Sometime next September, an earthquake is set to hit downtown Los Angeles.
It won’t be a real earthquake, but rather a mock disaster set up by Staples Center officials in conjunction with the mayor’s office, Los Angeles police and fire departments, California Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security.
Together, they will coordinate a full-scale evacuation drill at the arena on a non-event day, with 1,000 to 2,000 participants scattered throughout the building, said Lee Zeidman, the arena’s senior vice president and general manager.
 |
Between 1,000 and 2,000 participants are expected for next September’s drill.
Photo by: Getty Images |
AEG has completed tabletop exercises with Cal EMA and other first responders, but this will be the first time AEG has staged a real-time drill at the facility since it opened in 1999, Zeidman said. The mock drill pushes the process one step further, requiring triage stations.
It will be a big undertaking in the heart of the nation’s second-largest market, but there are no plans to shut down city streets for the drill, Zeidman said.
Staples Center won’t be the first big league sports facility to conduct a mock evacuation. In the past six years, the Pittsburgh Pirates and San Francisco Giants both went through real-time drills to prepare for All-Star Games at their ballparks. The Pirates received a federal grant in the mid-six figures to cover the cost of their 2005 drill at PNC Park.
AEG and city officials are still developing the budget for the drill at Staples Center and will explore federal funding. AEG will cover the $25,000 to $40,000 it will cost to feed the participants and pay all employees working the drill.
Season-ticket holders for the arena’s four teams, plus their friends and families, will participate in the drill.
Outside of the emergency drill, AEG has upgraded Staples Center’s security system, adding a third piece of technology to its 24/7 use of hand-held security wands at the doors and its fan texting system. The building’s new $3.4 million JBL sound system surrounding the center-hung video board has eight high-tech cameras with the ability to pan, tilt and zoom in on every seat in the bowl, Zeidman said.
During last year’s NBA and NHL playoffs, AEG officials increased the number of security patrols in the seating bowl during breaks in the action, a result of an incident in a Dodger Stadium parking lot this year in which a San Francisco Giants fan was severely beaten.
“That brought a lot of attention to what we could do better, and one of the ways to stop those incidents before they happen is to make sure our people are visible and in uniform,” Zeidman said. “Sometimes, it’s more important to be seen walking the aisles.”
