SFS works safe American Kickoff game plan
By Laurie Wilson/Sept. 16, 2017 U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. – Preparations are well underway at the Air Force Academy for Saturday’s 2017 American Kickoff sponsored in part by Air Force Athletics. It’s a music-filled celebration of all things football, with more than 20,000 people anticipated to show up early and ready to party.
Handling security for events at Falcon Stadium is nothing new to the 10th Security Forces. They have covered everything from football games to graduations with the president in attendance. Still, publicly attended music concerts, with major acts and alcohol sales, can be a breed of their own.
“Our biggest priority for any stadium event is to secure persons against any sort of harm or danger and to maintain civil law and order,” SFS operations officer Capt. Aaron Volk said.
The American Kickoff lineup includes country superstar Blake Shelton, Big & Rich, and The Oak Ridge Boys.
Nick Kiger, the associate athletic director of events and services, said without assistance from 10 SFS, there’s no way they could put something like this event together.
“They have been behind this endeavor from Day 1 and have gone above and beyond to help us make the concert a success,“ Kiger said.
When combining large crowd traffic with current gate and road construction, it could get tricky for the public coming and going from the show, and even trickier for base personnel to navigate around during show time. Fortunately, SFS has a plan for that.
Concert goers entering from the north should turn left onto Stadium Boulevard and proceed to the show while concert goers from the south should remain on South Gate and not turn off anywhere.
Base drivers are advised to avoid Stadium Boulevard altogether and use North Gate, Academy Drive and Pine Drive to navigate to their base destinations.
As this event will offer alcohol sales, drivers should be mindful that base traffic laws will be enforced.
“We are happy to serve in keeping this concert both fun and safe for everyone,” Volk said.
American Kickoff is a great opportunity to welcome the community, celebrate the start of the college football season and highlight the great things happening at the Academy, Kiger said.