Fans stand in line, some more patient than others, waiting to get into a sold-out game at their favorite stadium. Tens of thousands of people crowd the gates, trying to get to their seats in time for the kickoff. They crush together as security personnel search bags and scan patrons with handheld wands to search for weapons. Stress is high, and this is just to get into the building when the only pressure is whether or not the first few seconds of the game will go unseen.
Getting people into a game is hard enough, but imagine trying to get those same 50,000 fans out the doors in an emergency situation.
Now, the National Center for Sports Safety & Security (NCS4) at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg has developed a tool to bring emergency evacuation planning into the 21st Century.
SportEvac provides a simulated environment to run evacuation drills in order to designate the safest route for any number of emergency situations.
“The program is a tool for planning and assessing emergency response and evacuation capabilities,” said Steve Miller, associate director, training and business development, at NCS4. “It’s designed to be able to help someone visualize what crowd movement might look like under certain circumstances and conditions in addition to normal conditions.”
It’s a model for seeing crowd movement in different ‘what-if’ scenarios. The user chooses what kind of disaster is happening and where. They can then shut down specific pathways or entrances simulating a collapse.
“We can inject different types of scenarios, like an IED (improvised explosive device) going off in a certain area or if there was a fire — any type of crisis that would cause people to need to be moved and where they would move on their own, as well,” said Miller.
NCS4’s Director Dr. Lou Marciani said that the company received grants from Mississippi Homeland Security for the creation of SportEvac. So far, the program has strictly zeroed in on USM’s stadium, with other tests at the University of Tennessee and the United States Military Academy at West Point.
SportEvac is designed to enhance planning and response in case of an emergency situation. Version 2.0, which will be customizable for any venue through mapping and converting computer-aided design (CAD) drawing, will be unveiled at this year’s National Center for Spectator Sports Safety and Security Conference and Exhibition, July 16-18 at Walt Disney World in Orlando.
He said that customized models should take about a month to five weeks, and that the company is working to determine costs.
“We want to make it reasonable so that people can use it every day,” said Marciani. “We’re trying to get it down to where it’s acceptable in the profession as a meaningful tool to train with.”
Miller said, "the few competitors out there are charging anywhere from $70,000-$100,000."
Though NCS4 doesn't yet have a figure on what the custom package will cost and the price will vary for each customized stadium, he said the company will try to keep it around $25,000.
"It's quite a bargain, considering the programming involved and the complexity of a simulation environment like this," said Miller.
Regal Decision Systems, a Maryland-based firm, worked initially with NCS4 on a Department of Homeland Security Task to model a National Football League stadium as well as the University of Southern Mississippi’s stadium and two other collegiate venues. After the success of the initial model, DHS continued to work with Regal to enhance the Regal Evac Simulation Tool by modeling a total of eight NFL stadiums, as well as other facilities including arenas that host National Basketball Association and National Hockey League events.
"Regal originally developed a discrete agent-based modeling tool for DHS and the United States Secret Service’s Sim Lab," said Brian Schaedel, the company's director of Sales.
The Regal Evac tool uses CAD drawings to create a 3D replica of a facility. Schaedel pointed out that the tool isn't specific to sports venues, and can be used for cruise ships, malls, schools, or any other type of facility.
After receiving CAD drawings, Regal sends a team out to the facility to do a data collection.
"Basically, they make sure what is built in real life matches the drawings," said Schaedel. "Everything has to match, otherwise you won't get the results you need."
Once the model is created, the analysts populate the venue to capacity with avatars that can show pedestrian flow during evacuation in different emergency situations. The program is a discrete event simulation model, meaning each individual avatar represents one event-goer. Individuals in the ADA sections can be represented as well.
Regal Evac is readily available for any interested facility, and has the capability of creating models with more than 300,000 capacity. Depending on the availability of CAD drawings and adequate data, the company can create an initial 3D model within a couple of weeks.
"Giving a price is hard because it varies so much with each stadium or venue-specific detail," said Schaedel, but he added that the $70,000 figure is an extreme example that would only apply to very large facilities seeking multiple analyses.
He added that the Regal Evac tool is the only SAFETY Act T&E Designated tool on the market, referring to the Homeland Security Act of 2002, The Support Anti-terrorism by Fostering Effective Technologies Act.
Miller said that evacuation simulation is important because “it’s a great way to simulate things that you just can’t do in real life. It just isn’t feasible or cost-effective to gather 50,000 people and move them in and out of a venue.”
Interviewed for this story: Lou Marciani, (601) 266-5675; Steve Miller, (601) 266-6186; Brian Schaedel, (410) 691-3081