Menu
Facilities

Rise of the drones

Improvements in technology have made unmanned aircraft more prevalent in the skies over major league stadiums. Are they a marketing opportunity, a security risk, or both?

A drone carries a camera over a Pac-12 football game at Cal’s Memorial Stadium last fall.
Photo by: AP IMAGES
Titus Queen was patrolling the concourses at Swayze Field during Ole Miss’ second home baseball game of 2014, making sure everything was running for opening weekend. As he made his rounds, the Rebels’ packed student section grew louder.

“I see people start turning around, some looking up, and then I hear a murmur start to grow,” said Queen, the Rebels’ assistant director of game operations. “Any time that happens, your radar suddenly goes up. I looked over at the student section, and there was a drone flying back and forth.”

Raucous Rebels fans loved it. Queen and his staff were not amused, and they looked for but couldn’t find the pilot.

A few months later in Minneapolis, Matt Hoy was sitting in his Target Field office overlooking the stadium’s light rail platform when an uninvited guest appeared outside his window.

REPORTED SIGHTINGS
Drone sightings from January 2014 through March 2015, as reported to SportsBusiness Journal by sports leagues and governing bodies.


MLB: 31
NFL: 12
NASCAR: 5
MLS: None
MiLB: None


Related stories:
Next frontier: Drone operators eyeing arenas
Close encounters: Front-line tales of drone incursions
“I see this drone just appear right in front of me, then shoot up about 100 yards and then fly right across the ballpark,” said Hoy, the stadium’s senior vice president of operations. “So I run out into the ballpark and there’s this drone flying around our stadium taking pictures! So I see these two guys with a remote control and yell, ‘What are you guys doing?’

“They said, ‘Hey, Matt.’ It was the guys from Fox Sports North, our broadcast partner. My heart’s jumping out of my chest. They said, nonchalantly, ‘We’re just trying to get some cool shots to use as part of our broadcast tonight.’ I said, ‘That’s great but how about next time you make a phone call before you freak us all out here?’

Camera-equipped drones, or “unmanned aircraft systems,” as the Federal Aviation Administration calls them, are becoming more common in the skies around open-air venues, sometimes during events. Some are brought in by the facilities themselves for marketing or operations purposes, while others belong to outside pilots who may just be looking to get overhead shots of the stadium.

As drones become more common, so do the questions about them and the dangers that could be associated with them.

Drones and the security issue they represent were easily the most popular hallway topic at the Stadium Managers Association’s annual conference in February, and the topic led off the four-day annual National Sports Safety and Security Conference last month.

The obvious post-9/11 fear would be the use of drones in a terrorist attack on a crowded stadium, but bad intent is not required for a bad scenario; mechanical failure or a pilot error that could send a 50-plus pound drone hurtling into packed stands would be dangerous as well.

Some federal, state and local rules and laws govern their presence during big-time sporting events, similar to airspace restrictions for passenger aircraft, but the ambiguity of those rules, plus the continuing efforts to supplement or modify them as drones become more common, makes for uncertainty among venue operators, teams and leagues.

And as SportsBusiness Journal research shows, those rules are being regularly tested, and observed drone visits to stadiums already number in the hundreds.

There has yet to be a single report of a drone causing damage to a venue or harming anyone during a game, and the FBI’s National Joint Terrorism Task Force said that no sports-related drone incidents have merited federal charges.

“It has not yet been anything too provocative,” said John McHale Jr., MLB’s executive vice president of administration and chief information officer. “But it is a little bit worrisome when you start to think about the worst thing you can imagine.”

Regulating of drone use

Drones aren’t new, with military uses dating to World War II, but the age of “consumer drones,” or relatively inexpensive machines that the public can buy for recreational use, is much more recent. Today, drones that can carry cameras can be had for a few hundred dollars, and camera maker GoPro, whose products are often mounted on drones, will begin selling its own drone next year.

The Consumer Electronics Association’s semiannual industry report released last month projected that U.S. retail revenue from the sales of drones will approach $105 million in 2015 and unit sales will be about 700,000.

Recreational drone pilots do not need any kind of license, but the FAA requires that they not operate their machines near people. Commercial operators must hold a private pilot’s license, have an exemption from the FAA to be hired and be cleared for individual flights that take them into populated areas.

A drone hovers inside Cameron Indoor Stadium during a Duke men’s basketball game. The FAA does not regulate indoor “airspace.”
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
For stadiums, the federal regulation is the same that applies to other manned and unmanned aircraft: “Commencing one hour before the scheduled time of the event until one hour after the end of the event, all aircraft (including parachute jumping, unmanned aircraft and remote controlled aircraft) are prohibited from at and below 3,000 feet above ground level within a three nautical miles radius of any stadium having a seating capacity of 30,000 or more people where either a regular or postseason MLB, NFL or NCAA Division I football game is occurring. This also applies to NASCAR Sprint Cup, IndyCar and Champ series auto races, excluding qualifying and pre-race events.”
So how often are mysterious drones visiting stadiums? That depends on whose figures you use.

