Clemson Football: Added security measures are the right decision

Many Clemson football fans are upset after a reported decision to decrease parking spots for added security measures in Death Valley.

Tigernet’s David Hood first reported Thursday evening that Clemson football would, indeed, have extra security measures for fans entering Death Valley in 2019.

The plan will include decreasing the parking spots on Clemson’s Avenue of Champions on the North Side of Memorial Stadium for added metal detectors and more security before fans enter the stadium. The added security measure will decrease parking along the Avenue of Champions by 140 spots, but Lot 5 is reportedly going to expand to add around 100 more spots.

That’s a net 40 parking spots lost and many Clemson football fans are upset about the prospect of having to walk longer distances to the stadium and having to wait in longer lines to get into Death Valley.

"“In collaboration with our campus police department, led by Chief Greg Mullen, we identified the AOC area as a good candidate to create such a security perimeter,” Associate Athletic Director Jon Allen told Tigernet. Removing the game day vehicle parking on AOC is a very big deal, but a decision we felt was necessary to not only allow this security perimeter to be created but also make the pedestrian travel on that side of the stadium much safer.”"

Last season, Clemson instituted the “Pilot Program” in which they randomly placed metal detectors at different gates throughout the season. The lines going through those detectors were long and took much more time to go through compared to years past when Tiger fans were basically able to walk up to the gate, scan their ticket and go into the stadium.

Though it’s understandable that fans would be frustrated about longer wait times to get into the stadium and about losing parking spots that many IPTAY donors have had for several decades, the inconvenience is worth it and the right decision as far as Clemson football is concerned.

I understand that this may not be a popular opinion, but you can’t continue to do what you did 20-30 years ago.

In today’s climate, it really only takes a bad apple or two for destructive, terrible things to happen. Added security measures allow fans, as well as the players and coaches to be safer.

Most of the arguments for this have been “we’ve never needed it before.”

While that’s true, the old adage “You don’t need it until you do” comes to my mind.

Is it really worth it to wait to add security measures after something destructive happens or to be retroactive and plan ahead to try and head off the problem before it happens?

I know it’s inconvenient and I understand the frustration, but safety should be the Athletic Department’s highest concern on Game Days and they are doing their best to ensure that for the 80,000-plus people that will be in attendance.

Hopefully, they can address parking issues and find a happy medium between tradition, convenience and safety with continued work in the future. But, safety shouldn’t ever be compromised.