Security upped for Sports Weekend
By Natasha Marar
News Editor
March 12, 2008
Downtown bar, The Roxy, is doubling its security measures for the four-day annual Windsor Sports Weekend event beginning Thursday.
Windsor Sports Weekend, occurring annually for 26 years, is expected to draw approximately 1,500 university students from across Ontario. The Roxy expects to see 700 patrons at both the Friday and Saturday events that will be hosted there.
The Roxy owner, Mike Vachon, believes that the event could create tension because it will draw in different crowds. “This isn’t a white or black thing. We’re combining people from Toronto, London, Windsor, Detroit, and that’s usually when friction starts to happen.”
“Yes, there is a diverse crowd, but the majority of the crowd are students and the event’s been ongoing for 26 years annually without any problems,” maintained Pascal.
Windsor Police Services super intendant Ken McFarlane also does not feel that there will be any tension in the crowd. “They’re not coming here to deal drugs or cause trouble...they’re coming here for some fun. We want everybody have a safe and enjoyable experience.”
Vachon claims that, “[The police] feel that having that many people at a time would create some friction, so they are asking me to make sure I up my security for the safety of everybody.”
Windsor Police Services staff sergeant Ed McNorton indicated that increasing security for Windsor Sports Weekend, “[Has] been a pretty standard procedure. We’ve done the same type of program for other events.”
Vachon said he was contacted by the police in early January to confirm the amount of security he would have for the event.
McNorton explained that Windsor Police Services does not usually contact bar owners first to request additional security for certain events, but regarding Windsor Sports Weekend he said, “That may have happened.”
“The owner [of The Roxy] decided to increase his security not Windsor police,” said McFarlane.“It only makes sense you would want extra security at a large event.”
“You are going to get your share [of violence] when you have large crowds,” said McNorton.
Vachon indicated that he will have a 14 professionally trained security officers, four Windsor Police Services officers, and six of his own staff present for the event. “[The police] thought it was overkill--they thought it was way too many [security officers].”
He maintains that the extra precautions are necessary since, “Sum 41 is [playing at The Roxy] the week after so I don’t need to be shut down.”
Originally created by former University of Windsor student group, Carissa, the African-Caribbean event features performances from national and international DJs and recording artists, sporting events, a cultural show, and a fashion show. This year, Windsor Sports Weekend is being co-hosted by the University of Windsor student group Fusion, and two additional Toronto event promoters.
“[Fusion is] organizing the fashion show, culture show, and the concert, and jointly with the other [promoters] we are doing the after party,” said Fusion president Trishann Pascal.
Fusion is also providing security from Toronto. “ The security firm in Windsor doesn’t deal with this crowd. When the security doesn’t know anything about the music and the culture it can lead to misinterpretations,” said Pascal.
McFarlane does not believe that Windsor Sports Weekend should qualify as an event that needs additional security. “We don’t anticipate any problems at all. We’ve never really had any problems with Windsor Sports Weekend.”
Pascal also agrees that at last year’s event there was “nothing out of the ordinary for any club atmosphere,” but believes the additional security is mainly due the large crowd instead of tensions between different attendees. When asked whether the additional security was the result increased violence downtown, McFarlane replied, “All our statistics are down across the board. It’s not like it used to be.”
Although violence downtown is decreasing, McNorton said that police officers are situated downtown throughout they year. “It puts us in the position to respond to a situation quicker and makes us more accessible to people.”
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