My Talk With Mark Murphy: Family Night Re-Entry

I spoke on the phone today with Mark Murphy (who promptly returned my request). We spoke for about five minutes, and in that time I did let him know that I supported the decision for safety for all involved.

What I did suggest to him, however, was to develop a system so that parents could take their children out of the stadium and into a more comfortable atmosphere in the event of dangerous weather. We were essentially trapped on the uncovered part of the upper concourse, and I had one kid who was terrified of the lightning.

We spoke to security, who told us if we left the stadium, we would not be readmitted, because there was no one at the gates to check the tickets. I watched many parents make the frustrated decision with scared or exhausted kids to leave the stadium, knowing that if they re-opened the bowl five minutes later, they were out of luck.

For preseason games and regular season games, I can understand keeping with the no re-entry policy. However, in an event where children under five are commonplace, it would have been very comforting for a lot of parents to bring the kids back to a familiar van, pop in a DVD, and let them watch or fall asleep while waiting to find out when/if the scrimmage would be continued.

I suggested a wristband exit/re-entry, only in the event of an extended weather delay.

He was very polite and discussed it with me. He did say that he would have to check league rules to see if it were permissible, but would throw the idea past the director of security.

Yes, that would be several more people to pay in the night, but if you figure that if only 10,000 of the FN ticket holders cash in on the HOF offer, that's $100,000 right there. This way, parents at least have the option to leave in the event of a storm and be able to return for the fireworks with their kids. The 10,000 who remained at the end to see the fireworks (like myself) have little reason to complain that we didn't get our money's worth, but the 40,000 who left frustrated, not to return, didn't have the option to come back.