Great news for California sports fans! Today, an amended version of the bill known as the “Improving Personal Safety at Stadiums Act,” was sent before the Assembly Committee on Arts, Entertainment, Sports, Tourism and Internet Media and passed by a unanimous vote.
On April 17, 2012 the bill, which would have created a “Ban list” of persons convicted of violent crimes at sporting events statewide, A “Stadium Violence Reward Fund”, and require all professional sports venues post, in visible areas, the venues security telephone and text messaging numbers, failed to pass the Public Safety Committee.
Some of the Assembly Committees major concerns were the criminal enhancements, the constitutionality of the bill, fear might incite further violence due to release of public information, and budgets concerns with implementing the “Stadium Violence Reward Fund” program through the Department of Justice.
After the bill failed to pass the Assembly Public Safety Committee last week, Assemblyman Mike Gatto and his staff were not about to give up. They amended the bill removing the “Ban List” and “Stadium Violence Reward Fund” altogether. What remains is the portion of the bill that contained the “Safety Notification Provision”.
After passing the Public Safety Committee yesterday, the amended bill was set before the Assembly Committee on Arts, Entertainment, Sports, Tourism and Internet Media today and passed unanimously.
Although the bill was significantly amended, this is a big step towards improving fan safety at sporting events. The Bill will require all professional sporting venues to provide visible game day security text codes and hotlines for its fans. The Bill still has a process to go through before even getting to the Governor to be signed into law, but it looks very promising.
Fans Against Violence, a San Francisco based organization dedicated to improving the game day experience for fans in all sports, compiled a centralized list of the current security text codes and hotlines for the NFL, MLB and MLS and are currently in the process of putting together lists for the NBA and NHL. We encourage all sports fans to do what they can to support this bill.
There is still a long process for this bill reaches the Governor’s desk to be signed. We encourage all sports fans to do what they can to support this bill.
This is really great news. Excellent job on the article as well!