to sign the bill, which would mean that offenders “could be convicted of a class-A misdemeanor” with a maximum penalty of $1,000 or one year in jail. Fans could also face $25,000 in civil fines. The law would affect “all sports facilities that house more than 5,000 fans,” which includes Yankee and Shea stadiums, MSG and the U.S. Open Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows (N.Y. POST, 11/17).

PAUL BROWN STADIUM: In Cincinnati, Kimball Perry reports Hamilton County (OH) Commissioners Phil Heimlich, Pat DeWine and Todd Portune “questioned the legality of patting down fans entering” Bengals games at Paul Brown Stadium in a letter hand-delivered to the team’s offices Wednesday. Commissioners have insisted that pat-downs at the county-owned stadium “are illegal, especially if conducted by a government, because there must be cause to search someone” (CINCINNATI ENQUIRER, 11/17).

CRACKER JACK: Cracker Jack Stadium at Disney’s Wide World of Sports in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, has officially been awarded six first-round games featuring the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Australia and Italy in the inaugural World Baseball Classic in March (Disney).