Using the latest complete year of data, the FAA received nearly 200 reports of unmanned aircraft sightings in 2014. Most of those were flying near airplanes, the primary public safety concern related to drones, and the reports were filed mostly by air traffic controllers who spotted the objects on radar or pilots who were within eyesight of a UAS.

Nine of those sightings were reported near a stadium, six of them during events, according to data provided by the FAA to SportsBusiness Journal.

But SportsBusiness Journal research shows that there were at least four dozen drone incidents at big league stadiums in 2014, and at least a dozen others at college venues. At least some of those properties have initiated “no drone” policies in the past year that overlap the FAA rules.

MLB teams reported 31 of those visits to McHale. He said the league requires the clubs to report the events to the league office but that none of the incidents harmed any fans or employees or caused any physical damage.

“And in the vast majority of these cases — and quite possibly in all of these cases — when the drone owner was greeted by law enforcement and/or stadium personnel and was told that this was a bad idea and potentially in violation of FAA regulations, they were cooperative,” McHale said.

Among other sports:

Speaking at the Stadium Managers Association annual conference in February, Jeff Miller, the chief of security for the NFL, said the league received 12 reports of drones flying in stadium parking lots during 2014 preseason and regular-season games. The NFL would not elaborate on Miller’s comments.

Minor League Baseball’s director of communications, Jeff Lantz, said the entity did not receive a single report of a drone incident in 2014 — remarkable considering there were nearly 10,000 games played among its U.S.- and Canadian-based clubs.

MiLB this spring created a “drone policy” for Minor League Baseball parks that was distributed to clubs “with suggestions on how to properly train their staffs should there be an issue with drones at one of our ballparks.” Lantz said that as of July 28, “fewer than 10” such incidents had been reported to the league office by its member clubs, and none of them required any intervention from law enforcement. He said the majority of the drones appeared during postgame fireworks shows.

NASCAR events routinely attract more than 100,000 visitors, so the property has been proactive in watching for drones.

“We had several drone sightings at different venues last year, but none that presented any concern or danger, nor did they disrupt any activities,” said Mike Lentz, NASCAR’s senior director of security. “Track operators and owners have been a tremendous help in educating their fans through social media as well as signage at the properties of our ‘no drone policy.’”

“Drones are prohibited per MLS policy,” said Ray Whitworth, the league’s vice president of operations and security. “We did not have any confirmed incidents in MLS in 2014. As always, we will track all incidents in 2015 and beyond, and we circulate all relevant information we receive from [Department of Homeland Security] and FAA sources to our clubs.”

At Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., and other horse racing tracks, a simple drone flyby might entertain the fans but could endanger the actual competitors, who could be distracted or spooked by a drone’s sudden appearance. Darren Rogers, the venue’s senior director of communications and media services, said the track has not had any drone incidents.

DHS confirmed that there were at least three reports of drones buzzing the crowds gathered outside Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis taking part in Final Four-related events this past March. The NCAA said it has “no spying” rules in place, and those likely would cover such incidents.

Confusing rules

The FAA, FBI, DHS, league offices, local law enforcement, venue operators and the drone owners themselves all acknowledge that the imprecise method of monitoring drone activity around stadiums is not the fault of any one group.

It’s just that the regulations have not kept up with the surge in popularity, and technological advancements, of remote-controlled aircraft.

The lack of hard statistics also stems from an absence of communication hierarchy. For example, a fan may notify a stadium security guard or nearby police officer. Formal police reports may or may not be filed, and SportsBusiness Journal research indicates that more often than not federal officials are not notified.

FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said that when the organization is notified of an incident, and the name of the UAS operator is known, they interview the operator and anybody else who seems relevant. If it is determined that civil enforcement may be warranted, the FBI conducts any potential criminal investigation.

A drone  is visible beyond Wrigley Field’s scoreboard during a Cubs game in September.
Photo by: GETTY IMAGES
The federal law has ambiguities that may mean some airspace infringements go unreported. For example, the regulations prohibit drones from flying near a venue “one hour before the scheduled time of the event,” but opinions vary widely as to when that is. When the gates open? Batting practice? First pitch?

Beyond that, stadium operators may be no more friendly to a drone flying over their unoccupied stadium than they are to a trespasser climbing a locked gate on an off day, and there things become more confusing, because the federal rules no longer apply. In some locales those rules are replaced by state or local regulations, but in others there are no regulations, and stadiums deal with such incursions in different ways.

