pocket, purse, bag, whatever. i've been told security refuses to search anyone. not sure how accurate that is but you would think security could here these geniuses walking with what sounds like a bell in their pocket.
I visited the Miss State website Monday and sent them an email asking about this very thing.
I received a reply from a Michael A. Nemeth explaining their policy. His response was as follows...
We tell our fans consistently that artificial noisemakers (ie cowbells) are illegal inside the stadium and ask them not to bring them. Further, we put that verbiage on the back our game tickets and at signs entering our athletic facilities, and make an announcement to that effect on our video board during pre-game. Our game operations personnel, which by the way are based out of Birmingham, Ala., have been instructed to stop individuals who attempt to enter the game with a cowbell visible. Further, our game ops folks are instructed to feel oversized bags, including backpacks and women's purses, for what might be illegal items (which could include weapons) in the crowd's best interest. If something in the bag is "felt" to be questionable, game operations workers are instructed to ask those individuals to open the bag. At that time, game ops workers may look into the bag, and if an objectionable item is seen, that individual is stopped at the gate. The individual, once stopped, has the option of two courses of action: they can return the offending item to their vehicle, or they can check them in at the game operations tent and retrieve it following the game.
Per university policy, our game operations workers have been instructed that they are not to "pat down" or "frisk" individuals entering the stadium if an objectionable item is not seen, as the university has deemed this would be a violation of the individual's rights. Many stadiums have a similar policy, which permits alcohol to enter the stadium. Most game personnel at other stadiums do not search individuals at the gates.
Once inside the stadium, if an individual complains that someone near them is a nuisance, our game operations individuals have been instructed to assist the situation as best as possible and try to find a solution to the problem.
We feel that we are following university and SEC policy in this respect.
When I replied that the policy, and his defense, were both "childish" he immediately stated 'we are done' and would not answer a litany of questions their policy and his assertion MSU feels they are following SEC policy with the plainly laughable university policy - a policy with only slightly less holes than a block of Swiss Cheese.
Something I really had wished Mr. Nemeth would have addressed is given the open and clear REPEATED violations of the university policy, was it not clear to anyone in management there that their policy might not exactly be working - working that is if the goal is to honestly comply with the SEC rule prohibiting artificial noisemakers.
I was also particularly interested in exactly what he was trying to infer with the unsolicited information that the event management company they employ is from Birmingham? Was he trying to infer this company was incompetent? Biased against Miss State? Part of the SEC conspiracy to favor Alabama in all things? What exactly?
Also, I was hoping Mr. Nemeth would explain exactly why another patron in the stadium would have to complain to the event management team to see that Miss State enforced their own university policy - a policy Mr. Nemeth went to great lengths to explain was clearly and diligently communicated to everyone in the stadium (everyone it seems but the event management team and the Miss State management) BEFORE the university would seek to enforce its own policies AND SEC rules.
I had a number of other questions for Mr. Nemeth too. But, instead of actually addressing the specific and legitimate questions, he concentrated on one word, "childishs," used to describe not him personally but the policy and his defense, and just disengage.
It seems, in short, the unofficial policy at Miss State, related to cowbells, is to...
Don't Ask
Don't Look
Don't See
Don't Stop
Blame the Event Management Team
Offer Up an Explanation Even a Third Grader Can See Through
Why the hell the SEC office allows this shame of a policy is beyond me. Yet, as someone earlier pointed out, we play a song a few seconds too long and we receive a letter from the SEC office.
PLEASE fans with tickets to the Miss State game in Tuscaloosa next year, or even in Starkvegas in 2011, take an airhorn or something. Use it loud and long. Force our own event management team to either remove the banned noisemaker from you, or apply the same standard of enforcement applied by Mr. Nemeth and his fellow executives.
Just do not take a cowbell for goodness sake. Afterall, we are NOT Miss State. Or another cow-college.
:td::elephant::a:
