Stadiums and Arenas

The booming popularity of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones, has introduced a new layer of complexity for stadium security, especially during major sporting events where the safety of spectators and participants is vital. In recent years, hundreds of sporting events have experienced thousands of unauthorized drone incursions across many stadiums globally. This alarming trend highlights the urgency for effective drone mitigation strategies. 

With the 2024 Paris Olympics underway, as with all major sporting events, the spotlight is on France’s anti-drone measures and their effectiveness in safeguarding the French capital from potential aerial threats.  The presence of unauthorized drones at major events can pose a triple threat: disrupting operations, causing immediate physical harm, and triggering psychological impact and potential widespread panic among attendees.

Therefore, the establishment of advanced drone mitigation at stadiums is essential. This article explores advanced strategies to counteract these risks and maintain the safety and security of stadiums for all attendees.

Identifying Key Vulnerabilities in Stadium Security

Securing a stadium during major events presents a multitude of challenges due to the sheer number of people, the complexity of the venue, and the potential for diverse types of threats. Understanding these vulnerabilities is crucial for developing effective strategies for stadium drone protection.

Crowded Environments

Dense crowds make it difficult to monitor and manage the airspace effectively. Unauthorized drones can blend in, making detection and response more challenging. The risk of collateral damage is also higher, and countermeasures taken against a drone must prioritize the safety of the spectators.

Complex Venue Layouts

Stadiums are complex structures with multiple entry and exit points, various sections, and often numerous levels. This complexity can obstruct line-of-sight detection or identification systems, making it harder to spot and track unauthorized drones. Additionally, the architectural features can create blind spots where drones can go undetected until they are already in a critical area.

High-Value Targets

Major events attract significant media attention and high-profile individuals, making them attractive targets for malicious actors. The presence of VIPs and the potential for large-scale disruptions increase the stakes, requiring more robust and reliable security measures. Unauthorized drones could be used for surveillance or reconnaissance, to deliver harmful payloads, or to cause panic among the attendees.

Psychological Impact

The mere sight of an unauthorized drone can cause fear and anxiety among spectators, leading to potential panic and chaos. This psychological impact is a significant vulnerability, as it can disrupt the event and lead to injuries in the resulting commotion. Keeping the crowd calm and secure is as important as the physical security measures in place.

Addressing these vulnerabilities requires a comprehensive approach that incorporates advanced technologies and strategic planning. 

Major Event Drone Mitigation Strategies

With over 300,000 spectators expected to line the streets of Paris in July, preventing unauthorized drones from disrupting the Olympic games is a significant endeavor. As such, France has heavily invested in the counter drone systems. 

Systems at major events may use a combination of technologies to detect and characterize potential drone threats. The systems may employ countermeasures such as jamming to immobilize or change the drone’s trajectory and/or deploy kinetic measures such as a police drone equipped with a net to capture the unauthorized device.

Yet, despite these counter-drone measures, significant limitations exist: 

Ineffectiveness of Radars and RF Directional Finders in Crowded Environments

Certain solutions that work well in the military, such as radars and RF directional finders, may prove less effective in crowded environments. Radars can struggle to differentiate between unauthorized drones and other objects such as birds, cameras, and authorized drones. RF directional finders may not be able to provide the most accurate real-time location of the drone. In addition, in urban and complex terrains, directional finders may point to the wrong direction due to RF reflections from objects like buildings.

To illustrate, during the Tokyo 2020 Olympics opening ceremony, 1,824 Intel Premium drones created intricate geometric shapes and the Tokyo 2020 emblem in the airspace above the venue. In such a complex aerial environment, with traditional counter-drone systems in place, and an unauthorized drone entering the airspace, identifying it among the authorized ones would have been extremely challenging.

Issues with Jamming

Technology based on jamming can immobilize or redirect drones but has significant drawbacks. It can hinder legitimate communications and other electronic devices, potentially causing more harm than good in densely populated areas. What’s more, jamming is only temporary, with the pilot able to reassert control.  

Physical Capture

Relying only upon kinetic methods, such as police drones equipped with nets to capture hostile drones can be impractical in a crowded environment and may pose a risk of injury from a falling drone or debris. 

Limited Line of Sight

In urban environments, maintaining a clear line of sight for detection is a significant challenge. Buildings, structures, and the dense city layout can obstruct some systems, reducing their efficiency. Often, you cannot attempt to deny an approaching drone until it’s already in a critical zone. This limitation means that even with advanced detection technologies, response time may be insufficient to effectively neutralize the threat.

