A few weeks ago, during Toronto FC’s loss to DC United, there were incidents where there were flares being lighted and smoke bombs being set off in supporters sections at BMO Field. In response to this, the TFC front office enacted searches at all gates going into the stadium for all home games onward, because implicitly according to them, everybody, young and old, would bring a flare or a smoke bomb to the stadium. A bit of an overreaction by the front office? I think so.
Fast forward to May 4, TFC had a home game and I had tickets to the match. Now before the match, I was worried about how the security was going to pat me down, and it made me a little uneasy. I met up with my cousin who I was going to the match with and told him about the searches that the security was going to conduct. I think my cousin was worried about guys feeling on his ass or his testicles or something.
We take the train down to Exhibition Station and head to the nearby pub for a drink, keeping in the back of our minds that going to the stadium was like going to the airport in the United States, very unpleasant. After the drink, we start to head down to the stadium. When we got to the gate, there was a lineup, expectedly. Now I fully expected to get the patdown. It was engrained in my mind that in order to gain entrance to the stadium, I had to get searched.
So we are at the gate, and we see a bunch of the security guys conducting the searches, but on one of the lines, there was a woman doing the search. Frankly if it was up to me, I’d rather want her touching my ass than some guy, so we stood in her line. When it was my turn up, I already had my hands out to the side and my feet already spread. She let go the people in front of me without a search, but I expected her to search me because I had it etched in my mind. She only searched my sides and let me through. As for my cousin, he didn’t get searched at all!
I probably shouldn’t have made this a big deal, but damn, I found this experience very interesting, and weird.
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