Added Security Is a Staple

Julie Klabin has attended Laker games, a handful a year, for more than three decades.

She brought her son, Noah, to Staples Center on Thursday night, a school night, for an exhibition game that filled a two-year-old arena already soaked in championships. Leaning into each other, they watched the basketball from a dozen rows from the floor, absolutely comfortable in a very familiar place, for the moment untouched by the events of Sept. 11.

Minutes before, Klabin was guided into a walk-through metal detector, immediately after pushing Noah through. Before that, they had threaded through dozens of new planters on the sidewalk, half-ton cement-and-Kevlar coffee cups holding tiny yellow and purple flowers, spaced to thwart sinister vehicles.

“It seems like they’re very thorough,” Klabin said. “They checked our tickets with a scanner. They checked my purse. Noah had a pen in his pocket and they checked that. If they would check a 5-year-old, yeah, they’re doing their jobs.”

An hour later, Jeanie Buss, the daughter of the owner and the team’s executive vice president/business operations, presented her ticket at the entrance off 11th Street. She was pointed to the same row of metal detectors, and held open her purse for one of a dozen red-jacketed security personnel.

“They were wonderful,” she said.

In the wake of the attacks, and the subsequent threats of bioterrorism, security has changed forever in America’s sporting venues. At Staples Center, an arena already toughened by the Democratic National Convention, the heightened security reaches beyond the metal detectors, and beyond measures mandated by the NBA.

Media members are required to wear picture identification. All bags, from fans’ to players’ to reporters’ to employees’, are subject to search, and the public is asked to arrive 15 to 30 minutes earlier than it normally would. With that in mind, arena doors will open 90 minutes before Laker games, up from 75 minutes last season, and 1:40 before King and Clipper games.

Backpacks and oversized purses, all coolers and thermoses are turned away. Reentry is forbidden. The common smoking area on the ground floor was closed, and a video surveillance system, state of the art only two years ago, was upgraded further.

There is a noticeably greater security and police presence in and around the building. Players and team personnel are no longer allowed to park their cars in the lot beneath the arena, their vehicles instead whisked away by valets.

In fact, security might be more significantly changed for the players than the fans. The visiting team buses are swept before the players board and again when they arrive at the arena, and officers ride every bus the players do. The players also are asked not to hand their luggage to a hotel bellhop, unless they intend to accompany both the bellhop and their bag to the bus.

Floor security, always tight, will try to keep fans even farther away.

“What we’re trying to do is secure our players the same as we did in the Olympics, in Atlanta and Sydney,” said Mike Wixted, West Coast security representative for the NBA. “The players have responded. They understand their bags are going to be checked, and they understand why.

“What we’ve tried to instill in them is we still want to have player-fan relationships. But, don’t do it to an uncomfortable point.”

The NBA has told players not to become too familiar, among the considerations being slapping hands with fans on the way on and off the floor.

“You’re never comfortable when you’re dealing with terrorism,” Wixted said. “This is the first time on our soil.”

Most fans glided through security with a smile, apparently thankful not to feel vulnerable once inside.

Brenda Tinnen, senior vice president/event and guest services, said there have been “no credible calls” threatening to harm the building or anyone inside it. Still, there is the constant threat, and a nagging desire to do more.

Personally, she said, “I would tell you it’s stressful to feel the responsibility, the enormity of it. But I feel fairly confident that our organization made the commitment to invest additional dollars to make everyone feel safer.

“The teams, the leagues and the building have a commitment to heightened security. As a rule, 99% of the people have said, ‘Thank you,’ as they’re coming through the door. Half a percent felt we didn’t check people thoroughly enough.”

Even the arena employees, the servers and ushers, among many, have been asked to be suspicious.

“We ask that when they get to their post to scrutinize everything around them, to get an idea of anything that’s out of place,” Tinnen said. “Also, be sure you recognize your fellow workers. If you don’t, ask to see their identification. We ask that everyone be aware.”

Near halftime, Julie and Noah Klabin left their seats to make the drive home to Los Feliz. It was a school night, after all. She left satisfied that not everything had to change.

“I don’t feel concerned,” she said. “But I choose to live my life that way.”