"Pro teams probably will avoid security checks on concourses"

Saturday, October 5, 2002

Pro teams probably will avoid security checks on concourses
By Ken Leiser
The St. Louis (MO) Post-Dispatch


You probably won't bump into Kurt Warner or Albert Pujols at Lambert
Field anytime soon. 

When the Rams, Cardinals or Blues go on the road, their team buses pull
right up to a waiting chartered jet at the airport, where the players
and team brass board without going through normal airport security. 

Federal rules will soon change to require sports teams and others
traveling on large chartered planes to face security screening before
each flight. But that won't necessarily change this end run around
airport terminals. 

Transportation Security Administration officials confirmed last week
that athletes and other charter passengers could go on avoiding crowded
concourses so long as they are screened for weapons along the way. 

Tom Blank, associate undersecretary for regulation and policy, said the
agency would consider letting large charter operators train their own
security screener force and set up special remote checkpoints at
airports. 

"We will consider alternative means of compliance," Blank said. 

Major sports leagues were among the most vocal lobbyists when the
Transportation Security Administration began writing the new security
rules for charter planes weighing more than 95,000 pounds. 

The National Football League, Major League Baseball, the National
Basketball Association and Division I-A athletic directors made it clear
that they didn't want to send teams through airport terminals. 

Baseball officials said their odd travel hours and tight schedules make
normal airport screening "unduly burdensome." The NBA and NFL fretted
about disruptive crowds if athletes were forced to walk through airport
concourses. 

When one NBA team had to go through Boston's Logan International Airport
some time after the hijackings of Sept. 11, airport police had to leave
their posts to control the crowds, a league official said. Youngsters
ran across traffic lanes to get a better look. 

NFL officials warned that hordes of media, autograph seekers and fans -
some of whom may be hostile - would create safety and security problems
inside the airports. Injured or dehydrated players "would have
difficulty moving through a public terminal," one executive wrote. 

"So our preference, if it could be worked out in the right way with the
approval of the TSA, would be to have screening conducted away from the
main terminal," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. 

Putting the new security programs in place would largely be the
responsibility of the private charter operators - not the passengers or
sports leagues. They should take effect by Dec. 1. 

Passengers boarding public charters for vacations already go through
normal security lines with metal detectors and X-ray machines. The
Transportation Security Administration is drafting security guidelines
for smaller private charters, as well, Blank said. 

Sending sports teams through the main airport concourse would have
caused "disastrous repercussions," said Lambert Police Chief Paul Mason,
who also works as a security consultant to the St. Louis Rams. 

For instance, Mason said, football players carry their luggage with them
because the plane's cargo hold is usually filled with equipment. 

"I don't want to inconvenience the flying public," Mason said. "I want
to make sure we practice good security but that we don't inconvenience
the flying public." 

Officials of the Transportation Security Administration told Mason last
week that the new charter security rules would provide enough
flexibility to prevent hassles in the terminal. 

Sealed truck carries equipment 

Here's how a typical Rams charter works before a road game. Other local
sports teams and visiting sports teams follow a similar procedure. 

The team bus gets a police escort to Lambert Field. There, airport
police escort the bus to the chartered American Airlines plane.
Corporate sponsors ride in a separate vehicle. 

Passengers must be identified by the team before they can board, Mason
said. 

A moving truck with special security seals hauls the team's equipment to
the airport. Before the equipment is loaded into the belly of the plane,
police check the codes on the seals to make sure nobody has tampered
with the load, Mason said. 

Rams officials say they will follow the rules no matter what form they
take. 

Players defended the practice of bypassing normal security lines. 

Warner, the Rams quarterback, said players generally want to focus on
the game without being distracted by airport crowds or worrying about
getting from one place to another. 

"When you go through your home airport or whatever, especially as a big
group, you know there is a possibility of everybody recognizing you,
everybody wanting to stop you, everybody wanting to talk to you -
whether it is before or after a game," he said. 

During his days playing arena football, Warner said he had to go through
airport terminals. But he added that those groups were "a much smaller
scale than at this level." 

Warner agreed that being able to pull directly up to a chartered
American Airlines plane may appear to be special treatment for pro
sports teams. But because they are so well-known - to the public and to
each other - the security risk isn't really there, Warner and others
say. 

"It is not like it is a group of people that nobody knows who they are
or what they are doing, and they are just getting to go through," he
said. 

A spokesman for the Cardinals declined to discuss the team's charter
flights in detail, citing concerns about security. 

David Stempler, president of the Air Travelers Association, said sports
teams and other large groups flying by private charter shouldn't be
exempt from the security crackdown. 

Proper security can be put in place without any major inconvenience, he
said. 

"I think a lot of these organizations are trying to avoid the whole
process of going through security," Stempler said.


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