By: David Cox
Starting with basketball season on November 5th, fans will be required to walk through metal detectors at all entrances at Bud Walton Arena, with detectors being installed at Baum-Walker Stadium and Razorback Stadium for the upcoming baseball and football seasons, respectively.
Kevin Trainor, Senior Associate Athletic Director for Public Relations, said the new safety measures are part of a Southeastern Conference mandate that the athletic department has expanded on.
“The S.E.C. best practices and passed a policy last year to have all football stadiums, by 2020, to have metal detectors,” Trainor said. “So we’ll be in compliance with that as well as enhancing the safety of all our events at football, basketball and baseball.”
Trainor said that technological advancements allow fans to keep personal items like keys and wallets in their pockets as they walk through the detectors, which helps fans get in the door faster.
“When they approach it, it’s not like the airport where we want you to take off your shoes or belt or things like that,” Trainor said. “Keep those in your pocket, put those in your hands if you’d like, but it’s a safe and efficient way to scan the crowds coming in to make sure that we deliver a safe and enjoyable gameday.”
Trainor said even though the new systems may be a slight inconvenience for fans, they are one of the best ways to keep fans safe while also getting them in the door quickly.
“We know their time is precious, we want to get them into the venue for tipoff or kickoff as soon as possible,” Trainor said, “so we really feel like that we’ve gotten a system that will work and will serve both of those purposes very well.”