Even before drones, hobbyists have been flying remote-controlled airplanes for decades, and wide-open spaces that surround many stadiums make them an inviting place to fly. The Rose Bowl, for example, is adjacent to several public parks, and the stadium’s chief operating officer, George Cunningham, said a drone will fly into the bowl about once a month.

The city of Pasadena, Calif., has an ordinance that allows Rose Bowl officials to confiscate the drone if the object is within the stadium footprint.

“If it’s just during a business day, we’ll go talk to them,” Cunningham said. “If they are belligerent, or repeat offenders, we’ll call police. It helps so much to have an ordinance that you can cite when you are talking to the owners.”

“We also have the luxury of being a historic landmark facility,” he said with a smile.

On the other hand, unless there is a major event taking place at University of Phoenix Stadium, home to the Arizona Cardinals and college football’s Vizio Fiesta Bowl, a hobbyist flying a drone nearby is likely to be left alone. The city of Glendale, Ariz., has an ordinance governing recreational activities that covers drones, but it applies only to city parks.

The stadium played host to the Super Bowl in February, and Officer Tracey Breeden, spokesperson for the Glendale Police Department, said the department received no reports of drone activity “during Super Bowl-related events in the city of Glendale or on the day of the Super Bowl.”

‘They are valuable’

The view of drones as simply a security threat to be outwitted or outlawed isn’t unanimous inside America’s stadiums, and some venue officials want to exploit the unique opportunities that drones offer.

“Look, drones have a definite operational use,” Cunningham said. “They are valuable for marketing. We can take pictures of our event. We can time-stamp the pictures and see when our parking lots fill up, see what each intersection looks like at specific times.

“Drones give you the best angles and views that helicopters can’t, for a lot less cost.”

Drones also run on batteries while manned helicopters burn gas, generally getting less than 10 miles per gallon. As a bonus, the drones are far quieter and less intrusive.

To get an eye in the sky, venues go to commercial drone operators, who have been granted exemptions to some of the rules governing recreational pilots by the FAA.

As of July 29, the FAA had granted 910 exemptions, a small fraction of the actual applications, to companies requesting permission to operate drones. Just a handful of those have been approved for cinematography, which is more conducive to sports coverage. The rest are conducting aerial data collection.

A stadium owner can hire an aerial imagery company that already has such an exemption, then use those images for marketing purposes and/or internal operations purposes. The company with the exemption would also have to get an FAA certificate of waiver or authorization to do the specific shoot in a particular block of airspace.

“I can rent a drone operator for $400 to $800 per event,” Cunningham said. “My other option is to pay $400 an hour for a police photographer in a helicopter. Usually, I’ll get a drone for four to six hours, depending on the event. It’ll cost me maybe $100 an hour, and he gets hundreds of shots.”

Teams, as well as the companies that build their homes, see marketing value in what drones can offer:

The Sacramento Kings are using drone imagery provided by EyeSkyVision to give fans a look online at the construction at the team’s new arena — but those bird’s-eye views are attracting media companies as well.

AECOM, the architect in charge of designing the Golden State Warriors’ new $500 million arena as well as a possible new stadium for the Buffalo Bills, applied for exemption Feb. 23 and was granted June 16.

Clayco, the construction company that oversaw the Ballpark Village at Busch Stadium development and is managing the $120 million renovation at State Farm Center at the University of Illinois, received its exemption approval in December.

ESPN spent much of 2014 working with the FAA and local authorities, said Paul Melvin, the network’s senior director of communications, before it received approval to use cameras mounted on drones during its live coverage at X Games Aspen back in January.

Vortex Aerial, one of those companies approved by the FAA to operate cinematography drones for commercial use, custom-built drones specifically for ESPN, and owns and operates the units. The drones were used to capture footage over the top section of the X Course during ESPN’s coverage of snowboarder X and snowmobile hillcross events.

This summer Fox Sports hired another FAA-approved company, Austin-based HeliVideo, to cover the U.S. Open golf championship at Chambers Bay in Washington. HeliVideo positioned its DJI Spreading Wings S1000 “octocopter” in spots where it was impractical to set up a TV camera.

Churchill Downs worked with the FAA to approve NBC to film from a drone April 20, “during a dark period, when there were no fans or horses here,” Rogers said, and that footage was used during this year’s Kentucky Derby telecast.

The skies ahead

So what’s in the future for drones?

Some of it depends on advances in technology, which have recently produced a possible solution for some security questions. DJI, maker of the popular Phantom drones, added “GPS geofencing” kill-switch technology to software in its products last year. Now, if a Phantom pilot flies within five miles of a major airport’s no-fly zone (closer for smaller airports), the drone will detect a signal, begin to descend, eventually land and shut down.

