Unruly fan behavior in and around NFL stadiums has become an "alarming threat" and has some in the league "concerned that it is driving fans to stay away," according to Babb & Rich of the WASHINGTON POST. The NFL has made "significant efforts in recent years to improve the climate inside its stadiums by identifying trouble spots and providing its franchises with guidelines for creating a friendlier atmosphere." However, it is having only "limited success and may be pushing the problem of unsavory fan behavior from stadiums to the parking lots." Although arrest totals "fluctuate year to year, they have trended slightly upward on a per-game basis" since '11. Division contests and night games result in "considerably more fan arrests, according to records collected from city, county and state police jurisdictions that oversee security at NFL stadiums." The later the kickoff, the "greater the likelihood of arrests, the data shows." Of the 15 games the past five seasons with the most arrests, "nine of those contests began" at 4:00pm or later. When division games are played at night, arrests are "twice as high as early-afternoon non-division contests; the league and its network broadcast partners often schedule these division rivalry games in prime time." If the home team loses, no matter the "opponent or scheduled kickoff time, arrests increase." The closer the loss, the "more arrests tend to rise." Officials at NFL headquarters "dispute that games are unsafe or any perception that stadiums are anything but family-friendly."
FOCUSING ON HOT SPOTS: The league "puts a high priority on controlling fan behavior and identifying possible trouble spots." Certain venues seem to be "hotbeds for police activity, particularly in parking lots, where oversight is not regulated by the league office and where alcohol consumption goes largely unmonitored." Data shows per-game arrests over the past five seasons were "highest at San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium." Following San Diego, where police made 24.58 arrests per game from '11-15, were the stadiums in "New York (21.96 arrests per game), Oakland (17.78) and Pittsburgh (16.75)." The NFL sees high arrest numbers at its stadiums in San Diego, New York and Pittsburgh as "byproducts of those franchises’ zero-tolerance policies; Oakland, though, is continually on the league's radar, along with San Francisco, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Philadelphia." The league’s stadiums in Seattle, Chicago, Tampa and Houston "tallied the fewest arrests the past five seasons, averaging one arrest or fewer per game" (WASHINGTON POST, 10/29).