Advanced Drone Mitigation at Stadiums

To overcome these challenges, more advanced strategies are necessary. RF Cyber-Takeover technology stands out as a promising solution. This non-kinetic approach can distinguish between authorized and unauthorized drones, effectively taking control of the latter to secure the airspace over stadiums. It neutralizes the threat without the additional risks associated with physical mitigation methods.

Advantages of RF Cyber-Takeover

• Precision: Precision is crucial in a crowded stadium environment where multiple electronic signals are in play. By focusing solely on hostile drones, cyber-centric technology keeps other electronic systems, such as those used for broadcasting, communication, and legitimate drone operations, unaffected.
• Safety: By taking control of the drone, RF Cyber-Takeover can safely land or redirect it, minimizing risks like falling debris associated with physical mitigation strategies. This controlled, non-destructive method maintains the safety of spectators, participants, and infrastructure, preventing panic and potential accidents that could arise from more aggressive mitigation techniques.
• Efficiency: RF Cyber-Takeover can manage multiple threats simultaneously, making it ideal for large events with significant security needs. RF Cyber-Takeover systems are designed to handle high volumes of drone activity, quickly identifying and mitigating multiple unauthorized drones at once. This capability is particularly important in scenarios where coordinated drone attacks could be a possibility.

Securing stadiums during major events is a complex challenge that requires advanced strategies and technologies. Understanding the vulnerabilities and limitations of different systems is essential to develop effective mitigation plans. Learn more about different mitigation measures to secure the safety and security of all attendees.

While drone incidents at airports have garnered headlines recently, see Ilana Brodesky’s blog The Challenge of Drone Incidents at Airports, there is another highly populated environment that is particularly vulnerable to the growing threat of drone incidents and attacks: Stadiums and Arenas.

Data from our incident tracker shows numerous examples of incidents in which unauthorized drones posed a global safety threat, caused delays to games, or even caused events to be canceled. In this blog, I focus on the situation and latest developments at stadiums and arenas in the U.S.

There are 183 stadiums in the United States with seating capacities of at least 30,000, as well as many smaller stadiums. For some drone enthusiasts or casual pilots, an open-roof stadium might be wrongly seen as a tempting place to assess their capabilities or simply photograph or video a game. As a result of the potential danger this poses (imagine the havoc caused by a single drone gone awry in a crowded stadium, or a swarm of them at once), the FAA has enacted specific regulations to address this problem.

FAA regulations state that unauthorized drones are not permitted to fly in and around stadiums with 30K or more seats from one hour before until one hour after the scheduled time at Major League Baseball, National Football League, NCAA Division One football games, NASCAR Sprint Cup, Indy Car, or Champ Series races.

To make the drone restrictions known to fans and communities, the FAA and Stadium Managers Association (SMA) ran a campaign with the slogan:

“IT’S GAME/RACE DAY, PUT YOUR DRONE AWAY”

Despite this effort, drone threats and incidents at sporting events persist. And this campaign only addresses non-malicious drone incidents. The potential threat from intentional nefarious drone attacks is in another league!

Executive Anti-drone Regulation Developments

On July 16, just a day before an unauthorized drone hovered over Yankee Stadium right field for 15 minutes during a game which the Yankees eventually won 14-1 over the Boston Red Sox, Reuters correspondent David Shepardson reported on how drone threats are being met with renewed urgency by lawmakers, the Biden administration, and sports leagues.

The Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security and their respective security agencies currently have mitigation authority to disable or destroy threatening drones. These authorities, which were put in place in 2018, are set to expire this October. To keep up with the growing number of registered drones and to combat the proliferation of the drone threat, the Biden administration is working with Congress to renew the existing authority and broaden its powers.

The Biden administration wants to grant broader drone detection and mitigation authority to better combat drone threats while strengthening counter-drone authorities’ abilities to protect America’s infrastructure.

The National Football League, Major League Baseball, NCAA and NASCAR sent a joint letter to Congress backing the Biden administration proposal, saying the expansion of drone authority

“will play an important role in helping to ensure the safety of major sporting events, including the safety of the millions of American fans who attend these events each year.”

They applauded the part of the Biden plan that provides for a pilot program “extending counter-drone authority, under appropriate oversight and training, to certain state and local law enforcement officials involved in protecting mass gatherings at sporting events.”

These Executive developments are a positive step toward safer airspace but will need support from appropriate technologies for controlled and safe implementation. To hit the rogue drone problem out of the ballpark (and land it safely), promote the safety of attendees,  and allow for continuity of the game, an advanced C-UAS solution will be needed by authorized security personnel protecting such events to overcome such incidents in a safe and controlled manner.