This technology is now used almost exclusively for airports, and a 15.5-mile radius around downtown Washington, D.C., although it could theoretically be used for major events, such as the Super Bowl.

Reported to FAA
These sightings were reported to the Federal Aviation Administration last year by commercial pilots, air traffic control towers, local law enforcement or nearby residents. Except for the Sept. 3 incident at Neyland Stadium and the Oct. 13 Camp Randall Stadium sighting, each visit occurred while people were at the stadium. No charges were filed in any of these cases.
Date Venue
July 15 Target Field, Minneapolis
Aug. 17 Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte
Aug. 30 Allentown, Pa., high school stadium
Sept. 3 Neyland Stadium, Knoxville, Tenn.
Oct. 5 Comerica Park, Detroit
Oct. 6 FedEx Field, Landover, Md.
Oct. 9. Madison, Miss., high school
stadium
Oct. 11 Michigan Stadium, Ann Arbor
Oct. 13 Camp Randall Stadium, Madison, Wis.
Oct. 14 Daytona Beach Municipal Stadium
Oct. 25 Neyland Stadium
Nov. 8 Sun Devil Stadium, Tempe, Ariz.
Source: SportsBusiness Journal research

So far there is no legislative push to require drone manufacturers to install the technology, but state legislatures are abuzz with other bills related to drones. For example, North Carolina, home to nine minor league ballparks and several racetracks, passed a law last year prohibiting any entity from conducting UAS surveillance of a person or private property or taking a photo of a person without their consent for the purpose of distributing it.

Beyond that, though, nearly every piece of legislation limiting drones has failed. In 2015, 45 states considered UAS bills and resolutions, according to a report released July 15 by the National Conference of State Legislatures. While 17 states enacted new laws, usually targeting voyeurism, the majority of those focused on use by law enforcement agencies.

The Tennessee Titans in March publicly backed a bill that was eventually passed by the Tennessee Legislature and went into effect July 1 that makes the production of a video or audio recording that captures “real property,” such as a stadium, or individuals for the purpose of “surveillance” a crime. It is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 30 days in jail.

As municipalities wrestle with rights and privacy issues, the FAA says right now that it is working on education rather than enforcement.

“The FAA, in partnership with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, has identified unsafe and unauthorized UAS operations and contacted the individual operators to educate them about how they can operate safely under current regulations and laws. The agency has also issued notices of proposed civil penalties to individuals for unsafe and unauthorized UAS operations,” the FAA said in a statement to SportsBusiness Journal.

The organization in February released proposed rules to make it easier for the suddenly burgeoning population of UAS owners to generate revenue with their drones, while at the same time ensuring the safety and privacy of those nearby. For example, applicants would no longer be required to have a pilot’s license. Instead, UAS operators would take a written test to obtain a UAS operator’s permit and pass a follow-up test every 24 months.

The public comment period regarding those proposed regulations ended April 24, and government agencies and Congress are considering the next steps. With final rules probably two to three years away, some observers liken it to the sudden increase in the popularity of laser pens that occurred a decade ago. It took more than six years of congressional wrangling before President Barack Obama, on Valentine’s Day 2012, signed a law that prohibits aiming a laser pointer at an aircraft or at the flight path of such an aircraft.

In the meantime, the FAA said it will continue to grant exemptions on a case-by-case basis until the rule changes are complete. An interim policy now helps speed approval of flights for operators who have previously received exemptions.

And facilities operators say that the industry will likely become less tolerant of uninvited drones as awareness of the rules among recreational pilots increases.

“Certainly with the heightened media focus, it’s going to be much harder to say that you have missed the discussion in the past six months,” McHale said.

Until then, the sports world will adapt.

This spring, for example, the list of restrictions posted on Ole Miss’ website includes the usual stadium warnings: No throwing objects onto the field, no smoking, no artificial noisemakers.

But a new warning was added for the 2015 season: “Drones or other unmanned aerial vehicles are not permitted at Ole Miss Athletics venues.”

“Like most people,” Titus Queen said, “we’re still trying to figure it all out.”

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 18, 2024

Sports Business Awards nominees unveiled; NWSL's historic opening weekend and takeaways from CFP deal

ESPN’s Jay Bilas, BTN’s Meghan McKeown, and a deep dive into AppleTV+’s The Dynasty

On this week’s Sports Media Podcast from the New York Post and Sports Business Journal, ESPN’s Jay Bilas talks all things NCAA. Big Ten Network’s Meghan McKeown shares her insight into the Caitlin Clark craze. The Boston Globe’s Chad Finn chats all things Bean Town. And SBJ’s Xavier Hunter drops in to share his findings on how the NWSL is making a social media push.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2015/08/03/Facilities/Drones.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2015/08/03/Facilities/Drones.aspx

CLOSE